Story Structure

Showing 761 - 770 of 1516 results

One-Trick Ponies

May 25, 2017

A one-trick pony is something that only has a single redeeming feature. The problem is that an entire movie needs more than a single interesting...

Telling the Backstory Visually

May 22, 2017

In the old days, bad stage plays used to have a maid and a butler talk about the problems of the main characters. This dialogue...

Let the Audience Experience Emotions

May 19, 2017

One of the latest flops at the box office is “King Arthur.” If you watch the movie, you’ll notice one huge problem: you never get...

The Inciting Incident

May 16, 2017

Every story begins with the villain failing to achieve a goal. Sometimes this failure is because something happens but sometimes this failure is just because...

Defining the Genre, Sub-Genre, and Time

May 13, 2017

The best way to write a story is to stay focused. Every story falls into a specific genre such as: Comedy – laughter Horror –...

Facing the Past in the End of Act IIb

May 10, 2017

You can structure a typical 120-minute movie into four acts of 30-minute increments like this: Act I — 0 – 30 minutes Act IIa — 30 –...

Plotting the Change in the Hero

May 7, 2017

Your hero needs to gradually change over the course of the story. In Act I, you must introduce the hero’s main problem. Then in Act...

The Book vs. the Movie

May 4, 2017

One of the more popular dystopian youth novels is “The 5th Wave” by Rick Yancey. Yet one of the worst dystopian youth movies was also...

When to Provide Exposition and Backstory

May 1, 2017

In the old days of Victorian-style stage plays, a butler and maid would come on stage and set a table while chatting among themselves about...

Don’t Forget the Backstory

April 28, 2017

Backstory is what happened to your main characters before your story even begins. Since backstory is rarely shown, it’s often ignored. Unfortunately if you ignore...

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.