Wow, not having a working “contact” page has been a nice vacation… LOL. Only people I “like” are sending me emails. What a fucking concept! I may have to ditch the contact page altogether.

I thought I would share a recent email communication I had with one of the usual visitors here because it really does go with screenwriting structure and to be honest, I haven’t seen it discussed like this in any books, articles, or blogs and it’s actually very relevant to the series.

I basically answered an email and for the fucking life of me, I can’t remember the actual question but if the visitor I wrote this to wants to speak up — go for it.

I hope this explains structure to those of you who worry so much about formula… LOL. I had to rewrite some of it because I had deleted the original email and a truncated version of popped up in my search results so I have taken some artistic license to bring it to you here.

Here it is:

LOL. To be honest, I kind of had the idea that this might be happening with you… Just a feeling but I generally go with my gut and it has served me well.

What you have to try and keep in mind is that your stuff IS already different. The stories are different. The characters are different. The way YOU write it is different from the way this shit is being written today.

KNOW THAT. Relish that.

Structure will pull it all together.

Remember the baseline?

This is the HARDEST thing I can get people who want to break in to the business to understand…

Now the following is SIMPLY an attempt to explain what I mean — I am not talking about you — per se.

I think you’re a really good writer. I think you definitely bring your “A” game to the game. So that aside, read the following and let it cook a few days…

Let’s say that the following are the current baselines…

———-Pro Writer Baseline———-

—-Highly Talented Writer Baseline—-

——–Talented Writer Baseline——-

————Newbie Baseline———–

Newbies and Talented writers have a ways to go…

Highly Talented Writer is almost there. Pro writers ARE at the top — “in the game.”

For newbies and talented writers, it’s often simply a matter of experience but having said that, I have read a shitload of newbie and talented writer screenplays that could have easily been elevated to Highly Talented Writer Baseline if ONLY they would have had some kind of applied structure. Now when I say that, you have to rise above the actual words that I’m using and not simply let the word or phrase, “structure” — pigeonhole you into meaning something formulaic.

We can talk for months and years about outstanding movies that break the mold. I have never argued that point but I think arguing about it online, forums, blah blah fucking blah does a disservice to newbies and talented writers because what they fucking need is structure to get them on the right path MOST OF THE TIME.

So many books talk about structure but really do NOT explain it in any real detail and show me a book, article, site, whatever that says not to use 3 Act Structure… And, for those that do, it’s almost as if the author IS IN FACT telling you to simply use the structure they give you as is.

See, the lines are extremely blurry. Anything can fit into a 3 Act Structure but I think when you call a kind of structure 3 Act Structure, it causes mass confusion because that’s what’s out there the most and if you’ve ever looked at the basic 3 Act Structure — there’s really not much to it. That doesn’t mean it’s bad. Of course it works but it was the 3 Act Structure with its SIMPLE BASIC explanation that allows those using it to be creative i.e., since it doesn’t list every possible fucking story element that could happen within the 3 Act Structure environment, you are free to be creative and do whatever you want because the 3 Act Structure is in fact so very fucking vague.

I don’t like vague.

So I started my research into structure and the first thing I found that I despised about 3 Act Structure is the twice as long 2nd act. I fucking hate that — but that’s just me.

With my background and the way I think and the way I do things — the way I was taught to take notes — blah blah blah — I like things to be nice and tidy. Meaning, I like 4 distinct acts of somewhat equal length. It just makes sense to me. It goes along with my mindset. Easy to understand. Easy to remember. It’s simply a process and a process that works for ME.

If it can work for others then ME HAPPY.

I am a non-linear thinker. I’m no less an artist than anyone writing but I realized early on that Society — at least the society that I live in and continue to live in does not lend itself toward an artist’s mentality. Nothing wrong with that but the problem is that as artists, we tend not to think like average society when it comes to the actual writing or THE ART.

However, for me — I am not speaking for you — for me — everything leading UP to the art is fairly linear to me. Preparation. Research. Notes. Whatever. It’s the actual ART that I DEVIATE from linear thinking and I have observed this with a lot of people.

But at the same time, I also know a few artists who were brought up by artists. Raised in an artist family. Lived in areas dominated by artists. Not a lot of them because there’s NOT a lot of them but they do exist. While these people usually have to find their own way to their art, they do seem to have a little easier time of it because they are not bound by the same society to which I am certainly bound…

They have evolved in a completely different way than us linear thinkers so they devise their own process.

