Alexandra Sokoloff's Blog, page 10
November 9, 2017
#Nanowrimo: Are you stuck? Do you have a PLAN?
Get free Story Structure extras and movie breakdowns
Almost one third of the way through November! This is a very good time to pause (briefly) and ask yourself:
WHAT'S THE PLAN?
Because the Plan really is the key to storytelling.
The Protagonist's PLAN drives the entire STORY ACTION. The Central Action of the story is carrying out the specific Plan. And the CENTRAL QUESTION of the story is – “Will the Plan succeed?”
The PLAN, CENTRAL QUESTION and CENTRAL STORY ACTION are almost always set up – and spelled out - by the end of the first act, although the specifics of the Plan may be spelled out right after the Act I Climax at the very beginning of Act II.
Take a favorite movie or book (or two or three) and identify the PLAN, CENTRAL STORY ACTION and CENTRAL QUESTION and them in a few sentences. Like this:
- In The Silence of the Lambs, the PLAN is for Clarice to barter personal information with psychopath Dr. Hannibal Lecter to get Lecter to reveal the identity of the serial killer who has just taken a new victim hostage. (The CENTRAL ACTION is going to be bargaining with Lecter and following his clues, and the CENTRAL QUESTION is - Will Clarice succeed in learning Buffalo Bill's identity before he kills Catherine Martin?)
- In Inception the PLAN is for the team of dream burglars to go into a corporate heir’s dreams to plant the idea of breaking up his father’s corporation. (So the CENTRAL ACTION is going into the corporate heir’s dream and planting the idea, and the CENTRAL QUESTION is – Will they succeed in planting the idea and breaking up the corporation?).
- In Sense And Sensibility the PLAN is for Marianne and Elinor to secure the family’s fortune and their own happiness by marrying well. (How are they going to do that? By the period’s equivalent of dating – which is the CENTRAL ACTION. Yes, dating is a PLAN! The CENTRAL QUESTION is, Will the sisters succeed in marrying well?)
- In The Proposal, Margaret’s PLAN is to learn enough about Andrew over the four-day weekend with his family to pass the INS marriage test so she won’t be deported. (The CENTRAL ACTION is going to Alaska to meet Andrew’s family and pretending to be married while they learn enough about each other to pass the test. The CENTRAL QUESTION is: Will they be able to successfully fake the marriage?
- In Philadelphia Story, Cary Grant’s PLAN is to break up Katharine Hepburn’s wedding by sending in a photographer and journalist from a tabloid, which he knows will agitate her and her whole family to the point of explosion. (So the CENTRAL ACTION of the story is using the journalists to break up the wedding, and the CENTRAL QUESTION is – Will he be able to break up the wedding?)
Now, try it with your own story!
- What does the protagonist WANT?
- How does s/he PLAN to do it?
- What and who is standing in his or her way?
For example, in my witchy thriller, Book of Shadows, here's the Act One set up: the protagonist, homicide detective Adam Garrett, is called on to investigate the murder of a college girl - which looks like a Satanic killing. Garrett and his partner make a quick arrest of a classmate of the girl's, a troubled Goth musician. But Garrett is not convinced of the boy's guilt, and when a practicing witch from nearby Salem insists the boy is innocent and there have been other murders, he is compelled to investigate further.
So Garrett’s PLAN and the CENTRAL ACTION of the story is to use the witch and her specialized knowledge of magical practices to investigate the murder on his own, all the while knowing that she is using him for her own purposes and may well be involved in the killing. The CENTRAL QUESTION is: will they catch the killer before s/he kills again - and/or kills Garrett (if the witch turns out to be the killer)?
- What does the protagonist WANT? To catch the killer before s/he kills again.
- How does he PLAN to do it? By using the witch and her specialized knowledge of magical practices to investigate further.
- What’s standing in his way? His own department, the killer, and possibly the witch herself. And if the witch is right… possibly even a demon.
Again, the PLAN, CENTRAL QUESTION and CENTRAL STORY ACTION are almost always set up – and spelled out - by the end of the first act, although the specifics of the Plan may be spelled out right after the Act I Climax at the very beginning of Act II.
Can it be later? Well, anything’s possible, but the sooner a reader or audience understands the overall thrust of the story action, the sooner they can relax and let the story take them where it’s going to go. So much of storytelling is about you, the author, reassuring your reader or audience that you know what you’re doing, so they can relax and let you drive.
It’s important to note that the Plan and Central Action of the story are not always driven by the protagonist. Usually, yes. But in The Matrix, it’s Neo’s mentor Morpheus who has the overall PLAN, which drives the central action right up until the end of the second act. The Plan is to recruit and train Neo, whom Morpheus believes is “The One” prophesied to destroy the Matrix. So that’s the action we see unfolding: Morpheus recruiting, deprogramming and training Neo, who is admittedly very cute, but essentially just following Morpheus’s orders for two thirds of the movie.
Does this weaken the structure of that film? Not at all. Morpheus drives the action until that crucial point, the Act Two Climax, when he is abducted by the agents of the Matrix, at which point Neo steps into his greatness and becomes “The One” by taking over the action and making a new plan, to rescue Morpheus by sacrificing himself.
It is a terrific way to show a huge character arc: Neo stepping into his destiny. And I would add that this is a common structural pattern for mythic journey stories - in Lord of the Rings, it's Gandalf who has the PLAN and drives the reluctant Frodo in the central story action.
Here’s another example. In the very funny romantic comedy It’s Complicated, Meryl Streep’s character Jane is the protagonist, but she doesn’t drive the action or have any particular plan of her own. It’s her ex-husband Jake (Alec Baldwin), who seduces her and at the end of the first act, proposes (in a very persuasive speech) that they continue this affair as a perfect solution to both their love troubles – it will fulfill their sexual and intimacy needs without disrupting the rest of their lives.
