Screenwriting Tricks for Authors (and Screenwriters!): STEALING HOLLYWOOD: Story Structure Secrets for Writing Your BEST Book

In Act II, Part 2 we generally see these elements: · Recalibrating the Plan · Escalating Actions/ Obsessive Drive · Hard Choices and Crossing The Line (questionable or even immoral actions by the main character to get what s/he wants) · Loss of Key Allies (possibly because of the hero/ine’s obsessive actions, possibly through death or injury by the

· ASSIGNMENT: Brainstorm a list of examples of multiple forces of antagonism and non-human antagonists. · ASSIGNMENT: Spend some time pondering, and writing on, the question: Do you prefer your villains psychologically detailed or more mythic?

· ASSIGNMENTS: 1. Make two blank structure grids, one for the movie you have chosen from your master list to analyze, and one for your WIP. You can just do a structure grid on a piece of paper for the movie you’ve chosen to analyze, but also do a large corkboard or cardboard structure grid for your WIP. You can fill out one structure grid while you

· ASSIGNMENT: Write out premise lines for each story on your master list. · ASSIGNMENT: If you already have an idea for your book, also write a premise for your own Work In Progress (WIP). Try to include these story elements: protagonist, antagonist, conflict, stakes, setting, atmosphere, and genre.

To study how to craft a great third act, you have to look specifically at the endings that work for you. · ASSIGNMENT: If you haven’t done it already, stop now, and make your personal list of ten best endings.

ASSIGNMENT: Make a list of ten books (books this time, not films) with first chapters that you love. Now read the first few pages of each, or the whole chapter, one after another, and figure out what it is that makes you love those openings so much. Is it the emotion, the characterization, the imagery, the dialogue, the sense of an unseen narrator?

· ASSIGNMENT: Pay attention in class or in professional networking situations to see how authors, screenwriters, and aspiring writers present themselves and their writing. Who stands out? Who presents an intriguing sense of the kind of writing that they do? Who sparkles? Who makes you want to know more? Are there ways that you can communicate your

ASSIGNMENT QUESTIONS: Have you identified the CENTRAL ACTION of your story? At what point in your book does the reader have a clear idea of the protagonist’s PLAN? Is it stated aloud? Can you make it clearer than it is?

ASSIGNMENT: List # 1: Make a list of all your story ideas. Yes, you read that right. All of them. This is a great exercise because it gets your subconscious churning and invites it to choose what it truly wants to be working on. Your subconscious knows way more than you do about writing. None of us can do the kind of deep work that writing is all o