Neither is more right than the other. Neither works better.

It’s simply what works BEST for YOU.

The 4 Act Structure I came up with works best for me and as it turns out, I would say that 98% of those people I share it with also FEEL like it would work better for them and guess what, when they write their screenplays using it, they usually end up a hell of a lot better. Having said that however, EVERYONE WILL USE IT DIFFERENTLY. You get out of it whatever you get out of it.

Some people look at it and jump to the conclusion that it’s some kind of list that you go down and simply cross off as you write that particular element into your story… The dreaded formula… LOL.

And for THOSE that want to use it that way — fine. I can explain it all I want but in the end, people do whatever the fuck they want to do.

I’ve never promoted it as some kind of end all one structure fits all structure. As I said previously, it’s simply a starting point.

It’s a “compass.”

With a compass, you are at point “A” and you know that you must head due north to eventually get to point “B,” right? But if you’re going over mountains and through rivers, and whatever, you have to take detours. You might have to go west for a few days before you can start heading north again. You then find out that there’s no way for you get over that mountain because it’s straight the fuck up and down. So now you have to turn around and head south until you find a passage… A valley, a trail, whatever… Something that allows you to eventually start heading north again.

That’s all a really good structure is… A starting point. Every writer is different but hopefully, many writers will simply let their characters take those passages… Those valleys and trails until they stumble back on the trail i.e., structure.

And although the books, articles, and even SOME of the gurus advocate using their structure in such a way that you simply follow and connect the dots, I think they do that because it’s easy to advocate.

Where I break off from that mindset is that I think every writer owes it to US to divert and let the story evolve until it has literally created its very own structure… One that is perfect for that story. Organic and germane to the story you’re creating.

In order to DO THAT however, you gotta be IN SHAPE! You have to be prepared! You have to be running the 100 yard dash in a competitive time otherwise, you have no fucking business even being at the race.

Not yet anyway.

Structure does that for you. You start off with a great structure as your compass… Your roadmap. But somewhere along the way, other adventures pop up and you go after them with a vengeance and the story goes into a different direction — hopefully a direction you never even considered before. This is growth. This is organic structure. This is YOU writing YOUR story differently from everyone else even though you may have started off with a structure similar to other movies.

On the other hand… When you don’t start off with a valid structure to point you in the right direction, you can easily miss adventures and landmarks that you should definitely not have missed and you owe it to us — your eventual audience to, at the very least, be aware that these adventures and landmarks exist.

It will be up to you and your characters to decide whether or not they really do fit in the grand scheme of things but you at least want to know about them up front so you can make that educated decision somewhere down the line.

A good solid structure is your jacklight .

But you can do it any way you like… Everybody gets to dance .

Unk

Got a new server with all kinds of bells and whistles and a hell of a lot more security.

Tried migrating the site over and the database was not only way too large but the new version of WordPress wouldn’t take all the tables.

So I am having to download each table to my computer and then upload it to the new server. But wow, WordPress 2.5.1 is a huge improvement. My spam has gone down from literally a couple of thousand comments a day to several and I haven’t even entered any blacklist info.

Unfortuntely, the OLD theme design wouldn’t work with 2.5.1 and the ONLY reason the site looks like this now is because I already had this theme laying around. Never really liked it that much so it could definitely change.

For those of you with feed readers… Apparently, some or all of you are receiving information from completely different sites i.e., NOT The Unknown Screenwriter.

I also subscribe to my own feed so I can see what happens and as it turns out some of the sites that showed up were sites I am hosting for a friend of mine while a couple of others must be sharing my IP address because I sure as hell don’t know where they’re coming from.

I’m sure once the site is fully migrated over and everything is working, all that should subside.

I’m also considering taking the site PRIVATE. I’m just in the “thinking about it” mode. I don’t have the time nor the inclination to deal with all the email and the bullshit. The site was simply supposed to help those fledgling screenwriters that felt they needed it.

Now… If I take it private, what the FUCK does that mean?

It means exactly this… It means I have to approve you for you to get inside and poke around. It means I will have a HELL of a lot more stuff to share with you that I don’t here and I do have my reasons.

No… It ain’t gonna cost anything. LOL. I’m not in this to make money. I truly am in this to get people to write better screenplays and NOT my way but to help you find YOUR WAY.

If that sounds interesting to you… Let me know. If you hate the idea, let me know. If you have suggestions, let me know. My intention was never to let this site grow traffic-wise as much as it has. In fact, I just figured it would be a cool place to talk about what I like to talk about the most.

