Story Structure

Showing 501 - 510 of 1516 results

Minor Characters Highlight the Hero’s Fate

October 20, 2019

If you watched the original “Star Trek” TV show, Captain Kirk and the other main characters would always explore a dangerous planet in the company...

Closure is Key to Complete Stories

October 17, 2019

Imagine watching “Star Wars” where Luke is about to attack the Death Star and blow it up before the Death Star blows up the rebel...

Great Movies Tell the Same Story in Different Ways

October 14, 2019

Watch any mediocre movie and you’ll notice it lacks coherence and focus. In place of a tight, focused story, you get random special effects, characters...

Inner Conflict Beats Outer Conflict

October 11, 2019

The biggest mistake mediocre movies make is when they constantly throw conflict at the hero but all that conflict focuses on physical challenges. Ideally, the...

Emotion Defines the Physical Challenge

October 8, 2019

Most screenwriters start with a good idea. In most cases, that good idea is based on some physically interesting plot twist such as what would...

Three Levels for Getting Your Audience to Like the Hero

October 5, 2019

Every story has a hero. The difference is that some movies create iconic heroes like Luke Skywalker in “Star Wars” while other movies create totally...

The Kiss of Death for Killing Any Story

September 29, 2019

There’s no formula to create a great movie, but there is a formula for creating a bad movie. If you want to create a bad...

The Heart of Conflict: Hopes vs. Fears

September 26, 2019

Every story needs conflict. Sometimes that conflict can be life and death struggles such as James Bond trying to survive against multiple assassins, but sometimes...

Outlining the Four Acts of a Screenplay

September 23, 2019

A typical 120-page screenplay represents two hours. If you divide it into four equal parts, you’ll get four 30-minute segments as follows: Act I —...

All Conflict Stems From the Theme

September 20, 2019

Every story needs conflict. Without conflict, you don’t have a story. Where mediocre stories fail is that they have conflict, but that conflict is completely...

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.