Michelle Lipton
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Structure
March 28, 2010 — scriptwriting, writing
If you’re one of those writers who “doesn’t believe in structure”, thinks it’s all formulaic and generally considers any attempt to pin it down A Bad Thing, the exits are here, here and here.
For everyone else, here is the single most useful thing I ever learnt about story structure:
That should get bigger if you click it.
I wish I could remember who taught me this, I think it was at a workshop with a wonderful script development person but it was so long ago it seems to just sort of exist in my mind now. As the years have gone on, this is the one thing I always come back to so I feel bad not giving credit where it’s due. If you recognise this picture do let me know. The eight sequences are pretty ubiquitous these days I think, but I don’t know how many people draw them in a diagram like this. Maybe everyone and I’m preaching to the converted?
I like thinking in terms of eight sequences because even in a two hour feature you’ve never really got to tackle anything more than about 15 pages long in one go. Even just psychologically speaking, that’s something I find helps a lot.
You can label the “inciting incident”, “turning points” and “climax” whatever you like, all the words and terms that exist for these things mean exactly the same thing.
And you can probably take any other structural approach or step method or beat sheet or what have you, and lay it over this diagram and it will tell you the exact same thing as well.
The reason I like doing it this way is because it’s crystal clear just from looking at it what each of those elements mean, how they work, and how they should feel. Though I suppose, to be completely accurate, the climax point should be higher on the page shouldn’t it? Nevermind. You get the drift.
It also works for any length script, or even for plotting an entire series. More acts? Just add more pyramidy things. Easy peasy.
This particular picture is of course a happy ending. If you’ve got an unhappy ending, just invert it. Or, you might have a physical plot and an emotional plot that are the opposite of each other – so He Doesn’t Get What He Thinks He Wants But he Learns the Error of His Ways and Becomes a Better Person Tra La La La Laaa – then you’ve got one of each, yes?
Clear?
Excellent.
Try it. You might like it.
Or just do it your way.
You know, whatever.
comments
Love the diagram, crystal clear and always good to go back and refresh on the basics.
Sometimes we can tend to over complicate things and forget that we’re ultimately writing about characters and stories. Structure is a great tool for helping us focus on what is important – it doesn’t let us use the excuse of style over substance and instead forces us to just get on with the job of storytelling.
Brett Snelgrove
March 28, 2010
Thanks, Michelle. This is great.
I feel as if I’ve been reading about structure for years and never really getting it. I had a sense of character and dialogue and scene structure and story (well, I think I did/do…) but not structure. I just didn’t… get it.
And then two things happened. First, I read Save The Cat by Blake Snyder (http://www.blakesnyder.com/) and call me simple, but it made a lot of sense to me. Very clear. Very practical. Of course, it is a bit hardline in terms of “you must do this by page x”, but as long as you allow for a bit of flexibility, great stuff.
Secondly, I attended a session by Simon van der Borgh (http://www.screenwritersfestival.com/guest-speakers.php#simonvanderborgh) at the screenwriter’s festival last year, and he spoke about the 8 sequence approach. He also put up your diagram! And boy did that click with me! As you say, putting it in bite-sized chunks so that you are not having to think of the whole script at the same time makes it so much more manageable.
Now, I’m sure that I had read this stuff before, and maybe even seen the diagram, but it suddenly clicked, and completely changed the way I looked at structure. Actually, it’d probably me more correct to say that it made me understand structure for the first time. Maybe we can’t learn something until we are ready for it, no matter how many times we see it up to then. We understand the easier stuff first (dialogue, scene), then a bit more complicated (character) and then the bigger picture (structure). Mmmm… Anyway, thanks for reminding me about this.
Luscious Lipton strikes again!
(I’m so determined to find a moniker for you…)
John Fox
March 28, 2010
Ooh, that’s interesting. I definitely didn’t learn it from Simon van der Borgh but it’s really good to know other people look at it this way too. I find it dead useful.
michellelipton
March 28, 2010
I use almost exactly the same diagram with my creative writing students – except the line jags upwards at the transition from 5 into 6, not 6 into 7. That creates increasing jeopardy as you storm into the third act. But the principles are all the same.
viciousimagery
March 28, 2010
That’s interesting, because the way I see it – lines pointing downwards equal fear, despair, and more difficult obstacles. Lines pointing upwards equal hope, success, and things generally tending to go a bit better.
The break into the third act is the lowest, deepest, darkest point of the story so jagging the line back upwards just before you get there would create the opposite effect.
The fact that the line continues downwards says to me “increase the jeopardy even more! Make this worse!”
So I guess the the diagram isn’t crystal clear after all and everyone can read it in different ways!
Sounds like we still mean the exact same thing though :)
michellelipton
March 28, 2010
I’ve seen diagrams like that before and they are definitely much easier to understand than screeds of instructions. I’m pretty sure there’s one in Ray Frensham’s Teach Yourself Screenwriting, and also tips about where in a 90 minute screenplay each turning point/conflict/whatever should occur.
Helen
March 30, 2010
I remember reading/hearing that the 8-sequence approach is to do with old films being projected on 8 reels of about 12 minutes. Because the reel changes were not automated there would often be a gap – hence filmmakers aimed to give each reel a mini-cliffhanger so that audiences wouldn’t walk off.
Just a bit of (possibly apocryphal) trivia…
Jonty James
April 13, 2010
Trying to write a movie outline, having a bit of a panic, redownloaded this, calm again. Phew.
Oli Jeffery
May 29, 2011
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