Screenwriting.

Unk

Well right after we make him or her lose their balance and take that fall, they’re stunned. They weren’t expecting this to happen to them. Their ordinary world is now disrupted to the point that they’ve got to stand back and take a breath… They don’t know what the fuck to do…

Time to regroup.

The Protagonist is going through a call to action dilemma. No, this ain’t the big dilemma that you might want to throw at your Protagonist later on down the line… This is a small one but to me, it’s really important. In fact, I look for it in every script and guess what?

I rarely see it.

Most books and gurus never seem to mention it but don’t let that keep you from understanding it. Most scripts that I read definitely have the call to action — refusal of the call and wow… They seem to slap that right in our face, don’t they? It’s almost like the screenwriter is saying, “Look Ma, I’m using the Hero’s Journey!”

In other words — it ain’t too subtle. No it doesn’t have to be but it just happens to be one of my pet peeves.

Oh well.

The Protagonist’s call to action dilemma is your chance — early on in your story to show us how fucked up your Protagonist is… Or maybe how fucked up your Protagonist, ain’t. That all depends on you and your Protagonist.

But make no mistake, showing us how your Protagonist handles this dilemma is important stuff. It helps clarify what kind of person your protagonist is. It’s okay to show us how fucked up your Protagonist is before the call to action dilemma because now you can redeem him or her if you’ve a mind to.

Or not.

Sure, we almost always see the Protagonist refuse to get involved in a new adventure… Geez… At this point in our lives and with all these movies — haven’t we pretty much come to expect it? They can’t get involved because they’re needed at home. They can’t get involved because it’s not their job. They can’t get involved because their pee-pee hurts.

Ho hum. Fine. Then all of a sudden their pee-pee doesn’t hurt anymore OR what the hell… Even though it still hurts like a motherfucker, they’re gonna go.

Sever that predictability by concentrating a little more on the actual dilemma that the inciting incident brings to the game. Take this opportunity to let us learn more about your Protagonist. His or her real fears and flaws. Now’s the time to show us. Now’s the time to tell us if this guy or girl is worth our investment of time, popcorn, and soda.

Don’t pass it up.

Unk

First of all, great blog. I really love it. It seems like the first half hour of our weekly screenwriting group talks about what we learn from your blog. Thanks so much for that.

So here’s my funk.

I moved to Los Angeles 5 years ago. I’ve written 13 screenplays and I still can’t get an agent or manager to represent me. I’ve actually had a couple of indie film writing assignments where I successfully script-doctored those screenplays before shooting. But these jobs are so few and far between. I do have a day job but I’m really growing tired of the daily grind of it.

I really thought that by now I really would have nailed down a halfway decent screenwriting career for myself but I keep finding out how difficult it is. Like one of your frequent visitors, Josh says, “I think I got game.” But now I’m really starting to wonder if I actually do have game.

That is why I’m attaching 5 of what I think are my best pages. Please don’t feel like you have to jump on this right away.

Whenever it is convenient for you.

Do I have game?

Okay, I get a lot of emails like this… Unfortunately, most of them attach the entire screenplay. LOL. I am holding back the author’s handle but I did write her back after I sat down and read her five pages and even asked her if she’d mind if I posted this email since I get so many of them like this.

She said, “No problem but please don’t post my 5 pages.”

No problem.

Oh woe is me… Let’s call the author of the above email, Sandy.

Sandy,

First of all, let me just tell you that it takes balls to just go ahead and send an attachment like you did. I don’t know if I admire your tenacity or just feel like it’s another rude intrusion into my oh so boring life… i.e., I ain’t got nothin’ better to do than to read your 5 pages.

The good news?

At least it was only 5 pages.

I also like that it seems to be the first 5 pages of your screenplay so at least I can get a feel for your story but I didn’t. So let’s go through it best I can on such short notice… I don’t know… I guess I’m old school because I really like reading the following two words at the beginning of a screenplay:

FADE IN:

I don’t know… There’s just something about those two simple words that somehow prepare me for what follows… It tells me I’m not reading a poem, an article, a short story, or a letter… It tells me I’m reading a screenplay.

But hey, everybody’s different and by no means is sticking ‘FADE IN:’ at the top of your screenplay a hard and fast rule.