Jane decides at that point to go along with Jake’s plan (saying, “I forgot what a good lawyer you are.”). In terms of action, she is essentially passive, letting the two men in her life court her (which results in bigger and bigger comic entanglements), but that makes for a more pronounced and satisfying character arc when she finally takes a stand and breaks off the affair with Jake for good, so she can finally move on with her life.
I would venture to guess that most of us know what it’s like to be swept up in a ripping good love entanglement, and can sympathize with Jane’s desire just to go with the passion of it without having to make any pesky practical decisions. It’s a perfectly fine – and natural – structure for a romantic comedy, as long as at that key juncture, the protagonist has the realization and balls – or ovaries – to take control of their own life again and make a stand for what they truly want.
I give you these last two examples – hopefully - to show how helpful it can be to study the specific structure of stories that are similar to your own. As you can see from the above, the general writing rule that the protagonist drives the action may not apply to what you’re writing – and you might want to make a different choice that will better serve your own story. And that goes for any general writing rule.
ASSIGNMENT QUESTIONS: Have you identified the CENTRAL ACTION of your story? At what point in your book does the reader have a clear idea of the protagonist’s PLAN? Is it stated aloud? Can you make it more clear than it is?
And you guys, you really need to understand this. This idea of a CENTRAL STORY ACTION goes back THOUSANDS of years, to the Golden Age of Greek drama. Aristotle laid it out in the POETICS.
If you think you can fight thousands of years of dramatic structure (which is by now, I would venture to say, part of our DNA strand...) well, good for you, you rebel, you! But why make things so hard on yourself? Think about it. Thousands of years, this stuff has worked. Fight it at your peril, is all I'm saying.
- Alex
=====================================================
STEALING HOLLYWOOD
This new workbook updates all the text in the first Screenwriting Tricks for Authors ebook with all the many tricks I’ve learned over my last few years of writing and teaching—and doubles the material of the first book, as well as adding six more full story breakdowns.
STEALING HOLLYWOOD ebook $3.99 STEALING HOLLYWOOD US print $12.99 STEALING HOLLYWOOD print, all countries
WRITING LOVE
Writing Love is a shorter version of the workbook, using examples from love stories, romantic suspense, and romantic comedy - available in e formats for just $2.99.
- Smashwords (includes online viewing and pdf file)
- Amazon/Kindle
- Barnes & Noble/Nook
- Amazon UK
- Amazon DE
You can also sign up to get free movie breakdowns here:
Get free Story Structure extras and movie breakdowns
Almost one third of the way through November! This is a very good time to pause (briefly) and ask yourself:
WHAT'S THE PLAN?
Because the Plan really is the key to storytelling.
The Protagonist's PLAN drives the entire STORY ACTION. The Central Action of the story is carrying out the specific Plan. And the CENTRAL QUESTION of the story is – “Will the Plan succeed?”
The PLAN, CENTRAL QUESTION and CENTRAL STORY ACTION are almost always set up – and spelled out - by the end of the first act, although the specifics of the Plan may be spelled out right after the Act I Climax at the very beginning of Act II.
Take a favorite movie or book (or two or three) and identify the PLAN, CENTRAL STORY ACTION and CENTRAL QUESTION and them in a few sentences. Like this:
- In The Silence of the Lambs, the PLAN is for Clarice to barter personal information with psychopath Dr. Hannibal Lecter to get Lecter to reveal the identity of the serial killer who has just taken a new victim hostage. (The CENTRAL ACTION is going to be bargaining with Lecter and following his clues, and the CENTRAL QUESTION is - Will Clarice succeed in learning Buffalo Bill's identity before he kills Catherine Martin?)
- In Inception the PLAN is for the team of dream burglars to go into a corporate heir’s dreams to plant the idea of breaking up his father’s corporation. (So the CENTRAL ACTION is going into the corporate heir’s dream and planting the idea, and the CENTRAL QUESTION is – Will they succeed in planting the idea and breaking up the corporation?).
- In Sense And Sensibility the PLAN is for Marianne and Elinor to secure the family’s fortune and their own happiness by marrying well. (How are they going to do that? By the period’s equivalent of dating – which is the CENTRAL ACTION. Yes, dating is a PLAN! The CENTRAL QUESTION is, Will the sisters succeed in marrying well?)
- In The Proposal, Margaret’s PLAN is to learn enough about Andrew over the four-day weekend with his family to pass the INS marriage test so she won’t be deported. (The CENTRAL ACTION is going to Alaska to meet Andrew’s family and pretending to be married while they learn enough about each other to pass the test. The CENTRAL QUESTION is: Will they be able to successfully fake the marriage?
- In Philadelphia Story, Cary Grant’s PLAN is to break up Katharine Hepburn’s wedding by sending in a photographer and journalist from a tabloid, which he knows will agitate her and her whole family to the point of explosion. (So the CENTRAL ACTION of the story is using the journalists to break up the wedding, and the CENTRAL QUESTION is – Will he be able to break up the wedding?)
Now, try it with your own story!
- What does the protagonist WANT?
- How does s/he PLAN to do it?
- What and who is standing in his or her way?
For example, in my witchy thriller, Book of Shadows, here's the Act One set up: the protagonist, homicide detective Adam Garrett, is called on to investigate the murder of a college girl - which looks like a Satanic killing. Garrett and his partner make a quick arrest of a classmate of the girl's, a troubled Goth musician. But Garrett is not convinced of the boy's guilt, and when a practicing witch from nearby Salem insists the boy is innocent and there have been other murders, he is compelled to investigate further.
