Story Structure

Showing 1341 - 1350 of 1516 results

The Triangle of Conflict

July 15, 2011

Your hero and your villain need a goal. Your villain’s goal gets the story started. Your hero’s goal determines the final conflict. Every story needs...

The Soulless Screenplay

July 11, 2011

What makes a great story? Some stories lack structure, others lack a compelling plot. Still others get sunk by poor acting or editing where the...

The Tentpole Collapse

July 5, 2011

At a recent panel discussion at the USC School of Cinematic Arts, Steven Spielberg and George Lucas predicted that the studios couldn’t afford to invest massive amounts of money...

Plot vs. Story

July 1, 2011

Before you write your screenplay, ask yourself what is your plot and what is your story. If you don’t know the difference between these two,...

There’s a debate between character-drive stories and plot-driven stories. Generally, character-driven stories create classics while plot-driven stories just create a lot of action that’s completely...

Picking Your Hero

June 18, 2011

The right hero can make your story great. However, the wrong hero can weaken your story dramatically. This is how you pick the right hero....

The Emotional Growth

June 12, 2011

Every story is about your hero’s emotional growth. Divide every story into four parts and you get the following plot portions of your story: Part...

The Ticking Time Bomb

June 5, 2011

Why do some stories seem to drag while others seem to end without you even realizing how much time has passed? It’s all based on...

The Hanoi Hilton and the Lack of a Goal

June 1, 2011

Back in 1986, I got to work as an extra in the film “The Hanoi Hilton.” Spending an entire day on a movie set is...

The Comedy Connection

May 16, 2011

What makes a comedy successful is what makes any movie successful: making sympathetic characters that you want to win. The next time you’re in a...

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.

The 15 Minute Movie Method