One reason I’m really glad to see that these 5 pages are the first 5 pages of your screenplay is because just within these 5 pages alone, you’ve skipped ahead and made me read about 3 different characters without first introducing them to me. And from the names you’ve given them, I can’t tell if two of them are male or female but maybe that’s what you intended?

Naaah. I doubt it but I’ll give you the benefit of the doubt. You introduce them later, right? LOL.

Sandy, I can’t even tell from the dialogue whether or not those two characters are male or female. The names are interesting however. Very bohemian, so I give you points for that.

And since this is only 5 pages, all I can tell is that everything takes place here:

INT. HOUSE - DAY

LOL. Is it a shitty little house? Is it a mansion? Is it in an average little neighborhood? What city is it in? Town? You start off with the location but then you orphan that location slug and get right into so and so character’s dialogue.

I’m still wondering where in the fuck they are and is this a crack house? Mommy and Daddy’s house? I can’t picture anything about this house at all because you didn’t give me anything to picture.

Same with the characters. 5 pages of fucking TALK TALK TALK.

Talking heads with a VENGEANCE!

Maybe you could give these fuckers something to do while they fuckin’ talk their asses off? Maybe one of them keeps changing the channels on the television with the remote and the other two get pissed at him or her… Maybe one of them picks their nose — rolls it up until it dries, and flicks it away. Yeah, then let the other two male or female characters get pissed at him or her for that.

Maybe one of them is looking at a porn magazine and is so entranced by what he or she is seeing that he or she’s having a real hard time communicating with the other two characters.

Which brings me to the dialogue.

You start off with one of the characters talking about his or her job… I will say this… You sure as hell didn’t leave anything out! I know nothing about this character but I know everything about where he or she works. Strangely, it even feels as if there’s a slight agenda going on here. As if this character is speaking for YOU personally. If I had to make a bet, I would bet that this particular character is based on yourself just from reading your emails thus far.

Since I couldn’t read past page 5, I have to wonder if your screenplay is about where this person works or… Is it about that person? Is it about that person and where that person works? At least then, this would make a little more sense to me. If so, I am assuming you are setting this all up so that the rest of the story follows this person around more or less.

*NOTE: As it turned out, Sandy emailed me back and told me that her screenplay was NOT in fact about that character NOR where that character worked.

But wow… If your story doesn’t follow this character and where he or she works, I gotta wonder why you put so much effort into these five pages. On top of that, you’re telling me that these five pages are your BEST. I do like some of the dialogue but geez… Did you really need to keep going back to UrbanDictionary.com to find slang that we’ve never heard of before? I think just a little too much… So much so that it’s almost too clever.

In fact, if these 5 pages don’t have much to do with the rest of the screenplay, then in fact, it’s way over the top.

And of course… Aside from the spelling errors and a couple of typos, the formatting is basically okay except that you seem to have a lot of orphan formatting in such a short amount of space so please watch out for that and IF you don’t know what I’m talking about…

Then no… You ain’t got game.

Unk

Okay… Here you go. This is your chance to share your funk. I’ve been in a funk lately and you guys truly are helping me get out of it… I woke up with more energy today than I’ve had in quite a while. Things are clearer today and I even woke up to find out that we have a major star that’s going to be in one of our flicks. We’ve been trying to find a lead for over two years now and today was the day.

So maybe… Just maybe there’s something to sharing this shit with others who share the passion of screenwriting and okay… Other writers too… LOL. Hear that Ann?

I don’t care what it is… If you wanna share, here’s your chance. Just drop that SHIT right here in a comment. Get it off your shoulders. Let us fuck with you about it… LOL.

Wanna tell off your boss? A parent? A sibling? Me? Go ahead. I can take it.

I don’t care how fuckin’ long it is…

Go for it.

Unk

Unfortunately, the poor guy had been punctured a few times on his body from the cats… I cleaned him up and got the bleeding to stop but it was touch and go for the first 24 hours. Since this happened in the wee hours of the morning, I took a piece of organic whole wheat bread and and some filtered water and blended it up. With toothpick in hand, the little guy did pretty well. He ate quite a bit but I’ve done this before so I was sure not to feed him too much.

The next day, he started to move around a lot more… He was hell of a lot more lively. And hungry. LOL.

I went out and bought some bird formula and then mixed that up and fed him. On top of that, I ended up buying a little enclosure for him. You fill the bottom of this thing up with hot water and then you stick an underwater heater inside so that you can keep the temperature constant. Everything was going well. He kept eating and drinking — no problems.