So Garrett’s PLAN and the CENTRAL ACTION of the story is to use the witch and her specialized knowledge of magical practices to investigate the murder on his own, all the while knowing that she is using him for her own purposes and may well be involved in the killing. The CENTRAL QUESTION is: will they catch the killer before s/he kills again - and/or kills Garrett (if the witch turns out to be the killer)?
- What does the protagonist WANT? To catch the killer before s/he kills again.
- How does he PLAN to do it? By using the witch and her specialized knowledge of magical practices to investigate further.
- What’s standing in his way? His own department, the killer, and possibly the witch herself. And if the witch is right… possibly even a demon.
Again, the PLAN, CENTRAL QUESTION and CENTRAL STORY ACTION are almost always set up – and spelled out - by the end of the first act, although the specifics of the Plan may be spelled out right after the Act I Climax at the very beginning of Act II.
Can it be later? Well, anything’s possible, but the sooner a reader or audience understands the overall thrust of the story action, the sooner they can relax and let the story take them where it’s going to go. So much of storytelling is about you, the author, reassuring your reader or audience that you know what you’re doing, so they can relax and let you drive.
It’s important to note that the Plan and Central Action of the story are not always driven by the protagonist. Usually, yes. But in The Matrix, it’s Neo’s mentor Morpheus who has the overall PLAN, which drives the central action right up until the end of the second act. The Plan is to recruit and train Neo, whom Morpheus believes is “The One” prophesied to destroy the Matrix. So that’s the action we see unfolding: Morpheus recruiting, deprogramming and training Neo, who is admittedly very cute, but essentially just following Morpheus’s orders for two thirds of the movie.
Does this weaken the structure of that film? Not at all. Morpheus drives the action until that crucial point, the Act Two Climax, when he is abducted by the agents of the Matrix, at which point Neo steps into his greatness and becomes “The One” by taking over the action and making a new plan, to rescue Morpheus by sacrificing himself.
It is a terrific way to show a huge character arc: Neo stepping into his destiny. And I would add that this is a common structural pattern for mythic journey stories - in Lord of the Rings, it's Gandalf who has the PLAN and drives the reluctant Frodo in the central story action.
Here’s another example. In the very funny romantic comedy It’s Complicated, Meryl Streep’s character Jane is the protagonist, but she doesn’t drive the action or have any particular plan of her own. It’s her ex-husband Jake (Alec Baldwin), who seduces her and at the end of the first act, proposes (in a very persuasive speech) that they continue this affair as a perfect solution to both their love troubles – it will fulfill their sexual and intimacy needs without disrupting the rest of their lives.
Jane decides at that point to go along with Jake’s plan (saying, “I forgot what a good lawyer you are.”). In terms of action, she is essentially passive, letting the two men in her life court her (which results in bigger and bigger comic entanglements), but that makes for a more pronounced and satisfying character arc when she finally takes a stand and breaks off the affair with Jake for good, so she can finally move on with her life.
I would venture to guess that most of us know what it’s like to be swept up in a ripping good love entanglement, and can sympathize with Jane’s desire just to go with the passion of it without having to make any pesky practical decisions. It’s a perfectly fine – and natural – structure for a romantic comedy, as long as at that key juncture, the protagonist has the realization and balls – or ovaries – to take control of their own life again and make a stand for what they truly want.
I give you these last two examples – hopefully - to show how helpful it can be to study the specific structure of stories that are similar to your own. As you can see from the above, the general writing rule that the protagonist drives the action may not apply to what you’re writing – and you might want to make a different choice that will better serve your own story. And that goes for any general writing rule.
ASSIGNMENT QUESTIONS: Have you identified the CENTRAL ACTION of your story? At what point in your book does the reader have a clear idea of the protagonist’s PLAN? Is it stated aloud? Can you make it more clear than it is?
And you guys, you really need to understand this. This idea of a CENTRAL STORY ACTION goes back THOUSANDS of years, to the Golden Age of Greek drama. Aristotle laid it out in the POETICS.
If you think you can fight thousands of years of dramatic structure (which is by now, I would venture to say, part of our DNA strand...) well, good for you, you rebel, you! But why make things so hard on yourself? Think about it. Thousands of years, this stuff has worked. Fight it at your peril, is all I'm saying.
- Alex
=====================================================
STEALING HOLLYWOOD
This new workbook updates all the text in the first Screenwriting Tricks for Authors ebook with all the many tricks I’ve learned over my last few years of writing and teaching—and doubles the material of the first book, as well as adding six more full story breakdowns.
STEALING HOLLYWOOD ebook $3.99 STEALING HOLLYWOOD US print $12.99 STEALING HOLLYWOOD print, all countries
WRITING LOVE
Writing Love is a shorter version of the workbook, using examples from love stories, romantic suspense, and romantic comedy - available in e formats for just $2.99.
- Smashwords (includes online viewing and pdf file)- Amazon/Kindle
- Barnes & Noble/Nook
- Amazon UK
- Amazon DE
You can also sign up to get free movie breakdowns here:
Get free Story Structure extras and movie breakdowns
November 1, 2017
#Nanowrimo: Day One, Act One (questions and prompts)
by Alexandra Sokoloff
Get free Story Structure extras and movie breakdowns
And we're off!
Remember, having a daily word count is great motivation, but this Nano deadline is only to help you write in a concentrated way. Don't beat yourself up if you're not hitting your word count - even when you're not writing, your subconscious is always working on your book for you and with you.
And if you're stuck, try brainstorming on one of these questions.
ELEMENTS OF ACT ONE:
- OPENING IMAGE/OPENING SCENE
Describe the OPENING IMAGE and/or opening scene of the story.
