Flinn, Denny Martin, How Not to Write a Screenplay: 101 Common Mistakes Most Screenwriters Make (1999) Forster, E. M., Aspects of the Novel (1927) Frazer, Sir James George, The Golden Bough (1890) Frensham, Ray, Teach Yourself Screenwriting (1996) Freud, Anna, The Ego and the Mechanisms of Defence (1937; revised edition, 1966) Freytag, Gustav, Technique of the Drama: An Exposition of Dramatic Composition and Art. An Authorized Translation from the Sixth German Edition, by Elias J. MacEwan (3rd edn, 1900) Frost, David, Frost/Nixon: One Journalist, One President, One Confession (2007) Frye, Northrop, Anatomy of Criticism (1957) Frye, Northrop, The Great Code (1981) Garfinkel, Asher, Screenplay Story Analysis: The Art and Business (2007) Goldman, William, Adventures in the Screen Trade: A Personal View of Hollywood and Screenwriting (1983) Gulino, Paul, Screenwriting: The Sequence Approach (2004) Harmon, Dan, Channel 101 (www.Channel101.com), in particular ‘Story Structure 101 – Super Basic Shit’, and the articles that follow it Hauge, Michael, Writing Screenplays That Sell: The Complete Guide to Turning Story Concepts into Movie and Television Deals (1988) Hegel, Georg, The Science of Logic (1812–16) Highsmith, Patricia, Plotting and Writing Suspense Fiction (1989) Hiltunen, Ari, Aristotle in Hollywood: The Anatomy of Successful Storytelling (2002) Hughes, Robert, The Shock of the New (1980) Hulke, Malcolm, Writing for Television (1980) Indick, William, Psychology for Screenwriters: Building Conflict in Your Script (2004) Isaacson, Walter, Steve Jobs: The Exclusive Biography (2011) Jewkes, Wilfred T., Act-Division in Elizabethan and Jacobean Plays 1583– 1616 (1958) Kahneman, Daniel, Thinking, Fast and Slow (2011) Kelly, Richard T. (ed.), Ten Bad Dates with De Niro: A Book of Alternative Movie Lists (2007) Keysers, Christian, The Empathic Brain (2011)
King, Stephen, On Writing (2000) Kott, Jan, Shakespeare Our Contemporary (1962) Kuleshov, Lev, Kuleshov on Film: Writing of Lev Kuleshov (1974) Larsen, Stephen and Robin, Joseph Campbell: A Fire in the Mind (2002) Lawson, John Howard, Theory and Technique of Playwriting (1936) Lévi-Strauss, Claude, ‘The Structural Study of Myth’, in Structural Anthropology, vol. 1 (1955) Lodge, David, The Art of Fiction (1992) Logan, John and Laura Schellhardt, Screenwriting for Dummies (2008) Lumet, Sidney, Making Movies (1995) McKee, Robert, Story: Structure, Style and the Principles of Screenwriting (1999) Mamet, David, Three Uses of the Knife (1998) Mamet, David, Bambi vs. Godzilla: On the Nature, Purpose, and Practice of the Movie Business (2007) Martin, Brett, Difficult Men: From The Sopranos and The Wire to Mad Men and Breaking Bad (2013) Morris, Elisabeth Woodbridge, The Drama; its Law and its Technique (1898) Norman, Marc, What Happens Next: A History of American Screenwriting (2007) Ondaatje, Michael, The Conversations: Walter Murch and the Art of Editing Film (2004) Perry, Bliss, A Study of Prose Fiction (1902) Pinker, Steven, How the Mind Works (1997) Price, William Thompson, The Technique of the Drama (1892) Propp, Vladimir, Morphology of the Folk Tale (1928) Ross, Alex, The Rest is Noise: Listening to the Twentieth Century (2007) Sargent, Epes Winthrop, The Technique of the Photoplay (1912; 3rd edn, 1916) Schlegel, A. W., Lectures on Dramatic Art and Literature (1808) Schmidt, Victoria Lynn, 45 Master Characters (2007) Scott, Kevin Conroy (ed.), Screenwriters’ Masterclass (2005) Seger, Linda, Making a Good Script Great (1987; 3rd edn, 2010) Seger, Linda, And the Best Screenplay Goes To … Learning from the Winners: Sideways, Shakespeare in Love, Crash (2008)
