Every hero has one main goal and one main problem. The main goal is the physical goal the hero must achieve. The main problem is the emotional goal the hero must also achieve by overcoming a character flaw. Bad movies simply force the hero to overcome obstacles that block the physical goal. Good movies force […]
Romantic comedies are unique in that there usually isn’t a single, dominant villain trying to stop the hero from accomplishing anything. In most action films like James Bond or Mission Impossible films, there’s always a single, dominant villain who opposes the hero. In romantic comedies, the biggest villain stopping the hero is the hero himself […]
If you watch a great movie, you can be intimidated into thinking you can’t write something that good (you can). So to boost your confidence, take time occasionally to watch a bad movie. When you see a bad movie, you can certainly see yourself writing something far better. The latest bad movie to consider watching […]
What makes a story interesting is seeing a hero gradually change. The hero initially starts out in a dead end life due to a past mistake or trauma. Then the hero gradually changes over time until finally achieving a new and better life. In between the beginning and the end, the hero must constantly be […]
In a bad movie, the hero must constantly battle against obstacles that serve only to provide mindless action such as gunfire, explosions, and car crashes. There’s nothing wrong with action, but action needs to be rooted in attacking and pressuring the hero to change. You don’t want random obstacles to confront the hero. You want […]
Every story is about change. Without change, action by itself is meaningless. Action is only important when we can see characters changing over time. To show change, screenplays need at least two scenes that work together as a pair. The first scene shows the initial state of a character and the second scene shows the […]
Although every movie is about a visual, physical goal, the real story is always the emotional goal the hero is pursuing. This emotional goal is what drives the visual, physical goal. If all your story has is action, you’ll wind up with an empty, unemotionally satisfying story. If your story has action and a heart […]
In role-playing games like Dungeons & Dragons, one person takes on the role of dungeon or game master, who creates world and an adventure for the other players to explore. If you study how game masters work, it’s no different from how screenwriters work. The basic idea is to create a realistic, consistent world and […]
Once we know what the visual, physical story might be, we need to know what emotional dream the hero wants to achieve. Whatever the visual, physical story might be, it must make the hero’s emotional dream as difficult to achieve as possible. When we know what the hero’s emotional dream is, we next need to […]
We can only care about action when we know and care about what the hero wants. However, what makes us care even more is when we know why hero wants to achieve a particular emotional goal. The reason driving the hero to achieve an emotional dream always originates in the past. That past can be […]