Reddit mentions of The Story Solution: 23 Actions All Great Heroes Must Take

Everyone's different, and most likely you'll need to try a few different techniques before you lock on one that works for you.

Personally, I use about 25 index cards and write out important plot points, arranging them in act I, II and III sets. Then I can make sure I have important turning points between the sets. I highly recommend reading Eric Edson's The Story Solution, it's helped me a lot.

I'd start with Save the Cat because it's a fun read and does a great job of laying down the basic structure without over-complicating things.


After you've got that down I'd move on to something a bit more theoretical. I would highly recommend The Art of Dramatic Writing by Lajos Egri. It's about playwriting but the structure is similar and it really impressed upon me the importance of structuring a plot around a character and not the other way around.


I'd also recommend The Sequence Approach as a supplemental structure to the traditional 3 Act structure. The book basically breaks a screenplay into a number of goal-oriented sequences that help guide you towards a satisfying resolution.


I'd keep Story by Robert McKee and Screenplay by Syd Field around for references, but they are more like text books for me and not really inspiring.


One of my professors in grad school wrote a book called The Story Solution based on his own interpretation of story structure. Similar to the sequence approach, he breaks out a screenplay into 23 'hero goal sequences' that keep your story grounded and moving forward, while ensuring that your hero is making progress and completing his character arc.


Also, in answer to your beat question: A beat is the smallest block of measurable plot. a collection of beats make a scene, a collection of scenes makes a sequence, a collection of sequences make an act, a collection of acts make a narrative. Every beat of your screenplay needs to serve the premise in some way or you end up with a bloated script that will drag. Many times writers will actually write 'a beat' into their script to show that there is silence or a pause that is significant to the plot. An example might be a brief pause before a character lies to another character.

I recommend getting into books like Save The Cat! by Blake Synder and The Story Solution by Eric Edson. They're good tools on how to approach stories from a screenwriting format, giving you an idea of how to develop structure and pacing for your audience's benefit.

I'm writing what will be my first completed feature screenplay. Before this one, I'd only ever played with outlines. It's a sci-fi/action movie set against a backdrop of spacefaring nations at war.

Possible Titles: The Forgotten Starfighter. The Last Squadmate. The Final Memorial.
Logline: When a peace treaty summit turns out to be a trap, a starfighter pilot and his squad are stranded in enemy space. Hotly pursued and running out of air and power, they must escort their inspirational leader home safely to reignite the hope of their people.

My biggest past struggle was procrastination and laziness... but I think all that stemmed from feeling directionless when I sat down to write. I'm not someone that can just sit down and write to write. I need a specific sense of where I'm going with it - a close immediate goal, one that isn't more than a few pages away. If I don't have that, I simply can't put words on the page.

Because of that ineptitude, I seized up with Act 2. I wrote Act 1 then skipped to Act 3 then revised Act 1 again. Working in Act 1 and Act 3 was easier because they're short and have really specific requirements "setup" and "payoff". Act 2 seemed impossible - only a few vague plot beats strung out over 60 pages. Then I read a book that really helped me out. If the traditional 3 act structure outlines the skeleton of a story, then this book is more about outlining the connective tissue.

Since developing an outline that has smaller intervals (closer goal posts) I feel empowered and focused when I sit down to write. I still procrastinate... but it's not nearly so debilitating

Current struggle? Characterization and dialog... I tend to write in the same voice no matter who I'm writing for... bleh