Simmel, Georg, The Sociology of Georg Simmel, translated by Kurt H. Wolff, Part IV, ‘The Secret and the Secret Society (1950) Snyder, Blake, Save the Cat! The Last Book on Screenwriting That You’ll Ever Need (2005) Snyder, Blake, Save the Cat! Goes to the Movies. The Screenwriter’s Guide to Every Story Ever Told (2007) Stanton, Andrew, ‘Understanding Story: or My Journey of Pain’, lecture (2006) Stefanik, Richard Michaels, The Megahit Movies (2001) Surrell, Jason, Screenplay by Disney (2004) Sutton, Shaun, The Largest Theatre in the World (1982) Taleb, Nassim Nicholas, The Black Swan: The Impact of the Highly Improbable (2007) Taylor, John Russell, The Rise and Fall of the Well-Made Play (1967) Thomas, Frank and Ollie Johnston, The Disney Villain (1993) Thomson, David, The New Biographical Dictionary of Film (2002) Tierno, Michael, Aristotle’s Poetics for Screenwriters (2002) Tilley, Allen, Plot Snakes and the Dynamics of Narrative Experience (1992) Truby, John, The Anatomy of Story: 22 Steps to Becoming a Master Storyteller (2007) Vaillant, George E., Adaptation to Life (1977) Vogler, Christopher, ‘A Practical Guide to The Hero with a Thousand Faces’, (1985) Vogler, Christopher, The Writer’s Journey (1996) Voytilla, Stuart, Myth and the Movies: Discovering the Mythic Structure of 50 Unforgettable Films (1999) Waters, Steve, The Secret Life of Plays (2010) Yeats, W. B., Fairy and Folk Tales of the Irish Peasantry (1888) Zimmer, Heinrich, The King and the Corpse: Tales of the Soul’s Conquest of Evil, edited by Joseph Campbell (1948; 2nd edition, 1956/1971)
Acknowledgements This book could not have been written without following the path laid down by those who have wrestled with story structure before. It would be unfair not to mention Joseph Campbell, Syd Field, Northrop Frye, William Archer, Robert McKee, Christopher Booker, Epes Winthrop Sargent, Vladimir Propp, and Christopher Vogler – alongside valuable additional insights from Laurie Hutzler and William Indick. All are worth reading, but I would particularly recommend Lajos Egri, whose How to Write a Play (1942) contains the first real insights into dialectical structure, and David Mamet, who picked up the baton. Everything contained in this book is built on their foundations. If he weren’t so busy writing plays that so peerlessly embody it, Mamet would have produced the definitive book on storytelling. As it is, his Three Uses of the Knife (1998) comes closer than anyone. I have attempted to acknowledge my debt to them all wherever possible, and where I have disagreed with them it has been in the spirit of creative opposition the book espouses. As Egri himself said in his own Preface, it’s all dialectical; someone will – and should – disagree with me now. I must acknowledge David Lodge, whose book The Art of Fiction (1992) introduced me to both Leonard Michaels and symmetry, Wayne C. Booth for his definitive work on showing and telling, The Rhetoric of Fiction (1961), and Vladimir Propp’s Morphology of the Folk Tale (1928) for blazing the trail. Dan Harmon’s entertaining website (Channel101.com) contains some very smart observations on story structure and was valuable in underlining my own thoughts – for a lightning ‘how to’ guide it’s well worth a look. For parallels with the worlds of art and music, Robert Hughes’s The Shock of the New (1980) and Alex Ross’s The Rest is Noise (2007) were indispensable. None of these, however, would have made any sense without one criminally under-acknowledged lecture by Andrew Stanton: ‘Understanding Story: or My Journey of Pain’ (2006). It unlocked everything. Professor John Mullan at University College London was incredibly generous with his time and patience and pointed me toward the Russian
