One of the first books I read on screenwriting was the late Blake Synder's Save the Cat. I liked it so much I also bought and read Save the Cat! Goes to the Movies and Save the Cat Strikes Back, both of which are great books on story and genre structure. I therefore wondered what more I …
Tag: Story structure
Reading as a writer reads
I sometimes wonder why we get so excited about holidays. For me holidays are not about lying in the sun or sun tans. It's about reconnecting with family, getting away from the pressures of current day life, dining out, some healthy walking and ... catching up on my reading. So on my recent holiday to …
The Eight-Sequence Method
For those who have been following my blog you may have rightly surmised that I have a fascination with story structure and story patterns. I believe fiction writers can learn a lot from studying the story telling techniques of the movie industry where story telling has almost become a science. And while novels and movies …
Story structure
Recently I started to map out the key scenes for my next novel using a three-act framework. I used a software program that's designed for screenwriters called Control Writer. It uses a horizontal map of the key elements of a three-act structure to put scene cards under each caption in a natural time order pattern …
Hero Goal Sequences
Since I started writing fiction in 2011, I have always been fascinated with the subject of story structure. I have read most of the key texts written by the screenwriting masters like Syd Field, John Truby, Michael Hauge, Robert McKee, Christopher Vogler, and some of Frank Daniel's followers, as well as many more less known …
The five core elements of story
For a long time I have wondered what distinguishes a great story-teller from the rest. Clearly, great story tellers are blessed with great creative skills and imagination. Many of the basic techniques of writing such as structuring, using dialogue, grammar, point of view, and voice, can be learnt. The creative skills of story telling are …
Story Structure – The Big Moments of Act Three
This is the third blog dealing with story structure and focuses on Act Three. Act One deals with the story set-up. It introduces the characters, the story world and the central problem that will become the focus of the story. Act Two deals with the central conflict of the story as the hero or heroine …
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Story Structure – the Big Moments of Act Two
This is the second instalment on the subject of story structure, and covers the difficult Second Act. Finding the content for Act One is relatively easy. There's exposition that needs to go in: introduce the hero and the other main characters, setup the story world, and then blow it all apart with a big problem. …
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Story structure — the big moments of Act One
Story telling, whether you are a novelist or screenwriter, requires an understanding of story dynamics and structure. For some writers, this is ingrained into their DNA: they don't need fancy ideas and concepts for something that comes natural to them. All they need is a story, which starts with a problem that comes into a …
Continue reading Story structure — the big moments of Act One
The Sequence Method
There is a lot a novelist can learn about storytelling from the movie industry. Stories in novels and movies differ only by the nature of the medium through which they are presented. The same story dynamics apply to both mediums. In my previous two blogs I looked at two different variations of the Three-Act Structure …
JMJ Williamson 