I set the clock for 0400 to feed him again and unfortunately, he didn’t make it. Now normally, I would just chalk this up to bad luck and of course the trauma the cats put him through and I’m sure that’s actually what happened.

But it still fucked me up.

What’s that got to do with screenwriting?

I just thought it was interesting that this happened to me after yesterday’s post… As if things couldn’t get any worse. For some reason, this little guy kept me motivated. I figured if I could bring him back to life, we’d both be alright.

Goes to show you how things you can’t control just happen no matter what you do to keep them from happening and they’re just going to keep doing that over and over and over again no matter what you do or what you say.

It’s fucking life.

And death.

Unk

Nope.

I just haven’t been motivated to share anything as of late. I think some of that is due to the fact that so often I read the same kinds of comments over and over and over again. I’ve actually grown weary of arguing my points.

Why?

Because it just makes me tired… Like I’m beating my head against the wall… LOL. But that’s the way people are so no harm — no foul.

Don’t get me wrong, I’m all for debate and arguing one’s point if one believes without a shadow of a doubt that one is correct but folks… This is fucking screenwriting. LOL.

To me, there are certain truths that simply cannot be ignored and to argue them with me is pointless. I have my opinion and you obviously have yours. Mine is no more or no less valid than yours, is it not?

By the same token, I 1000% accept the fact that your opinion is no more or less valid than mine. In any case, we can always agree to disagree.

I don’t even feel much like explaining what I’m trying to explain here and now… To me, it should be obvious and like I’ve said, I’ve grown weary of spelling it out. Save your arguments for something worth a shit.

And if you’ve emailed me lately, please don’t fret… I’ve been on a whirlwind of travel lately and I will eventually get back to you. I’m just tired.

So today, I’m going to share an email I just finished writing to someone — a regular reader of this site whom I’ve decided to lend a hand to…

Here’s his email… I won’t mention his name because I don’t have his permission but I hope my answer makes sense of what The Unknown Screenwriter is all about…

Hey Unk,
I know you’re a busy man so only respond when you have the time… But then again you never do have the time. So maybe not. LOL

I think I already know the answer to this question but curious cause maybe there’s more than I thought (knowing me, there always is).

Script Doctors… What does it take to become one? I can only imagine it comes from knowing the script industry inside and out. Reading and writing tons of them. Education whether on my own or through school.

Probably the biggest aspect of it… Have a knack for it. Knowing what needs to be done and what doesn’t need to be done with a script.

The way I figure it. If I were to become one (obviously with time), then I would be able to write a script very well and know what to do and what not to do. If that makes any sense? That’s what I want… I want to perfect the art of screenwriting. I think perfection is impossible, but it’s a goal and I need goals.

When I was younger in high school. I was into baseball like no other, and Ken Griffey Jr. was and is my biggest baseball hero/idle. Watching him swing his bat effortlessly and knocking the ball out of the park. The way he plays outfield is so smooth. He has perfected swinging the bat.

Now times have changed and my goals have changed since high school. No longer playing ball… Just working for my family. I’ve always had an interest in screenwriting and was sick of putting it off. Let’s just say that you are Ken Griffey Jr. to me. So it really does go a long ways when you do what you have done and I really APPRECIATE IT ALL.

Kinda weird cause I could tell you all of Ken Griffey’s stats, but when it comes to Unk…. Well, I just really appreciate all of it. So only respond when it’s appropriate for you.

Thanks,
Regular Reader

LOL. I think you’re actually the ONLY person I am responding to lately… I put up a post about Charlton Heston dying but lately, I just haven’t had the interest in making any new posts… I keep getting a lot of email asking WHAT’S WRONG and I don’t even bother answering.

Just don’t have the motivation.

Maybe it’s because I just turned 50? LOL.

I doubt it…

I was discussing this very thing yesterday with someone else I’m trying to help become a screenwriter…

All the shit that I post on the site is basically written to help bring anyone interested up to a MINIMUM BASELINE. With this other person, I used the metaphor of driving a car.

When we learn to drive a car, we don’t know shit… We’ve seen everyone drive from having been a passenger but when it comes to actually getting behind the wheel, many of us make the same mistakes right off the bat…

-turning too tight
-braking too hard
-not braking hard enough
-not coming to a full stop
-too fast acceleration
-not looking in all the rearview mirrors
-and on and on and on…

Right?