formalists; Dominic Dromgoole at the Globe Theatre added a healthy dose of scepticism on Shakespearean act design. Professor Linda Anderson at the University of Newcastle-on-Tyne taught me, gave me confidence in my own opinions and remains a boundless inspiration. I left Newcastle with a love of literature, but no real sense of what to do with it. There were key meetings once the journey had begun: Jimmy McGovern, who inspired me, Tony Jordan, who taught me, Paul Greengrass, who introduced me to five acts, and Paul Abbott, who did it all in front of me, dazzlingly, without the aid of a safety net; between them they inspired the curiosity that led to this book. The writers it’s been my privilege to work with over many years have been my real – unacknowledged – tutors. Jed Mercurio (who was incredibly patient and generous in the early days), Stephen Moffat, Dominic Minghella, Guy Hibbert, Ashley Pharoah, Matthew Graham, Debbie Horsefield, Sarah Daniels, Juliet Ace, Neil Cross, Mike Bullen, Abi Morgan, Peter Morgan, Simon Burke, Peter Bowker, Terry Johnson, Peter Flannery, Peter Moffat, Tony Grounds, Kate Brooke, Mark Catley and Justin Young were incredibly significant, as were those who were just happy to chat away – in particular Russell T. Davis, Alan Plater and Richard Curtis, all of whom were more than generous with their time, criticism and support. From the Writers Academy I have to thank Rumu Sen Gupta, Helena Pope, Belinda Campbell, Kathlyn McGlyn, David Roden, Neil Irvine, Caroline Ormerod and the students. Tony Jordan once described them as ‘Beagles you are forcing to smoke’. What I learned from their incredible appetite for knowledge (and argument) was immeasurable. At the heart of it all was Ceri Meyrick, who, despite having two small children, was always there to patiently tell me when I was wrong, particularly when I was behaving like a third. Mike and Bernadette Octigan provided spiritual nourishment and Irish hospitality beyond the call of duty. Then there were Jenny Robins, Ian Critchley, Claire Powell, James Dundas, Lucy Richer and in particular Ben Stephenson – none of whom had to, but all of whom went out of their way to find me a place to think. As and when drafts arrived, Jimmy McGovern, Tony Jordan, Simon Ashdown, Rachel Wardlow, Rosie Marcel, Paul Unwin, Victoria Fea and Lucy Dyke read and gave invaluable advice. There are few worse sentences
in the English language than ‘Will you read my book?’. The fact that all of them did remains to me incredibly touching. All were incisive and critical, all – as experts in their field should be – were robust equally in their praise and blame. Into the Woods wouldn’t exist if it hadn’t been for Rob Williams, who badgered me to write it, then held a gun to my head until it was finished. Both he and Emma Frost provided brilliant notes and boundless enthusiasm over too many drafts and too many years; both were there from the very start and never went away. Sara Turner, too, should be mentioned, for she was the first to make me believe any of this was worthwhile – there aren’t enough thanks for them. And finally, of course, Patrick Loughran, Jane Robertson and Helen Conford at Penguin and Tracy Carns at Overlook, who showed me what editors should do; Gordon Wise who did the same for agents; and my father and mother who surrounded me with books. And Jennifer, without whom …