What mood, tone and genre does it set up? What kinds of experiences does it hint at or promise? (Look at colors, music, pace, visuals, location, dialogue, symbols, etc.).
Does the opening image or scene mirror the closing image or scene? (It’s not mandatory, but it’s a useful technique, often used.). How are the two different?
* What’s the MOOD, TONE, GENRE (s) the story sets up from the beginning? How does it do that?
* VISUAL AND THEMATIC IMAGE SYSTEMS
(More discussion here.)
* MEET THE HERO OR HEROINE
How do we know this is the main character? Why do we like him or her? Why do we relate to him or her? What is the moment that we start rooting for this person? Why do we care? Wnat are her SPECIAL SKILLS?
* THE ORDINARY WORLD/THE SPECIAL WORLD
What does the Hero/ine's ordinary world look and feel like? How does it differ in look and atmosphere from THE SPECIAL WORLD that s/he will enter when s/he goes after her heart's desire?
• HERO/INE’S INNER AND OUTER DESIRE
What does the Hero/ine say s/he wants? Or what do we sense that s/he wants, even if s/he doesn't say it or seem to be aware of it? How does what s/he thinks s/he wants turn out to be wrong?
• HERO/INE’S PROBLEM
(This is usually an immediate external problem, not an overall need. In some stories this is more apparent than others. You can also have a hero/ine with no apparent external problem. At first!)
* HERO/INE’S GHOST OR WOUND
What is haunting her from the past?
• HERO/INE’S CHARACTER ARC
Look at the beginning and the end to see how much your hero/ine changes in the course of the story. How will you depict that change? (something to keep in the back of your mind.)
• INCITING INCIDENT/CALL TO ADVENTURE
(This can be the same scene or separated into two different scenes.)
How can you make this moment or sequence significant?
* REFUSAL OF THE CALL
Is the hero/ine reluctant to take on this task or adventure? How do we see that reluctance?
• MEET THE ANTAGONIST (and/or introduce a Mystery, which is what you do when you’re going to keep your antagonist hidden to reveal at the end).
How do we know this is the antagonist? Does this person or people want the same thing as the hero/ine, or is this person preventing the hero/ine from getting what s/he wants?
* OTHER FORCES OF OPPOSITION
Who and what else is standing in the hero/ine’s way?
• THEME/ WHAT’S THE STORY ABOUT?
There are usually multiple themes working in any story, and usually they will be stated aloud.
• INTRODUCE ALLIES (May not happen until Act II)
How is each ally introduced?
* INTRODUCE MENTOR (you may or may not have one)
What are the qualities of this mentor? How is this person a good teacher (or a bad teacher) for the hero?
• INTRODUCE LOVE INTEREST (you may or may not have one).
What makes us know from the beginning that this person is The One?
* ENTERING THE SPECIAL WORLD/CROSSING THE THRESHOLD
What is the Special World? How is it different from the ordinary world? How can you make entering this world a significant moment, emotionally and visually?
This scene is often at a sequence climax or the Act One Climax. Sometimes there are a whole series of thresholds to be crossed.
* THRESHOLD GUARDIAN
Is there someone standing on the threshold preventing the hero/ine from entering, or someone issuing a warning?
• SEQUENCE ONE CLIMAX
In a 400- page nook, this should occur by p. 50 at the latest. How do you make this moment significant? What is the change that lets you know that this sequence is over and Sequence 2 is starting?
(Each sequence in a book will have some sort of climax, as well, although the sequences are not as uniform in length and number as they tend to be in films. Look for a revelation, a location change, a big event, a setpiece.).
* PLAN
What does the hero/ine say they want to do, or what do we understand they intend to do? The plan usually starts small, with a minimum effort, and gradually we see the plan changing.
• CENTRAL QUESTION, CENTRAL STORY ACTION
Does a character state this aloud? When do we realize that this is the main question of the story?
* ACT ONE CLIMAX:
In a 2-hour movie, look for this about 30 minutes in. In a 400-page book, about 100 pages in.
How do the storytellers make this moment significant? What is the change that lets you know that this act is over and Act II is starting?
You will also possibly see these elements (these can also be in Act Two or may not be present):
***** ASSEMBLING THE TEAM
***** GATHERING THE TOOLS –
***** TRAINING SEQUENCE
And also possibly:
***** MACGUFFIN (not present in all stories but if there is one it will USUALLY be revealed in the first act).
*****TICKING CLOCK (may not have one or the other and may be revealed later in the story)
\
• PLANTS/REVEALS or SET UPS/PAYOFFS
Discussion here
• HOPE/FEAR and STAKES
(Such a big topic you just have to wait for the dedicated post!)
* And always - look for and IDENTIFY SETPIECES.
=====================================================
All the information on this blog and more, including full story structure breakdowns of various movies, is available in my Screenwriting Tricks for Authors workbooks. e format, just $3.99 and $2.99; print 13.99.
STEALING HOLLYWOOD
This new workbook updates all the text in the first Screenwriting Tricks for Authors ebook with all the many tricks I’ve learned over my last few years of writing and teaching—and doubles the material of the first book, as well as adding six more full story breakdowns.
STEALING HOLLYWOOD ebook $3.99
STEALING HOLLYWOOD US print $14.99
STEALING HOLLYWOOD print, all countries
WRITING LOVE
Writing Love is a shorter version of the workbook, using examples from love stories, romantic suspense, and romantic comedy - available in e formats for just $2.99.
- Smashwords (includes online viewing and pdf file)- Amazon/Kindle
- Barnes & Noble/Nook
- Amazon UK
- Amazon DE
---------------------
You can also sign up to get free movie breakdowns here:
Get free Story Structure extras and movie breakdowns
October 26, 2017
Huntress series sale, new release, and news!