We need that EXPERIENCE BEHIND THE WHEEL. Now to finally get our driver’s license and be legal to drive, we obviously meet the basic minimum standard. However, the more we drive the better we get.

We get to our destinations faster and just as safe. We anticipate oncoming traffic even better. We can stop and start the vehicle without any sudden jerks… We can park into a spot without more than one try. And on and on and on.

EXPERIENCE is what lifts you ABOVE the minimum baseline. Hence, the more experience you gain, the more people want to read your stuff. Hence, the larger network you have of people “in the business” that want to read your stuff.

This above the baseline experience is a totally new kind of experience. Those with natural talent will often rise above everyone else yet those of us who stick to it long enough will eventually rise above the baseline and when people read your stuff, THEY IMMEDIATELY SEE THAT YOUR WRITING IS ABOVE THE BASELINE.

This excites people because most of what we read day in and day out is SHIT.

So just like your baseball player, enough experience CAN get you above the baseline. Experience and talent can make you a superstar. And the timeline for everyone is obviously different because everyone works and learns AT THEIR OWN PACE.

Which is why I STRESS THE BASICS all the time… These assholes that argue semantics with me in the comments just make me tired. Everyone wants to break the rules. I have no problem with that EVER. Hell, I’ve broken more rules than anyone I know except my Dad… He was in prison for 9 years… LOL.

If you break the rules early on, it’s very likely that you’ll never actually MEET the minimum baseline of screenwriting and then, with enough rejection and people telling you that your stuff needs a hell of a lot more work, you give up. This happens to thousands of people just like YOU, every day.

This is why you learn how to put your script into perfect format standards. This is why you go through it 50 times to make sure there are no typos or spelling errors. This is why you learn basic story structure… So that you can MEET THE MINIMUM BASELINE.

Once you know all that shit backwards and forwards, you then start rising above the baseline and it’s usually THEN that your stuff gets noticed.

When your stuff gets noticed by enough people and even IF you don’t sell anything, you’d be surprised at how these people (in the business) will come to you when they need a script fix. Script docs (good ones) are so fucking expensive that many producers tend to go with those less known because of a few things they’ve read from that screenwriter EVEN if they didn’t sell.

Which is once again WHY you need to know the minimum baseline. Without knowing that, you can’t fucking fix a screenplay because you can’t figure out what the fuck is wrong with it… LOL.

Know this shit backwards and forwards and problems STICK OUT AT YOU LIKE A SORE THUMB.

And then you can fix them.

Above the baseline.

Make sense?

Unk

Charlton Heston dead at age 84. Check out his profile on IMDB and Wikipedia. What can I say… I’ll miss him.

Unk

All of a sudden I’ve been getting more than my fair share of email asking questions about screenwriting for television… And, although I do know a little about it and I could probably wing it if I had to, I’ve been getting some pretty specific questions…

And as someone pointed out a few posts ago, I’m so obsessed with reading my email that I just have to answer these questions… LOL.

Uh huh.

These videos are not only about about writing for television but how series are made, development, etc…

If you listen closely, you’ll get some specific information about writing for HBO and Showtime.

Enjoy.

Unk

Pamela Douglas: A Better Understanding of TV Dramas

Pamela Douglas: A History of TV Dramas

Pamela Douglas: The Biggest Hits of TV Dramas

Pamela Douglas: The Biggest Trends in TV Dramas

Pamela Douglas: Types of TV Dramas

Pamela Douglas: Writing a TV Drama Script

Pamela Douglas: Producing a TV Drama

Pamela Douglas: How TV Drama Series Are Made

About Pamela Douglas

Some of you might want a printed transcript of each video… All you have to do is click on over to:

A Better Understanding of TV Dramas — scroll on down to the transcript block and click on the print link.

Here’s the rest of the links:

The History of TV Dramas

The Biggest Hits of TV Dramas

The Biggest Trends in TV Dramas

Types of TV Dramas

Writing a TV Drama Script

Producing a TV Drama

How TV Drama Series Are Made

So my procrastination turns into another structure post. I had another screenwriting structure post just about completed but it’s now gone. That’s what I get for working on it ahead of time… LOL.

No more.

Winging it has always worked best for me anyway… I type all my blog posts up in a little piece of software called BlogDesk and it’s always performed flawlessly till today… Today it wouldn’t run. Something about Microsoft’s DHTML editor needing repair. So like any good Windows user, I uninstalled it and then reinstalled it and guess what? No more post.

So here, I wing it.

