![]() ![]() “If you cling to your obsession, your ruthless pursuit will achieve your desire, then destroy you.” (, Story by Robert McKee) The compulsive pursuit of contemporary values-success, fortune, fame, sex, power-will destroy you, but if you see this truth in time and throw away your obsession, you can redeem yourself.” (, Story by Robert McKee) The reason why you can is because these two controlling Story ideas revolve around how we negotiate the primary conundrum of contemporary life-our culture’s conscious and subconscious definitions of “success.”įirst there is the controlling idea for stories that end with positive irony: If you start with one of these ideas, you can absolutely grow your Story from beginning hook to ending payoff. Robert McKee nails this “way in” with his description of two very popular controlling ideas of contemporary storytelling in his classic book Story. Since it’s so critical to build in these conscious (Want) and subconscious (Need) desires in your protagonists (and antagonists), is there a way to build the central theme of your story around Want and Need? That is, can you come up with a controlling idea that will automatically generate the crucial arc of your protagonist and antagonist? Can you reverse engineer a Global Story around a single idea? What if we began with that directive as our primary concern before we wrote word one? As I’ve recommended numerous times, one fail safe method is to start with GENRE…but since I’ve been writing about the critical requirement to have a Story within your Story (what I call The Story Spine, yet another book I’m drafting), let’s look at another way to plant and grow a new narrative.Įverything I’ve written about Want and Need ( here, here, here and here) is about holding the attention of your potential audience. There are innumerable approaches to using The Story Grid to get you started. Obviously, this approach warrants a mini-book of its own and I promise that it’s on my to-do list, but for all of those self-starters out there, I’ll poke at this idea a bit now. What I mean is that you can create a work plan with The Story Grid’s Foolscap Global Story Grid and The Story Grid Spreadsheet that will result in a first draft of your next novel or screenplay or TV pilot. It is a tool that can inspire an original creation.What I’ve been asked often lately, now that many see the potential of using the Story Grid methodology to work through their 2nd through 32 nd drafts of their works, is about the last number on that application list. On the ABOUT page and at the very beginning of the book, I write that The Story Grid is a tool with many applications. With commercial breaks averages around 45 mins.Download the Math of Storytelling Infographic Some genres, like Sci-Fi, have more description in the script that doesn’t add to film time, but in general these large descriptions should be avoided).ġ Hour serialized drama averages about 58 mins. ![]() Standard operating procedure 1 PAGE = Aprox 1 MINUTE filming ( this isn’t strictly true, but its a good frame of reference. Hero’s Journey: The Road Back Resurrection Return w/ the Elixir Heroine’s Journey: Rebirth & Return to Perfect World Hero’s Journey: Reward, Seizing the Sword CLIMAX ~? 85-99% *SEQUENCE 8* New Tension and or Twist ( Monkey Wrench) Hero’s Journey: Ordeal, Death & Resurrection Hero’s Journey: Tests, Allies, & Enemies POINT OF NO RETURN ~50% *SEQUENCE 5* Hero’s Journey: Crossing the Threshold *SEQUENCE 4* Heroine’s Journey: Awakening & Preparing for Journey Hero’s Journey: Refusal of the Call, Meeting the Mentor CHANGE OF PLANS ~%25 ACT II *SEQUENCE 3* Heroine’s Journey: Shattering of Illusion, Realization or Betrayal Hero’s Journey: Ordinary world, Call to Action/Adventure Heroine’s Journey: Illusion of the perfect world Read my entry for The Teaser & Inciting Incident here. TIP: Use this structure as a worksheet, fill in each line with brainstorming ideas and use it as a cheat sheet for your pilot episode! TEASER Incorporating Teaser, Cliffhanger and or Denouement specifically for Television purposes. Below is a TV show template I created based off of Three Act Structure, Michael Hauge’s Five Key Turning Points, The Eight Sequence Structure, the Hero’s Journey and the Heroine’s Journey. ![]()
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