Happy almost Halloween/Dia de los Muertos!
This post about my new release in the Huntress series is just a bit late because, well - I got married this week. To my partner in crime and in life, bestselling Scottish Noir author Craig Robertson.
The ceremony was in Los Angeles, a gorgeous and magical production put together at pretty much the speed of light by my closest actor, writer, director, production designer – and Buddhist scholar/minister! - friends whom I’ve known since we performed together in the theater department at Berkeley. We danced down the aisle to Dean Martin, nearly got a reason that we should not be joined that turned into a fantastic performance of my favorite Shakespeare sonnet, murdered a wedding cake - and promised to love till death us do part.
So there’s the happily ever after I know some of you want! On to more bloody business.
Join haunted Special Agent Matthew Roarke and his FBI team on the hunt for that most rare of killers... a female serial.
Reminder: this series is chronological and is meant to be read in order, starting with Huntress Moon.
So my publisher has made Huntress Moon free to read for Amazon Prime members.
And all four previous books are also on sale for $1.99 US, 99p UK, and 1.49 AU on Kindle - so all of you can catch up!
If you buy the Kindle versions, you can also add RC Bray’s fantastic, award-winning narration for just $3.99, a great Audible bargain.
And in case you hadn’t heard, I’m very excited to report that this Thriller Award-nominated series is now in active development for television. I'm attached as executive producer and have written the pilot. But that’s going to be a whole other newsletter. One thing at a time.
---- SPOILERS ----
In the new book, Roarke and his FBI team are forced to confront the new political reality when they are pressured to investigate a series of mysterious threats vowing death to college rapists... while deep in the Arizona wilderness, mass killer Cara Lindstrom is fighting a life-and-death battle of her own.
For thousands of years, women have been prey.
No more.
CONTENT WARNING:
So let me be very clear about this aspect of the book.
Let's look at the Hunger Moon early reviews so far:
- Netgalley and Goodreads: almost entirely 4-5 star except for one 1-star
- UK Amazon reviews: 100% 5-star.
- US Amazon reviews: split exactly down the middle: fifty percent 5-star, and fifty percent 1-star
It’s pretty safe to say from this sampling that if you're somehow still a Trump supporter, you will NOT like this book. It’s very strange for me to have to say that, because the series is and very clearly has been from the outset, about a woman who kills sexual predators.
What is truly surprising is that these readers claim they didn't find any of the previous books political. This just floors me.
OF COURSE the Huntress books are political. They’re an exploration and indictment of what are to me the greatest atrocities in the world, specifically rape culture and child abuse. The books couldn't be more political. It really makes me wonder what these people thought they were reading.
I'm also not surprised, but always shocked, when people say they read the Huntress series as "an escape." Reading about sexual predators, child abusers, human traffickers, and serial killers is an escape? Really? I don’t know - personally I prefer the beach. Or dancing. Or yoga. Or spending time with friends. Or if escape is all I want from a book, I tend to choose one that is not about sexual predators. There is way too much of that around me in real life.
But that’s exactly why I write this series. To change that.
I have always honestly expected ALL the books to be disturbing and provocative, not "an escape." I've always intended this series to spark a dialogue about the atrocity of rape culture, how it affects women, children, and men - and to ask readers to think about real life solutions to this horrific social, legal and spiritual problem.
I base all the crimes, predators, social and legal failings I depict in the books on real-life crimes, real-life predators, and real-life laws and failings of the legal and social services system. There is nothing about any of the books that is NOT political.
In Hunger Moon I deal squarely with the repercussions on my characters – and on the world - of having a self-admitted sexual predator in the White House. (You remember the video. Who could ever forget it?). The characters are dealing with the new reality that this predator is appointing cabinet members and judges and determining policy.
How could anyone who has read the other books have expected me NOT to write from that political reality?
But if that “Bush and Trump on the bus” tape doesn’t horrify and anger you, then I strongly suspect my new book will.
So you’ve been warned.
But you know what? We have to talk about it. Because if we don’t, then rape, sexual abuse, sexual harassment, child abuse, and all the other atrocities of rape culture will just go on, and on, and on.
Enough.
- Alex
This post about my new release in the Huntress series is just a bit late because, well - I got married this week. To my partner in crime and in life, bestselling Scottish Noir author Craig Robertson.The ceremony was in Los Angeles, a gorgeous and magical production put together at pretty much the speed of light by my closest actor, writer, director, production designer – and Buddhist scholar/minister! - friends whom I’ve known since we performed together in the theater department at Berkeley. We danced down the aisle to Dean Martin, nearly got a reason that we should not be joined that turned into a fantastic performance of my favorite Shakespeare sonnet, murdered a wedding cake - and promised to love till death us do part.
So there’s the happily ever after I know some of you want! On to more bloody business.
Join haunted Special Agent Matthew Roarke and his FBI team on the hunt for that most rare of killers... a female serial. Reminder: this series is chronological and is meant to be read in order, starting with Huntress Moon.
So my publisher has made Huntress Moon free to read for Amazon Prime members.
And all four previous books are also on sale for $1.99 US, 99p UK, and 1.49 AU on Kindle - so all of you can catch up!
If you buy the Kindle versions, you can also add RC Bray’s fantastic, award-winning narration for just $3.99, a great Audible bargain.
And in case you hadn’t heard, I’m very excited to report that this Thriller Award-nominated series is now in active development for television. I'm attached as executive producer and have written the pilot. But that’s going to be a whole other newsletter. One thing at a time.
---- SPOILERS ----
In the new book, Roarke and his FBI team are forced to confront the new political reality when they are pressured to investigate a series of mysterious threats vowing death to college rapists... while deep in the Arizona wilderness, mass killer Cara Lindstrom is fighting a life-and-death battle of her own.
