Story Structure

Showing 611 - 620 of 1516 results

Threaten the Hero Physically and Emotionally

October 20, 2018

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...

The Hero Only Faces One Type of Obstacle

October 17, 2018

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....

Showing Change in Pairs of Scenes

October 14, 2018

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...

Types of Emotional Goals

October 11, 2018

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...

Think Like a Role-Playing Game Master

October 8, 2018

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...

How Does the Hero Pursue the Emotional Dream?

October 5, 2018

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,...

What Motivates the Hero?

October 1, 2018

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...

Why Does Your Story Matter?

September 28, 2018

Once you’ve defined the basic plot of your story, the next step is to dig deeper and define the emotional story behind the plot. When...

What’s Your Story?

September 25, 2018

Everyone has a great idea for a story. Often that great idea is a vague, abstract concept such as “What if one man had to...

The Four Layers of Story Building

September 21, 2018

Watch bad movies and you’ll notice that they always have a potentially interesting premise. In “The Layover,” a movie that’s gotten a 0% rating on...

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.