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- Character development, world-building, conflict all necessary but more is needed
- Screenwriting is filmmaking on paper
- Visual storytelling
- Present tense
- Only what the audience can see and hear
- Uses 3 C’s
- Brevity in description and dialogue
- Limited to 90-120 minutes
- “If it does not illustrate character or moving the story forward, kill it”
- Story (often) begins with inciting incident
- Meet cute
- Murder
- Living situation changes
- Establish reality, then tear it away
- Forces characters to change, new realizations
- The pace of the beginning determines the pacing for the rest of the story
- Expected for the “time signature” to mostly remain the same
- Elevator pitches are becoming more important
- Grab their attention dramatically right from the outset
- Audiences construct themselves
- Not everyone will like your story, you must recognize you’re making the story for yourself and a specific group of people
- Not a competition with other people writing the same genre
- Audiences make snap judgments about entire books
- “Read like we’re window shopping”
- A self-contained portion of the story
- 10-15 minutes
- Own beginning, middle, end
- 2 in Act One
- 4 in Act Two
- 2 in Act Three
- Length
- Smaller units of action
- 10-15 pages
- Ownership
- Relates two one character’s plot
- Doesn’t have to focus on the main character
- Tension
- Makes the audience have a vested interest
- Fearing for characters is a main source of tension
- When it can’t seem to get worse, make it worse
- Sequences end with the resolution of one tension and lead into another
- Framework
- Outline the intention of each sequence
- Beginning
- Establishes wants and goal(s)
- Middle
- Pits character against the problem or obstacles
- Obstacles should have clear consequences
- End
- The character either fails or succeeds at their immediate goal
- Leads into the next sequence