For thousands of years, women have been prey.
No more.
CONTENT WARNING:
So let me be very clear about this aspect of the book.
Let's look at the Hunger Moon early reviews so far:
- Netgalley and Goodreads: almost entirely 4-5 star except for one 1-star
- UK Amazon reviews: 100% 5-star.
- US Amazon reviews: split exactly down the middle: fifty percent 5-star, and fifty percent 1-star
It’s pretty safe to say from this sampling that if you're somehow still a Trump supporter, you will NOT like this book. It’s very strange for me to have to say that, because the series is and very clearly has been from the outset, about a woman who kills sexual predators.
What is truly surprising is that these readers claim they didn't find any of the previous books political. This just floors me.
OF COURSE the Huntress books are political. They’re an exploration and indictment of what are to me the greatest atrocities in the world, specifically rape culture and child abuse. The books couldn't be more political. It really makes me wonder what these people thought they were reading.
I'm also not surprised, but always shocked, when people say they read the Huntress series as "an escape." Reading about sexual predators, child abusers, human traffickers, and serial killers is an escape? Really? I don’t know - personally I prefer the beach. Or dancing. Or yoga. Or spending time with friends. Or if escape is all I want from a book, I tend to choose one that is not about sexual predators. There is way too much of that around me in real life.
But that’s exactly why I write this series. To change that.
I have always honestly expected ALL the books to be disturbing and provocative, not "an escape." I've always intended this series to spark a dialogue about the atrocity of rape culture, how it affects women, children, and men - and to ask readers to think about real life solutions to this horrific social, legal and spiritual problem.
I base all the crimes, predators, social and legal failings I depict in the books on real-life crimes, real-life predators, and real-life laws and failings of the legal and social services system. There is nothing about any of the books that is NOT political.
In Hunger Moon I deal squarely with the repercussions on my characters – and on the world - of having a self-admitted sexual predator in the White House. (You remember the video. Who could ever forget it?). The characters are dealing with the new reality that this predator is appointing cabinet members and judges and determining policy.
How could anyone who has read the other books have expected me NOT to write from that political reality?
But if that “Bush and Trump on the bus” tape doesn’t horrify and anger you, then I strongly suspect my new book will.
So you’ve been warned.
But you know what? We have to talk about it. Because if we don’t, then rape, sexual abuse, sexual harassment, child abuse, and all the other atrocities of rape culture will just go on, and on, and on.
Enough.
- Alex
October 21, 2017
#MeToo - and the Huntress Moon series
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Like the one in the Oval Office.</span></span></span> </span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-size: 10.5pt;"><br /></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><img class="article-hero-image aspect-ratio js-article-image" data-gallery-url="https://res.cloudinary.com/format-mag..." data-height="1066" data-id="8831" data-original-url="https://res.cloudinary.com/format-mag..." data-pub-id="witchoria-victoria-siemer-me-too" data-url="https://res.cloudinary.com/format-mag..." data-width="1280" height="166" itemprop="image" src="https://res.cloudinary.com/format-mag..." style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;" width="200" /></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"> Image by artist and graphic designer Victoria Siemer (also known as <a href="https://www.instagram.com/witchoria/" target="_blank">@witchoria</a>)</td></tr></tbody></table><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="clear: left; float: left; font-size: 10.5pt; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"></span></div><span style="font-family: inherit;"></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /><span style="font-family: inherit;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-size: 10.5pt;">Please.</span></i><span style="font-size: 10.5pt;"> Spare me. These aren’t secrets. These are facts of rape culture. These entitled, predatory men have been blatant about their misogyny and abuse, and have been enabled and supported by frightening numbers of people. </span></span><br /><br /><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-size: 10.5pt;">And that has to STOP.</span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-size: 10.5pt;">So this week I’ve been posting some of my #MeToo incidents on my <a href="https://www.facebook.com/alexandra.so..." target="_blank"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">Facebook page</b></a>, including one incident that just took place at Bouchercon in Toronto, which has generated some interesting discussion.</span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-size: 10.5pt;">And while I will get back to some Nanowrimo prompts next month, I absolutely believe that there is no craft without content. And now is the time to talk about content, and the power we have as authors to change social atrocities like rape culture.</span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-size: 10.5pt;">I wrote the <a href="https://www.amazon.com/Huntress-Moon-..." target="_blank"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Huntress Moon</i> </a>series because <span style="color: black;">I am sick to death of women and children being raped, tortured, mutilated, </span></span></span><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: 10.5pt;"><span style="color: black;"><a href="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-qHVplYQIV5..." imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1600" data-original-width="1035" height="320" src="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-qHVplYQIV5..." width="207" /></a></span></span></div><span style="font-size: 10.5pt;"><span style="color: black;">and murdered for entertainment in novels, movies, TV shows – and oh yeah - real life. </span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-size: 10.5pt;"><span style="color: black;">The <i style="box-sizing: border-box;"><span style="font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">Huntress </span></i>series turns the tables. The books follow a haunted FBI agent on the hunt for a female serial killer who kills men. A lot of them.