Credits p. 32 – ‘Yummy Mummy Lit’ satire, reproduced by kind permission of Rafael Behr and Guardian News and Media Limited p. 77 – Jackson Pollock, Number 1, 1950 (Lavender Mist), reproduced by kind permission of National Gallery of Art Images p. 84 and 158 – extracts from Apocalypse Now, screenplay by John Milius and Francis Ford Coppola, reproduced by kind permission of Faber and Faber Ltd p. 92 – extract from EastEnders, by Tony Jordan, reproduced by kind permission of the author and the British Broadcasting Corporation p. 111 – ‘VW Lemon’, reproduced by kind permission of Volkswagen plc p. 115 – Willem de Kooning, Excavation, 1950, copyright © The Willem de Kooning Foundation, New York/ARS, NY and DACS, London, 2012 p. 123 – extract from Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy (1979), screenplay by Arthur Hopcraft, reproduced by kind permission of the estate of Arthur Hopcraft and the British Broadcasting Corporation p. 125 – extract from Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid, screenplay by William Goldman, reproduced by kind permission of the author, ICM Partners and Applause Books p. 135 – extract from Chris Rock, Bigger & Blacker reproduced by kind permission of Chris Rock p. 153 – extract from Holby City reproduced by kind permission of the British Broadcasting Corporation p. 157 – extract from Cardiac Arrest, screenplay by Jed Mercurio, reproduced by kind permission of the author and the British Broadcasting Corporation p. 165 – extract from The Curse of Steptoe, screenplay by Brian Fillis, reproduced by kind permission of the author and the British Broadcasting Corporation p. 202 – extract from Canada, by Richard Ford, reproduced by kind permission of Bloomsbury plc, copyright © Richard Ford and
Bloomsbury Publishing plc
Index acceptance 242, 247, 251, 255 action 25, 116 acts 25, 80, see also two-act, second act etc. Adler, Alfred 131 The African Queen 52, 58–59 Alien/Aliens x, 4, 10, 12, 15–16, 38, 40, 165, 187 alien world 28–29 altruism, as defence mechanism 143 American Graffiti 52, 65–66, 196 American Idol 197 anagnorisis 119, 224 antagonists 7–8, 18, 27, 31, 80, 180, 195, 209, 225 antithesis 27–30, 85, 88, 97, 107, 117–118, 138 Antonioni, Michelangelo 200 Apocalypse Now x, 9, 70–71, 84, 87, 158–161 Apocalypto 59 Aristotle xvi, 21, 118–119, 230 Aronofsky, Darren 209–210 Aronson, Linda 258 art and form 231–232 assimilation 220–223, 227–228, 233, 249 associative coherence 216, 218 audience boredom xv audience questioning 96 Avary, Roger 67–68 awakening 242, 247, 251, 255 Baldwin, Thomas 34–35, 193 Bananas Vomit 216, 230 Barton, John 224 Behr, Rafael 32–33, 35
Being John Malkovich xv, 27, 29, 41, 52, 148, 244–248 Bennett, Arnold 195–196 Bergman, Ingmar 119, 201 Beowulf ix–x, 28, 228 Black Swan 210, 227 The Black Swan: The Impact of the Highly Improbable 207, 217 Blakeson, J. 217 Bogart, Humphrey 58, 187 Bond films ix, 3, 8, 11, 14, 65, 147, 230 Booker, Christopher xii, 19, 38–41, 219, 258 Boulez, Pierre 199 Boyce, Frank Cottrell 4, 204, 225 Brave New World stories x Breaking Bad 22, 46, 133, 175, 179, 182 Brookside 190, 192–193, 195 buddy-based shows 133 building blocks of drama 119 Bulwer-Lytton, Edward 43 Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid 125–127, 133 call to action 39–40, 66, 84, 87, 99, 102, 197, 258 call to arms 38 Campbell, Joseph xv, 53–58, 72, 87, 205, 212, 220–221, 223, 228, 257, 258 Canada 201–202 Cardiac Arrest 157–158, 162 Casablanca 16, 21, 52, 81, 145 Casino Royale 8, 14, 52 Casualty 166 catastrophe 36–37, 197 cause and effect 90, 216–219, 228 censorship 210–211 central characters, see protagonists change 45–60, 62–64, 90, 100 and fractal structure 102–108 change paradigm 47–52 character and characterization 123–134
