Many inexperienced writers struggle to keep the audience interested throughout the ’setup’. This is a major problem as professional readers won’t last until the Inciting Incident if the first ten or twelve pages don’t deliver. The ’setup’ is often a complete sequence in which we see the ‘Ordinary Wo ...
Many inexperienced writers struggle to keep the audience interested throughout the ’setup’. This is a major problem as professional readers won’t last until the Inciting Incident if the first ten or twelve pages don’t deliver. The ’setup’ is often a complete sequence in which we see the ‘Ordinary Wo ...
“Who is your hero, what does he want, and what stands in his way?” Paddy Chayefsky ( Network ) Three-time Oscar winner “As long as the protagonist wants something, the audience will want something.” David Mamet (The Verdict) Two Oscar nominations How do you start your story? Something must happen to ...
By Norah Wilson When I signed up to write a blog about beginnings in the context of plot, I was thinking about story structure – beginning, middle and end. The beginning is probably the toughest part of a novel to write, because so much is riding on it. It will take up prob ably 20-25% of your story ...
“A strong inciting incident is an event that happens to the protagonist, never an action by the protagonist“ , I said. Then I asked you for exceptions, i.e. strong Inciting Incidents that are actions by the protagonist. Now have a look at the first three responses I received: 1.) THELMA & LOUISE, 2. ...
When talking about story structure, many people talk about where exactly in the story the structural element needs to happen. Often this is expressed in terms of a page number, or even a percentage of the film’s total duration. I would prefer to leave such quantification aside for a moment and rathe ...
