Recently I was going through my kindle library and I came across the “10-Day Screenplay” by Darrin Donnelly and Travis Donelly. It’s been a long time since I read it, and so I started to flick through the pages. I know the first time I read it, I thought it presented nothing new on the subject of story sequences, and that there were a number of other publications that were more detailed on the subject. But reading it again, I think its greatest value is in bringing story development together in one very simple and succinct process. And this is valuable both to prospective screenwriters and novelists.

The basic idea is that if you follow the steps outlined in the book you can produce a screenplay in 10 days. For those of you who are not screenwriters a screenplay script is about 110 pages of double spaced text with wide left and right margins, written in scenes which briefly describe with actions and dialogue of each scene. To achieve a rough draft in 10 days would indeed be remarkable. The idea is to work quickly and get something down on paper you can work with later. Personally, I don’t think it matters if you take 10 days or 30 days or for that matter longer. The idea is to work quickly and capture your ideas on paper.

One important caveat: before you start you have to have:

1. A good idea for the story. This is the external conflict or premise for the story.
2. You will need to understand the hero’s internal conflict. This is his character flaw he/she will need to overcome if he/she is to deal with the external conflict.
3. You will need to have an idea of subplots to enhance the conflict. For example, relationship conflicts with potential love interest, mentor or family members.
4. You need to have a tentative ending in mind.
5. You will need to make sure you have compelling and original characters for your movie.

You will also need to test out your idea:

1. Is it too similar to anything you’ve seen before. Then change it.
2. Is the idea big enough to capture the attention on an audience for two hours?
3. Are the odds stacked against the hero?
4. Is the idea first and foremost about an external conflict?
5. If you heard about the movie would you want to see it?

Wow. There’s quite a lot of work here before even you get started on the 10-day plan. The crux of success about any story whether a movie or novel comes down to these core elements. And unless you are confident they work, then there is no point going further. I tend to find that when evaluating and dealing and premise like this is to think on paper. Jot your ideas and alternatives down however strange as they come into your head. You can always cross out the ones that don’t work. I do a lot of crossing out! If you want more on developing the Big Idea see https://jmjwilliamson.com/2019/02/26/the-big-idea-concept-or-premise/

Now once you are ready the 10 day process is as follows.

Day 1 : Character Development (the protagonist, antagonist and love interest/buddy)

Days 2-10 Development of each of the 9 sequences as shown below:

1. Intro to Hero’s World & Catalyst 1 Introduce  story world Ignite the story Reveal the hero’s inner flaw Establish genre	1-15
2. Avoiding the Problem & Catalyst 2 Learn backstory of the hero’s flaw Subplot – (love interest) Foreshadow the coming problem Big Event sends hero on his journey	16-30
3. Hero’s Journey begins Hero in reaction mode Timid Learning	31-40
4. Hero Looking Good Hero gains confidence Things might not be so bad Love interest – B story	41-50
5. Mid Point Things change dramatically Stakes raised Much more danger Forced into new plan Ticking clock starts	51-60
6. Things get tougher (long session) Out of his/her depth Bad guys out manoeuvre hero Ends with glimmer of hope	61-80
7. Worst case scenario (short) All hope is lost Realises his inner flaw	81-85
8. Comeback New Plan Rally the troops	86-95
9. Finale	96-110

Those familiar with a 3-Act, 8-sequence structure will recognise most of these sequences. The only difference with this 9-sequence model is the Mid Point is treated as a separate sequence in its own right, rather than part of the previous sequence 4. The first Act comprises of sequences 1 and 2; Act 2 comprises sequences 3-7; and Act 3 comprises of sequences 8 and 9.

For those not familiar with the story structure see https://jmjwilliamson.com/2021/09/10/story-structure-simplified/

The numbers in the right column refer to the script page numbers (roughly one page per minute of movie time).

A valuable element of Darrin Donnelly and Travis Donelly book is that they go through each of the nine sequences using illustrations from ten famous movies: Rocky, Braveheart, Home Alone, My Bug Fat Greek Wedding, There’s Something about Mary, Bridesmaids, Toy Story, Back to the Future, Die Hard, and Scream. So if you’re not familiar with the sequence method you will soon seen how it applies to these movies. Once your’ve seen this you will realise that all movies have common patterns on energy.

Perhaps if you’re a novelist you might think that such story structures are too constrained for your writing, but they can be as flexible as you like. If you’re the type of writer that writes organically (by the seat of your pants) then fine. But if the story is not working perhaps you should look again at the story structure that has evolved in your process and put it right. Perhaps you believe there is a world of difference between movies and novels. Yes they are very different mediums, but they are both about story-telling and story telling technique hasn’t changed much since they evolved around the campfire in our early human history.

Remember that story structure is simply a writer’s tool to help focus on the important elements of a story. Nothing more. A perfect structured story doesn’t make a story great. But great story writer’s intuitively understand these story patterns as if they were ingrained on their DNA.

Tell me, as a writer, do you use a story pattern or structure like this?