Story Structure

Showing 1271 - 1280 of 1516 results

Zombie Characters

August 21, 2012

Almost every screenplay has a hero who has a goal, displays emotions, and keeps meeting failure and obstacles in pursuit of a quest. That’s exactly...

Genre as Boundaries

August 17, 2012

Every story follows a defined structure, and the type of story that you want to tell contains further boundaries. These different types of stories, known...

Crossing the Genre Boundary

August 10, 2012

Every story fits within a genre such as Comedy, Thriller, or Action. It’s important to know what genre you want your story to fit because...

Don’t Forget the Villain

August 4, 2012

Too many screenwriters focus exclusively on the goals of the hero, but don’t forget about your villain. Your villain isn’t someone who exists solely to...

Character vs. Plot Driven Stories

July 21, 2012

What’s more important? Character or plot? It depends on what type of story you’re writing, but generally, plot should be subservient to character. Rod Serling...

Visual vs. Voice

July 16, 2012

What’s the best way to keep an audience’s attention? The two most common ways involve interesting visuals or interesting dialogue. Neither one is better than...

Truth vs. Fiction Truth vs. Fiction

July 11, 2012

How do you tell a true story? It’s easy, you don’t tell the literal truth. Instead, you dramatize the facts. There’s an old saying that...

The Big Picture

July 6, 2012

Every great movie focuses on a single theme. Every bad movie creates so many loose ends that nothing seems organized, coherent, or relevant. So the...

Identifying Your Villain

July 1, 2012

Every story has a hero and a villain. The hero is the person we want to win. The villain is the person or force that’s...

The Real Goal of a Story

June 29, 2012

Most screenwriters focus myopically on the hero’s goal. That’s fine, but what makes a story great isn’t whether the hero achieves his goal or not,...

About Wallace Wang

First place winner in Scriptapalooza’s 2023 screenwriting competition for the supernatural horror screenplay titled “Nightmares From a Past Life”. Author of “The 15 Minute Movie Method”, “Story Starter”, and “Writing Scenes for Screenplays” in addition to over 50 computer books. Writer of “Three of a Kind”, a situation comedy produced by San Diego State University’s film class that won a student Emmy award. Designer of the board game “Orbit War”, published by Steve Jackson Games, that simulates satellite warfare in the near future.