and conflict 127–130 flawed 11–13, 21, 27, 28, 51–52, 69, 101–102, 138–139 graphical interpretation of 224–225 motives of 101 need and want 135–140 and structural design 135–140 test of 16 character arcs 41 character change 186–191 character façade 137–139, 141–142, 166, 168 character individuation 141–148 character motives 101 character paradox 132–134, 141 character-based drama 123–124 characterization xiv, 124–134 and dialogue 149–151 principles of 124–125 psychological base of 130–132 Chase, David 5 Chaucer 118 Chayefsky, Paddy 145 Chekhov, Anton 9, 195 Child, Lee 96 Citizen Kane 9–10, 136, 142, 145 cliff hangers 15, 29, 85, 96, 119, 179 climax 16–18, 30–31, 34, 36–37, 64, 80–81, 83, 85, 86–87, 95, 100, 258 Clouzot, Henri-Georges 118 Come in Late, Get out Early 95–96 commercial breaks, and structure 15, 25 commitment 103, 105, 243 common elements 68–69 community in peril x comparative mythology/religion 211 complications 18, 36–37, 258 conflict 45–46, 85, 91, 129 and character 127–130 confrontation 85, 119, 224, 258
confrontation/crisis 95 conventions, in storytelling xi, xii, xvi conveying information 155–156 Cooke, Alistair 197 Coppola, Francis Ford 84, 107, 158, 162, 167 correlation and causation 211 creative revolution 112 Criminal Justice 178 crisis 15–16, 24, 29–31, 34, 39, 48, 80–82, 85–87, 94, 96–97, 99–101, 106, 124, 178 Cronkite, Walter 163–164 CSI ix, 72, 175, 177 The Curse of Steptoe 165–166 Daniel, Frank 258 dark inversions 20–23 David Beckham narrative 218 Davies, Russell T. 198 death of characters xiv, 69, 188, 190, 209 deferred call 87–89 deficiency of knowledge 62 Del Toro, Guillermo xv, 4, 52 Delacroix, Eugène xi, xviii delusional projection 143 De Niro, Robert 148, 178 denial 143 denouement 18 desire 7–15, 24–25, 27, 30, 46, 80, 130, 135–136, 142, 159, 164, 258 Desperate Housewives 186, 188 Dexter 134 Les Diaboliques 118 dialectical order 27–29, 138, 185 dialogue and characterization 149–151, 163–164 regional dialect 168 The Disappearance of Alice Creed 29, 217 discovery 119, 222
displacement 144 Doctor Who 97, 178–179, 182 doubt 50–52, 106, 242, 243, 247, 248, 251–252, 255 Dragnet 176, 188 drama, and television 215–216 dramatic arc 40, 90, 197, 214 dramatization, of knowledge assimilation 215 dream stage 38 EastEnders 54, 92–94, 96–97, 119, 145, 155, 164, 168, 189, 206, 221–222 Edgar, David 5 ego defence mechanisms 142–144, 165, 210 Egri, Lajos 137, 196 Eliot, George 231 empathy 5–7, 180, 194, 205, 229–230 endings, see climax ER 67, 155, 180, 184 Erikson, Erik 131 escape from death stage 39 essential building blocks 4–23 E.T.: The Extra-Terrestrial 15, 17, 21, 52, 70–72, 103–105, 208, 211 existential psychoanalysis 131 existentialism 212 experimenting 50–51, 64, 106, 242–243, 247–248, 252, 255 exposition 36, 91, 152–162 external desire 10–13, 15 external protagonist 62 The Fabulous Baker Boys 136–137, 256 façade, character 137–139, 141–142, 166, 168 fairy tale structure 72–73, 88–89 falling action 36–37 fantastical worlds x Fawlty Towers 89, 133, 186 A Few Good Men 46, 94, 208 Field, Syd 26, 258