</span></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div style="margin-bottom: 25.8pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in; mso-add-space: auto;"><span style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="color: black; font-size: 10.5pt;">The fact is, one reason novels and film and TV so often depict women as victims is that it’s the stark reality. Since the beginning of time, women haven’t been the predators — we’re the prey. But after all those millennia of women being victims of the most heinous crimes out there wouldn’t you think that <i style="box-sizing: border-box;"><span style="font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">someone </span></i>would finally say: “Enough”? And maybe even strike back? Well, that’s a story, isn’t it? And it’s a story that needs to be told <i style="box-sizing: border-box;"><span style="font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">now</span></i>, more than ever, given this political nightmare we’re living. The premise is a way to explore the third rail of crime: the inherent, entrenched, misogyny of the system. </span></span><br /><br /><span style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="color: black; font-size: 10.5pt;"> And this series is a way for me to explore SOLUTIONS. I am not writing fantasies about clever serial killers. I’m writing from real-life psychology and pathology, using real-life examples and profiling, to counter some of the absolutely ridiculous and false portrayals of this pathology that we see in film and television and books.</span></span><br /><br /><span style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="color: black; font-size: 10.5pt;">Serial killers are NOT criminal masterminds. They do NOT have artistic or poetic bents. They are serial rapists who have graduated to murder. It’s a facet of the male pattern violence that we are seeing revealed in the #MeToo stories and lists from millions of women and teenagers in the past few weeks. Mass shooters – that’s also male pattern violence, with domestic abuse being a key indicator of the type of man who commits this particular atrocity.</span><span style="color: black; font-size: 10.5pt;"> </span></span><br /><br /><span style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="color: black; font-size: 10.5pt;">You read the #MeToo stories - much less LIVE them! - and the totality of it seems overwhelming. The fact that we have a serial sexual predator and blatant misogynist (and racist, white supremacist, xenophobe, looter, plutocrat…) in the most powerful office in the world, determining national and international policy, appointing judges, reversing laws that protect women and children – all that is part of the totality and even more overwhelming.</span> <span style="color: black; font-size: 10.5pt;"> </span></span><br /><br /><span style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="color: black; font-size: 10.5pt;">However, there ARE solutions. There are practical and actually very obvious ways to CHANGE this horrific culture of rape and predation. I've spent years now, researching and interviewing experts about real psychology, real systemic failures, and real solutions. I've written ALL of that into the Huntress series, enacted by characters who reader really care about.</span></span><br /><br /><span style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="color: black; font-size: 10.5pt;">One of the keys to understanding male violence is that it is NOT universal. It is a percentage of repeat offenders who commit these crimes (whether identified or not) over and over and over again. We need to be very clear on this point. The problem is not all men.<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"> The problem is a percentage of repeat offenders.</b> </span></span><br /><br /><span style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="color: black; font-size: 10.5pt;">To underscore this point, in the Huntress series, my FBI investigators are mostly men, gay and straight, different races - with one key woman on the team and lots of female leads from various social and legal and religious services. I wanted to depict the kind of men I know, that I have always known, that I personally have always been easily able to identify and not randomly lump in with criminals. I wanted to depict THEIR struggle with the overwhelming force of entrenched rape culture, and their difficult fight to work within the system to change it. I wanted the situation of their hunt for this unusual, very female killer to force them to grapple with extremely real life, practical, workable solutions to changing the system.</span></span><br /><br /><span style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;"><a href="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-8xhN14F6Fh..." style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1600" data-original-width="1068" height="320" src="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-8xhN14F6Fh..." width="212" /></a><span style="color: black; font-size: 10.5pt;">I cover different facets of different legal and societal systems in each of the books. And in the new one, <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Hunger Moon</i>, which comes out next week, I have Special Agent Roarke and his team working toward a very explicit, law-enforcement based, multi-pronged approach to identifying and convicting <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">serial sexual predators.</b> </span></span><br /><br /><span style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="color: black; font-size: 10.5pt;">If we ALL, male and female, binary and non-binary, LGBTQ, people of every race and variation thereof, could come to understand that we need to deal with this segment of repeat offenders, we COULD change this. We could.</span></span><br /><br /><span style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="color: black; font-size: 10.5pt;">It is NOT overwhelming, when we take a breath and break it down. And commit to doing better for everyone. Women, men - and especially, especially children.</span></span><br /><br /><span style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="color: black; font-size: 10.5pt;">But we need to know the facts. We need to know where the systemic failures have been. And we need to keep speaking out against EVERY predator. Always.<span style="color: black; font-size: 10.5pt;"> </span></span></span><br /><br /><br /><br /><span style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="color: black; font-size: 10.5pt;"><span style="color: black; font-size: 10.5pt;">Don’t give up. There is a way forward.<i><span style="color: black; font-size: 10.5pt;"><span style="color: black; font-size: 10.5pt;"> Si se puede. </span></span></i><span style="color: black; font-size: 10.5pt;"><span style="color: black; font-size: 10.5pt;">We can do this. </span></span></span></span></span><br /><br /><span style="color: black; font-family: "calibri" , sans-serif; font-size: 10.5pt;"><span style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="color: black; font-size: 10.5pt;"> -- <a href="http://alexandrasokoloff.com/" target="_blank">Alex </a></span></span> </span></div><div style="margin-bottom: 25.8pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in; mso-add-space: auto;"><i><span style="color: black; font-family: "calibri" , sans-serif; font-size: 10.5pt;"> </span><span style="color: black; font-family: "calibri" , sans-serif; font-size: 10.5pt;">PS: I have a lot going on this week (!) - but I will be posting elaborations on this topic: from some of the real-life solutions that my FBI investigators are grappling with, to the real psychology of serial killers, to the real-life crimes that inspired the Huntress series, to ways we can amplify growing protests against this political nightmare we’re living in<span style="font-family: "calibri" , sans-serif;">, to <a href="https://axsokoloff.blogspot.com/2016/..." target="_blank">organizations you can donate to</a> to help.