The last post on screenwriting structure covered the first ten pages of the screenplay and your Protagonist’s ordinary world. I won’t revisit it except to say that you really should consider showing us your Protagonist’s ordinary world and make sure that ordinary world is relevant to what’s currently happening to your Protagonist. I’m always getting asked about the ordinary world and a lot of you seem to think we’re talking about the Protagonist’s everyday life and while that might be what you need to show us depending on your story — that’s really not what we’re talking about when talking about the ordinary world.

What I usually find is that a lot of screenplays get the ordinary world just a little bit wrong… Remember, the ordinary world that’s pertinent to the story. The ordinary world that your Protagonist is caught up in right now! Show us that world and it should be easier to get your story moving along.

The Inciting Incident…

Some call it the catalyst… I’m partial to inciting incident and I’ll tell you why… It’s self explanatory plain and simple. Let’s take a look at the definition of inciting and incident:

incite
–verb (used with object), -cit·ed, -cit·ing.
to stir, encourage, or urge on; stimulate or prompt to action: to incite a crowd to riot.

incident
–noun
1. an individual occurrence or event.
2. a distinct piece of action, or an episode, as in a story or play.
3. something that occurs casually in connection with something else.
4. something appertaining or attaching to something else.
5. an occurrence of seemingly minor importance, esp. involving nations or factions between which relations are strained and sensitive, that can lead to serious consequences, as an outbreak of hostilities or a war: border incident; international incident.
6. an embarrassing occurrence, esp. of a social nature.
–adjective
7. likely or apt to happen (usually fol. by to).
8. naturally appertaining: hardships incident to the life of an explorer.
9. conjoined or attaching, esp. as subordinate to a principal thing.
10. falling or striking on something, as light rays.

And just to let you know (in case you’re interested), I’ve discussed the inciting incident here and here awhile back so you might want to read up on these as well… Here, we’re discussing the inciting incident within the context of screenwriting structure…

I personally strive to get the inciting incident going no later than page 12. Sometimes I hit that mark — sometimes I don’t but I do most of the time. Gotta tell ya… One of the first things a producer usually does is either ask the reader when the inciting incident occurs or if they decide to read it themselves, they turn ahead through the pages to see what gets things moving and if you don’t have some inciting incident to get your Protagonist of his or her ass by page 12 — no later than page 15, don’t expect a call back about your script.

Is it formula?

Nope.

It’s form.

It hits us upside the head just a little harder these days when you give us the inciting incident within the first 12 minutes of your story. The mass audience of today isn’t really interested in sitting around waiting for a half hour for something to get your protagonist’s ass in gear. Remember, these are the fucking people sitting in the audience sending text messages and even making Goddamn phone calls. You really think these are the kinda people that wanna wait a half hour or gasp — never — for your incitiing incident?

Not on your life… In fact, you may want to consider writing your inciting incident so that these rude sons-a-bitches decide to turn those fucking cell phones off till the end of your film.

Some artistes might want to argue this cold hard fact… Don’t bother arguing about it with me. Not interested.

My two previous posts above pretty much spell out what the inciting incident is… Not a whole lot more information I can add… The big thing to remember is that you need an event to happen to your protagonist that causes him or her to eventually make the decision to leave the safety of their ordinary world and remember… They won’t want to leave. They will probably try to figure out a way not to leave but eventually, they acquiesce to the fact that they gotta go on a new journey to resolve whatever conflict the inciting incident just caused.

Make note that you’ve actually got quite a bit of leeway with the inciting incident…

Try to come up with an inciting incident that we’ve not seen before… Astonish us. Grab our attention so that we lean forward in that theater seat and invest ourselves into the rest of your story. Catch us by surprise… Don’t telegraph it to us.

Come up with an inciting incident that grabs us by the throat — something we haven’t seen before (yes, it can be done) and you’re on your way to a compelling story.

Remember… You’ve shown us your Protagonist’s ordinary world. We’ve seen how he or she behaves within that ordinary world. We understand it. We understand your Protagonist. It may not be a great place (I’m not talking location here) to be but it’s one that the Protagonist is at home in. He or she is safe within that world because they know the rules and they exist and make decisions based on the rules of that world.

The inciting incident is that unexpected banana peel your Protagonist slips on. He didn’t see it coming and neither did we. It’s that drive-by that happens for no fucking reason. It’s that grenade that makes no fucking sense.

Knock your Protagonist off her or her ass and you’ve got our attention.

Unk