fifth act 101–106 final battle 4, 16, 30–31, 34, 39, 64 finding elixir x first acts 28, 30, 34, 79–81, 85, 99, 104–106 first determinations 14 Fitzgerald, F. Scott 132, 212 five story sections 39–40 five-act structure xiii, 32–44, 49–51, 55–58, 62–64, 67–68, 104–106, 139, 225, 242–248, 250–256, 258 five-act versus three-act 41–44 flawed characters 11–13, 21–23, 27, 28, 51–52, 69, 101–102, 138–139 Forbrydelsen (The Killing) 6, 179 Ford, Richard 201–202 formulas 42 Forster, E. M. 61, 96, 116 four-act structure xiii fourth act 100–101 fractal structure 77–89, 97–98, 102–108, 179–180, 213, 223, 227–228 Freud, Sigmund 130–132, 142 Freytag, Gustav xiii, 36–37, 55, 100, 258 Freytag’s Pyramid 36–37 Friday Night Lights 181, 183 Frost/Nixon 203 frustration stage 38 Frye, Northrop xii The General 70 Gervais, Ricky 134, 196 Glee 16, 129 goals, of characters 7, 12, 14, 21, 91, 156, 190, 197 The Godfather/Godfather II 15, 19–21, 45, 52, 58, 70–72, 99–104, 107, 132, 137, 164, 187, 204, 209, 225, 253–255 going wrong 40 Goldman, William 73, 95, 127 grail quest 9–10, 17, 175, 197 The Good Wife 180 Greenfield, Susan 206, 216
Groundhog Day 13 growing knowledge 50–51, 106, 242, 247, 251, 255 Gulliver’s Travels x, 28, 167 Hamlet 38, 88, 107, 132, 223, 229, 240-243 happiness 132, 209 Happy Days 190 happy ever after 19, 180 Hare, David xv, 4, 30–31, 52, 149, 204, 249 Harry Potter 134, 179 Hauge, Michael 258 healing, reason for storytelling 206 Hegel, Georg 223 hero’s journey xii, xv, 19, 21, 23, 52–58, 68, 228 The Hero with a Thousand Faces 53, 220 Hierarchy of Needs 130–131 Hill Street Blues 180, 188 Hitchcock, Alfred 8, 10, 18, 90, 177, 184, 195 Holby City 153–155, 161 Homeland xi, 179, 224 Homer 61, 220 Horace 32, 33, 35, 40, 197, 240 House ix, 62–65, 72, 133, 168, 175, 177, 180, 185 House of Saddam 125 Hughes, Robert xvii, 232 human desires 10 humour as defence mechanism 143 Hussein, Saddam 125 hypochondriasis 143 Ibsen, Henrik 23, 42–43 id and super-ego 130–131, 142 identity crisis 131 immature defence mechanism 143 inciting incidents 13–14, 17–18, 24, 26, 29–30, 34, 47, 62, 65–67, 72, 78– 89, 96–97, 99, 102–103, 106, 118–119, 137, 168, 178, 195, 201, 214, 226, 258
individual psychology 131 inferiority complex 131 information retrieval, as reason for storytelling 207 ingredients of story 80 intellectualization 143 internal conflict 45–46 internal desire 10–13 internal protagonist 62 intimacy 56–57, 59, 131, 137, 141, 144 ‘into the woods’ shape 79 isolation 143 Jack and the Beanstalk 72, 88–89 Jaws ix–x, 4–5, 8, 21, 28, 146, 228, 230 Johnston, Ollie 210 Jonson, Ben xiii, 33, 35–36, 40, 200 Jordan, Tony 92, 93, 198 journey x, 14–15, 58, 59, 69–73, 80, 86, 132, 214, 221, 223, 228, 233, 258 jumping the shark 190, 191, 198 Jung, Carl 131, 132, 209, 212, 229, 233, 249 Kahneman, Daniel 216–218 Kaufman, Charlie xv, 4, 27, 31, 41, 52, 198, 244 Keaton, Buster 70 key knowledge 50–51, 64, 106 Keysers, Christian 230 Khouri, Callie 47–48 The Killing xi, 6, 179 killing the beast ix The King and the Corpse 220 King Lear 22, 38, 88, 168, 200, 229 King Solomon’s Mines 26, 208 The King’s Speech 80–81, 256 Knight Errant 183 knowledge, assimilation of 215 Kuleshov, Lev 113, 114, 119, 149, 224 Kuleshov Effect, the 113–119, 149, 150, 161, 163, 167, 216, 224
L’eclisse 200 Legally Blonde x, 10, 138, 224 Lethal Weapon 133, 187 Life on Mars x, 96, 87, 186, 189 Little Big Man 90 The Lives of Others 11, 52, 210 Lodge, David 61 The Long Good Friday 29, 101 love 10 and belonging 131 Lucas, George 52, 65–66 Luhrmann, Baz 56 Lukács, Gyorgy 231 Lumet, Sidney 145, 172 Macbeth 17–18, 20–22, 33–34, 37–39, 52, 58, 82, 88, 101, 138, 179, 191, 195, 224 McEwan, Ian 229–230 McGovern, Jimmy 77, 95, 141, 192–193 MacGuffin, the 10 McKee, Robert xv, 127, 233 Mad Men 129, 133, 155, 177, 194 Mamet, David 28, 146, 147 Mantel, Hilary 21, 72–73, 233 Maslow, Abraham 130–131 mastery 103 mature defence mechanism 143 mavericks xiv, 5–6 May, Rollo 131 mental health, and order 212 Mercurio, Jed 157, 158, 162 metaphor 233 MI5 ix, 186 midpoints 37–41, 49, 50, 51, 58–60, 61, 64, 65, 69, 100, 106, 138, 227, 238, 242, 247, 252, 255 Milch, David 186 mirrored acts 68
