Aristotle's Poetics for Screenwriters: Storytelling Secrets from the Greatest Mind in Western Civilization

What’s the genre? What’s the theme? What’s the climax? Who’s the hero? Who’s the villain? What are the stakes? What is the jeopardy? Exactly as with writing a screenplay, I started at the end and worked backward.

Every work must be about something. It must have a theme. 2) Every work must have a concept, that is, a unique twist or slant or framing device. 3) Every work must start with an Inciting Incident. 4) Every work must be divided into three acts (or seven or eight or nine David Lean sequences). 5) Every character must represent something greater than

All have very clear first and last acts – a call to action and a final judgement – but between them too, within the constraints of reality they’re derived from, the same structure as Shakespeare, as Terence and as Horace.

Chapters 13 and 14 address the question of the best kind of tragic plot.