Sublime

These characters—hero, villain, victim—represent three opposing drives within every human being—the will to triumph, the impulse to destroy, and the hope to survive.

Generally, a three-act story requires four memorable scenes: the Inciting Incident that opens the telling, and an Act One, Act Two, and Act Three Climax.

If they are structurally correct, there are three things in every scene that can be – and often are – eliminated: the set-up, which can be implicit from the previous scene; the climax and the resolution, both of which can be played out in the following action. Indeed, it’s possible for each scene to consist solely of the period of confrontation.

Set up and call to action Things go well, initial objective achieved Things start to go wrong as forces of antagonism gather strength Things go really badly wrong, precipitating crisis Crisis and climax. Final battle with antagonist. Matters resolve for good or ill.

‘Every character a dramatist presents must have within it the seeds of its future development.’

Your leading woman or man must be someone that we really want to spend time with.

In every scene, remember, a protagonist is presented with a mini crisis, and must make a choice as to how to surmount it. Meeting with a subversion of expectation – a blow to their established plans – a character must choose a new course of action. In doing so they reveal a little bit more of who they are.

When word and action are divorced and effectively juxtaposed, the viewer is immediately more involved. If dialogue is just telling, this doesn’t happen.