Here’s how to write a boring scene. Introduce a scene where the hero expects something to happen. Then show that expectation happening exactly as the hero expected. The reason this is boring is because if we expect something to happen and it happens, then there’s no surprise. The scene promises a specific result and then […]
When most people come up with an idea for a story, they focus on the action. By making the action as interesting and unusual as possible, they hope to attract a studio’s attention. While this is important, what’s even more crucial is defining the meaning behind all that action. Action for the sake of action […]
Read this article about “The Shawshank Redemption”, a movie that initially bombed at the box office but has since grown in status as one of the greatest movies ever made. Two key ingredients that made “The Shawshank Redemption” such a great movie are: Think of the last mediocre movie you watched (such as “Borderlands”, “The […]
When creating a story, the first step is defining why anyone would care about your story. To make people care about your story, you need to describe the following: This short summary of your story must emphasize the do-or-die nature of the story such as “A New York cop must defeat an army of terrorists […]
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 […]