Let me first tell you where you should
please NOT begin.
Don’t
begin by typing “FADE IN” on page one of a new script.
Don’t
begin by meeting with Mega Star’s Head of Development to pitch a vague,
structureless, themeless idea (unless you are in Mega Star’s entourage).
The
first step of your screenplay actually is a single kernel of inspiration inside
of you. It’s an emotion or an issue or character or single scene that you can’t
get out of your head or your heart. And the need to capture and share that inspiration
is what will drive you to script one hundred-plus passionate pages of action
and dialogue. It is what I call your “motivating
moment.”
So
what do you do with that single, motivating moment? Write it down on an index
card and tape it to your mirror, computer, smart watch or cookie stash,
wherever you know you’ll see it first thing every morning.
From
that index card, here are the minimum steps you are going to take to create a
sellable screenplay, in “1-3-5” order:
To
make it simple, story structure is how
your Main Character arcs internally around a single theme, as represented by
the character’s external journey.
But
you don’t believe in structure! You spit on “formula” movies and intend to write
an “original” script at last! Never mind that you saw Furious 7 eight times or
still cry every time you see Pretty Woman.
Story structure – peh!
Too
bad for you. If you just want to write screenplays, go type away (and
independently produce away…and pay to screen your film at a local theater…or
upload it online and wait for the clicks and “likes” to magically unleash). But
if you want to write, pitch and sell screenplays, there are important
rules to follow in that first submission. So please let me present the role of
story structure to you in a new and easy way.
If
I ask you to throw the ideal dinner party, all expenses paid, you could whip up
a killer menu in five minutes. You would rattle off your appetizer, your soup
or salad, your entrée and your dessert. It might be chips and dip, then a cup
of chili, hot dogs and fries and chocolate cake for dessert. Or it might be
foie gras with toast points, tomato bisque, and salmon en croûte with haricots
verts, finished up with fresh sorbet. But whatever you’re cooking, I know you’re going to serve it to me in a
certain order.
In
fact, if you came to my house, and I served you a steak, then some chowder,
then an ice cream sundae then some bean dip with tortilla chips, you probably
wouldn’t want to eat it (even if I was in Mega Star’s entourage). In fact,
you’d probably say I don’t know how to throw a dinner party. In fact, odds are you’d
probably never give me the chance to make you dinner again.
Get
it? Story structure doesn’t tell you what to create. It just tells you the order
in which your audience expects to receive your brilliant creativity. And The “1-3-5”
is the simplest approach to understanding and applying story structure.
If
you commit to The “1-3-5,” if you are ruthless about these elements being sound
and original and exciting, and they are translated faithfully into your screenplay,
you are ahead of 99.7% of the scripts in the pile the assigned reader brought
home. You are that much closer than they are to a “Recommend.”
But
wait! How do you translate structure faithfully into your screenplay? Slow down.
Let’s learn The “1-3-5” first. The rest of the writing process will come later
– and much easier, thanks to The “1-3-5.”
THE ROAD TO “RECOMMEND”
Throughout this book, you will find a series
of pledges that summarize what you have learned so far – and what you must
commit to do in order to have a sellable script. Ready for the first one?
|
P |
Pledge #1: I will strictly apply the rules of The “1-3-5” to my
screenplay before submitting it to anyone for any reason, regardless of how
hard I must work to write or rewrite my script. |