My new blog is about screenplay structure.
What do we mean when we talk about the "structure- of a screenplay?
"Structure- isn't the same as an outline or a beat sheet, though outlines and beat sheets are tools you can use to develop a structure.
Structure is like a framework or a skeleton. It's what holds your script together and keeps it from being a pile of word mush.
Structure involves a lot of elements. For example, it can encompass:
Structure Doesn't Mean Formula
I don't believe in any "one-size-fits-all- theory of structure. Also, I'm highly suspicious of any overelaborate structure model, because that can lead to formulaic, paint-by-numbers scripts.
I don't believe that if you do X by page 10 and Y by page 24 you're well on your way to a great script. That's just silly (but too many screenwriting books are based on such silliness).
But if you're not applying any structural thinking to your script, you can end up with mush.
So here are some ways of thinking about structure.
https://lauridonahue.com/structure-1...enplay-stps-8/
What do we mean when we talk about the "structure- of a screenplay?
"Structure- isn't the same as an outline or a beat sheet, though outlines and beat sheets are tools you can use to develop a structure.
Structure is like a framework or a skeleton. It's what holds your script together and keeps it from being a pile of word mush.
Structure involves a lot of elements. For example, it can encompass:
- Causation: THIS causes THAT
- Dramatic Questions/Suspense: What's going to happen next? What's really going on here?
- Pace: How fast/slow does the story move?
- Variation: in scene length, intensity, etc.
- Obstacles: what problems do the characters bump into?
- Reversals: changes in direction/goals/wants, good-to-bad and vice-verse, etc.
- Plants (clues), Reveals (surprises), and Callbacks (references to earlier events)
- Framing Devices (prologues, epilogues, stories-within-stories, etc.)
Structure Doesn't Mean Formula
I don't believe in any "one-size-fits-all- theory of structure. Also, I'm highly suspicious of any overelaborate structure model, because that can lead to formulaic, paint-by-numbers scripts.
I don't believe that if you do X by page 10 and Y by page 24 you're well on your way to a great script. That's just silly (but too many screenwriting books are based on such silliness).
But if you're not applying any structural thinking to your script, you can end up with mush.
So here are some ways of thinking about structure.
https://lauridonahue.com/structure-1...enplay-stps-8/
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