No. You don’t have to paste on a bad guy to fit a formula, you can be very successful without a Hans Gruber or Sauron or Regina George. Any condition hostile to the protagonist achieving their goal is antagonistic. You do need hostile conditions. There is no conflict, hence zero drama, in stories where there…
Read moreBASIC PHYSICS AND YOUR SCREENPLAY: PART TWO
INERTIA: a property of matter (YOUR PROTAGONIST) by which it continues in its existing state of rest or uniform motion in a straight line, unless that state is changed by an external force. (YOUR INCITING INCIDENT)
Read moreMore Pilots!
More Pilots! lifeascaty: I love pilots. Good pilots & bad pilots, old pilots & new pilots. Just pilots. Here are 50 more for you to get your teeth into. (The original 70 pilot post can be found here.) 90210 (2008) Almost Human (2013) About a Boy (2013) Archer (2010) Arrested Development (2003)
Read more13 Things Bad Screenwriters Commonly Do
13 Things Bad Screenwriters Commonly Do On the off chance you still think readers exaggerate when they say that most scripts don’t work in the same way, this article is a Cliff Notes of my whole blog!
Read moreYOUR SCRIPT AS THERAPY
Your script should be therapy, you wouldn’t write if you had a better way to externalize the issues that snag and hold and fascinate you. Using language to communicate your deepest self to others is your thing. Except you have to be really careful when you choose screenwriting to do this, because your first job…
Read moreGAME OF THRONES IS DIFFERENT
Your script is about one person who wants one thing. There isn’t time to fully develop every possibility in your script, you have to be utterly bloodthirsty about what you cut out.
Read moreSETTLING IN FOR THE BACKSTORY
Backstory mostly doesn’t matter. It’s just information used to interpret other information, none of which is dramatic.
Read moreSTRUCTURE BY FLAW
Act One: Show how the flaw is a problem. Inciting Incident: Show how the protag will be forced to face the flaw. Act Two Up: Show how the protag attempts to solve the problem without facing the flaw. Midpoint: Show how the protag accepts the flaw. Act Two Down: Show how the protag fails to…
Read moreScreenwriters read screenplays – Joel and Ethan Coen
lifeascaty: The Coen brothers are good at what they do and pretty much unavoidable, so don’t try and ignore them. A Serious Man (2009) Barton Fink (1991) Blood Simple (1984) Burn After Reading (2008) Fargo (1996) Intolerable Cruelty* (2003) Miller’s Crossing (1990) No Country for Old Men (2007) O Brother, Where Art Thou? (2000) Raising…
Read moreTHE OTHER KIND OF PROTAG
Sorry. Every gif is Tom Hiddleston for some reason. Not every single story is driven by overcoming the protag’s serious personality problem to effect/fail to effect a change. Those are mostly about Indiana Jones, though. So. Yes. It is true. Don’t kill yourself trying to drive your swashbuckler with a flaw. But give that protag…
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