Moffat, Peter 178 moment of truth 63–64 Moneyball 218–219 monologuing 101 monomyth 53, 54, 57, 221, 223, 228 monsters ix–x, xi, 7, 30 montage 114 Morte D’Arthur x motives of character 101 multiple protagonists 65–68 The Murder of Roger Ackroyd 118 Murdock, Maureen 258 My Zinc Bed xv, 52, 249–252 mythology, role of 219–223 narration xiv, 152, 167 narrative as cause and effect 217 fallacy of 217, 229 and intelligence 227 neurosis 142 neurotic conflict 144, 145–148 neurotic defence mechanism 143 The Newsroom xvi, 168 Nietzsche, Friedrich 77 nightmare stage 39 Nixon 129 norm, subversion of 199–204 normative conflict theory 131 North by Northwest 10 Notting Hill 9–10, 78, 82, 136, 141, 144, 208 nuking the fridge 191 NYPD Blue 91, 184 obligatory scene/act 17, 18, 31 Oedipus Rex 118 The Office 133, 134, 186
one-act structure 25 Only Fools and Horses 188 open endings 19 opposites role of 223–226 scenes as 227 opposition 119 order, in the world 213 Ordinary People x, 4, 86 overcoming reluctance 242 panacea reason for storytelling 207 paradox 132–134, 141 Pardoner’s Tale 118 passive aggression 143 pathological defence mechanism 143 perilous journeys x periodic structure 145 peripeteia 25, 29, 119, 224 Persephone 70, 210, 212 physiological needs 131 Pinker, Steven 214 Plater, Alan 25 Plath, Sylvia 231 plausibility in drama 155, 181 plays, television 174, 175 Poe, Edgar Allan 175, 213 The Poetics 118, 230 poetry 215, 231 Pollock, Jackson 78, 213 Prague School xii Priestley, J. B. 43 Prime Suspect 59–60 principles of characterization 124–125 problems for protagonists 3–4 procreation reason for storytelling 207–208 projection 143
prologue 67, 152 Propp, Vladimir 12, 233, 257–258 protagonists x, xiii, 3–7, 13, 18, 23, 27, 59, 62, 80, 124, 146, 231 and antagonists 27, 225 characteristics of 81 dark inversions 20–23 learning by 215 multiple 65–68 problems for 3–4 protection of family/home 10 psychological base of characterization 130–132 psychological reason for storytelling 208–211 Pulp Fiction 65, 67–69, 202 putting it all together 20, 98–108 quaternity 209 quest x–xi, 87, 213 The Queen’s Messenger 171-172 Raiders of the Lost Ark x, 25, 79, 80, 87, 230, 237–239 Rain Man 145 rationalization 143 Rattigan, Terence 43, 153 re-acceptance 103, 243, 248, 252, 255 reaction formation 144 The Reader 30 reawakening 103, 243, 248, 252, 255 rebirth 69 refusal of the call 88 regional dialect 168 regression 143, 243, 248, 252 rehearsal reason for storytelling 206 reluctance 242, 243, 248, 251, 252, 255 repression 143 resolution 18–20, 34, 39, 80, 85, 95 revenge 10 reversal of fortune 119
Reznor, Trent 133 roadmap of change 50–51, 64, 86, 88, 103, 105, 106, 228, 241, 246–248 Robertson, T.W. 43 Rock, Chris 135 Rohmer, Eric 119 role of opposites 223–226 role of order 212–216 Roman drama xiii Rowling, J. K. 134 Rubber Ducky moment 145–148 rules, see conventions Russian Formalists xii Ryan’s Daughter 112 safety 164–165 and security 131 Sanford and Son 165–166 Sargent, Epes Winthrop 26 Saw ix, 230 scene structure 91, 221 Scott, Ridley 47 screenplays as structure 73 screenwriting books xii screenwriting, showing not telling 112–113, 117, 149 Scribe, Eugène xiii, 40, 42–43 scriptwriting 77–78 second acts 99–100 Seinfeld 25, 51 self-actualization 131 self-esteem 131 serials structure 178–180 television (mini-series) 174, 175 series changes in 186–191 life span xiv quality of 175
