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

ASSIGNMENT: List # 2: The Master List The other list we’ve already talked about: that list of your ten favorite movies and books in the genre that you’re writing, or if you don’t have a premise yet, ten movies and books that you wish you had written. This list of ten (or more, if you want — ten is just a minimum!) is going to be enormously helpful

ASSIGNMENT: Start a list. What are some specific genre elements you’ve noticed — in any genre?

· 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

· A defined protagonist · A powerful antagonist · A sense of the setting, conflict, and stakes · A sense of how the action will play out

· Mysterious Stranger or Traveling Angel (Mary Poppins, Shane, the Reacher books, Nanny McPhee, KPAX) · Three Brothers (The Godfather, The Deerhunter, Mystic River) · Reluctant Witness (Witness, Conspiracy Theory, Someone to Watch Over Me) · Wartime Romance (Casablanca, From Here to Eternity, Gone with the Wind) · High School Sleuth (Brick, Twiligh

· ASSIGNMENT: Make a list. What are some of your favorite examples of stories which use this Ordinary World/Special World contrast to great effect? · ASSIGNMENT: How are you depicting your hero/ine’s Ordinary World and Special World to bring out character, character arc, and the themes of your story?

· ASSIGNMENT: Make – what else? – a list of your top ten movies specifically for suspense. From this list, what can you deduce about your favorite kind(s) of suspense? · ASSIGNMENT: Why not start a section in your personal story structure workbook just for your notes on the suspense tricks you’re going to be looking for from now on?

· ASSIGNMENT: Identify the PLAN, CENTRAL ACTION, and CENTRAL QUESTION of your story. · What does the protagonist WANT? · How does s/he PLAN to do it? · What is the CENTRAL QUESTION of the story? And for extra credit: · What and who is standing in his or her way?

give us a great scene that fulfills the EXPERIENCE your reader is hoping for when they pick up your book. · ASSIGNMENT: Make a list! What are some of your favorite setpieces and locations in films or books? Come across any good ones lately? Or how about brainstorming a list of locations you’ve always thought would make a great setpiece scene in a f