The opening scene must grab our attention but more importantly, it must summarize what the whole story is about even if we don’t quite understand it at the time. In “Star Wars”, the opening scene shows Darth Vader’s massive starship chasing and eventually catching Princess Leia’s much smaller starship. This minor space battle foreshadows the […]

In every good story, the hero must change. In every great story, the hero changes by making a risky decision that changes their life for good. So if you want to write a great story, start by isolating that one crucial emotional moment that contains the following elements: In “Star Wars” that moment occurs when […]

One huge problem every writer faces is coming up with a coherent plot that drives the entire story. Without a logical and compelling story, all the best dialogue, action, and characters will mean nothing. That’s why one of the simplest ways to create a story is to just borrow the plot from an existing story. […]

Before anyone can care about your story, they have to care about your characters, especially your hero. Yet a surprising number of writers never clarify what their hero wants. If you don’t clarify what your hero wants or needs, nobody will have a reason to care about your story. That’s why good musicals aren’t just […]

Every story is about making the hero change and the best way to make your hero change is through a problem form the past. This haunted past is an event that occurred in the past that we either see in the beginning or gradually learn about over time. In “Twisters”, the hero is a woman […]

Writers love to let their imaginations soar with grandiose ideas with starships exploring dozens of exotic planets, flying dragons circling medieval castles, or armies of thousands charging across a battlefield. Or writers might set their stories in the Victorian past complete with authentic costumes and vehicles. Before you do that, stop and think. The more […]

In many movies, there’s a single main villain with an army of henchmen who constantly attack and threaten the hero. Think of any James Bond movie, “Star Wars”, or “Die Hard” and you can see this single villain story structure in action. When you have a single, all-powerful villain, the hero must react and stop […]

In Act I, the story begins. In Act III, the hero fights the villain in the final battle where only one can emerge triumphant. However, the bulk of any story occurs in Act II, which is usually the hardest part to write because it takes up half the story. So the key to writing a […]

When most people come up with an idea for a story, they usually focus on the characters, the plot, or the action that occurs in a single scene. All of this can be a great place to start, but a story is not about the characters, the plot, the action, or the setting. This is […]

Why did “Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga” flop at the box office? Part of the reason is that it’s not a very good movie. The special effects, stunts, and action is visually interesting, but part of the problem lies in the fact that the movie spends half the time focusing on Furiosa as a little […]