repetition 183 structure 178–183 television 172, 173–175 set-up 85, 95 The Seven Basic Plots xii, 38 seven-act structure 25, 79, 237–238 Shakespeare, William xiii, 31, 33–36, 38–40, 42, 52, 69, 88, 107, 152, 195, 197, 200, 224, 229 Shameless 177, 184, 218 shape, in storytelling xi shark jumping 190–191, 198 Shaw, George Bernard 42–43, 204 show don’t tell 112–113, 117, 149 The Silence of the Lambs 145, 163 Silverman, Sarah 117–118 Simmel, Georg 166 Simon, David 117, 168, 179, 182, 223 sinister turns x Snyder, Blake 258 The Social Network 98, 133, 147 societal reason for storytelling 205–206 Some Like It Hot 85 The Sopranos 5, 143, 173, 177 Sorkin, Aaron xvi, 9, 46, 95, 218 Spooks 177, 181, 186 Stanislavski, Constantin 9, 163 Stanton, Andrew 112, 113, 117, 196, 224 Star Trek 176, 180, 184 Star Wars 5, 12, 16, 19, 53, 85, 208 Stephens, Simon 147 Steptoe (The Curse of Steptoe) 165–166 Sterne, Lawrence 213 story archetype 199 story ingredients 80 story shape 68–73, 226–228 story and structure 116 strange new worlds x–xi
The Streets of San Francisco 176, 184 Strictly Ballroom 52, 56, 103–104, 105 structure xii, xiii, xiv–xvii, 23, 24–31, 48, 82, 88, 91, 116, 135–140, 178– 180, 199–204, 228–229, 244–246, 249–252, 253–255 sublimation 143 subtext 163–168 subversion of expectation 29, 97, 117–118, 222 subversion of the norm 199–204 success 10 super-ego and id 130–131, 142 supreme ordeal 58 survival 10 symmetry 61, 105, 107 sympathy 5 synthesis 27, 28, 107 table-dusting 152–153 Taleb, Nassim Nicholas 207, 217–218 Tally, Ted 163 Tarantino, Quentin 65, 67–68 Taxi Driver 22, 53, 148 The Technique of the Photoplay 26 television 171–177 as storytelling 197–198 Terence 33–35, 39–40, 193, 197, 258 Terminator 2 14, 187 theatre and television 114–115 Thelma & Louise x, 11–12, 17, 29, 38, 47–52, 57, 59, 82, 86, 88, 103–104, 106, 145, 147, 201, 204, 224, 240 theme 193–197 A Theory of Human Motivation 130 thesis 27, 28, 97, 107, 138 third acts 100 Thomas, Frank 210 three-act structure xiii, xv, 23–31, 33–34, 40, 78, 81–83, 85, 102, 104, 204, 214, 225 three-act versus five-act 41–44
three-dimensional stories 12, 68–69, 71, 88 Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy 8, 123–124 top-spin 96 total mastery 243, 248, 252, 255 Toynbee, Polly 219 Toy Story 82, 187, 101 Tristram Shandy 213 Truby, John 258 True Detective 224 truth 71, 223 turning points 26, 31, 81, 91–95, 103, 119 TV rules xvi twists 29 two plus two 224 two-act structure 249 two-dimensional stories 11, 68–69, 71 Tynan, Kenneth 142 Ugly Betty 6 universal story structure xii, 228–229 victory/defeat stage 40 villains 5, 8 Vogler, Christopher 52–58, 219, 228, 233, 258 Vogler’s model 54 The Voice xiv voice-over narration 167, see also narration Volkswagen ‘Lemon’ advertisement 112, 226 The Walking Dead 10, 179 The West Wing xvi, 66, 91, 95, 186, 191, 216–217 Whedon, Joss 150–151 When Harry Met Sally 78, 194–195, 208 The White Ribbon 107, 200 Wife Swap 197–198 Wilde, Oscar 43 The Winslow Boy 153
Winter’s Bone 233 The Wire 19–20, 117, 135, 175, 179, 182–183, 196, 199, 223 Witness x, 84–85, 88, 141, 144 The Wizard of Oz x, 209 worst point 101 writers as protagonists 216 and structure xvi–xvii Yummy Mummy stories 32–33, 35 Zimmer, Heinrich 220–221
* For a full analysis of Being John Malkovich, see Appendix III.
* For the same pattern applied to Hamlet and others, see Appendix II.
* See Appendix V for illustration.
* For a more detailed breakdown of the structure, see Appendix I.
* For further examples see Appendix VI.