</span></span></i><br /><br /><i><span style="color: black; font-family: "calibri" , sans-serif; font-size: 10.5pt;"><span style="font-family: "calibri" , sans-serif;"><a href="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-B2eljZxum1..." style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"> <img border="0" data-original-height="512" data-original-width="1024" height="160" src="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-B2eljZxum1..." width="320" /></a> </span></span></i><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><span style="font-size: large;"><i><span style="color: black; font-family: "calibri" , sans-serif; font-size: 10.5pt; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><span style="font-family: "calibri" , sans-serif;"><b>The </b></span></span></i><a href="https://www.amazon.com/Huntress-Moon-..." target="_blank"><span style="color: black; font-family: "calibri" , sans-serif; font-size: 10.5pt; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><span style="font-family: "calibri" , sans-serif;"><b>Huntress Moon</b></span></span></a><i><span style="color: black; font-family: "calibri" , sans-serif; font-size: 10.5pt; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><span style="font-family: "calibri" , sans-serif;"><b><a href="https://www.amazon.com/Huntress-Moon-..." target="_blank"> </a>series is on sale right now for $1.99 <span style="font-family: "calibri" , sans-serif;">US, <span style="font-family: "calibri" , sans-serif;">99p UK, and 1.49 AU. <span style="font-family: "calibri" , sans-serif;"> </span></span></span></b></span></span></i></span><br /><br /><span style="font-size: large;"><i><span style="color: black; font-family: "calibri" , sans-serif; font-size: 10.5pt; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><span style="font-family: "calibri" , sans-serif;"><b><span style="font-family: "calibri" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: "calibri" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: "calibri" , sans-serif;">Amazon Prime readers can <span style="font-family: "calibri" , sans-serif;">read</span> </span></span></span></b></span></span></i><a href="https://www.amazon.com/Huntress-Moon-..." target="_blank"><span style="color: black; font-family: "calibri" , sans-serif; font-size: 10.5pt; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><span style="font-family: "calibri" , sans-serif;"><b><span style="font-family: "calibri" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: "calibri" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: "calibri" , sans-serif;">Book 1, Huntress Moon</span></span></span></b></span></span></a><i><span style="color: black; font-family: "calibri" , sans-serif; font-size: 10.5pt; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><span style="font-family: "calibri" , sans-serif;"><b><span style="font-family: "calibri" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: "calibri" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: "calibri" , sans-serif;"> for free.</span></span></span></b></span></span></i></span><br /><i><span style="color: black; font-family: "calibri" , sans-serif; font-size: 10.5pt;"><span style="font-family: "calibri" , sans-serif;"><b><span style="font-family: "calibri" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: "calibri" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: "calibri" , sans-serif;"> </span></span></span></b></span></span></i><br /><br /><i><span style="color: black; font-family: "calibri" , sans-serif; font-size: 10.5pt;"><span style="font-family: "calibri" , sans-serif;"><b><span style="font-family: "calibri" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: "calibri" , sans-serif;"> </span></span></b> </span></span></i><br /><div class="MsoNormal"><b> ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------</b></div><br /><div class="MsoNormal"><br /><b> Out October 24, 2017 in print, ebook and audio. </b><b><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-family: "cambria";"><a href="https://www.amazon.com/Hunger-Moon-Al..." target="_blank">Pre-order</a> here.</span></span></b> </div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-5GF-oQyq-S..." style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1600" data-original-width="1068" height="320" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-5GF-oQyq-S..." width="213" /></a></div><br /><br /><br />In the new book, Roarke and his FBI team are forced to confront the new political reality when they are pressured to investigate a series of mysterious threats vowing death to college rapists... while deep in the Arizona wilderness, mass killer Cara Lindstrom is fighting a life-and-death battle of her own.<br /><br />For thousands of years, women have been prey.<br /><br />No more. <br /><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><span style="font-family: "cambria";"><b><a href="https://www.goodreads.com/giveaway/sh..." target="_blank"> Enter to win one of 100 print copies on Goodreads</a>.</b></span><br /><br /><br /><br /><div class="MsoNormal"><b><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Hunger Moon</i> is Book 5 of the Huntress/FBI series. The series is chronological and <span style="font-family: "calibri" , sans-serif;">i</span>t is strongly recommended that you read the series in order, starting with <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Huntress Moon.</i></b></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><a href="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-KM973run8F..." style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="402" data-original-width="1600" height="160" src="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-KM973run8F..." width="640" /></a> </i></div><div class="MsoNormal"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><b><a href="https://tinyurl.com/y6up595f" target="_blank">Click here to shop</a>.</b> </i></div><br /><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><b> </b> <br /><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><i><span style="color: black; font-family: "calibri" , sans-serif; font-size: 10.5pt;"><span style="font-family: "calibri" , sans-serif;"> </span></span></i> </div><div style="margin-bottom: 25.8pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in; mso-add-space: auto;"><br /></div><div style="margin-bottom: 25.8pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in; mso-add-space: auto;"><span style="color: black; font-family: "calibri" , sans-serif; font-size: 10.5pt;"><br /></span></div><div style="margin-bottom: 25.8pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in; mso-add-space: auto;"><span style="color: black; font-family: "calibri" , sans-serif; font-size: 10.5pt;"> </span><span style="color: black; font-family: "calibri" , sans-serif; font-size: 10.5pt;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span></span></div>
October 9, 2017
Nanowrimo Prep - Identifying Act Climaxes: Raiders of the Lost Ark
by Alexandra Sokoloff
So now that we've talked about WHY Act Climaxes (plot points, turning points, act breaks, curtain scenes, whatever you want to call them) are important, let's take a look at some classic examples so you can see HOW they work.
Get free Story Structure extras and movie breakdowns
First, a quick review of what each Act Climax does:
Remember, in general, the climax of an act is very, very, very often a SETPIECE SCENE – there’s a dazzling, thematic location, an action or suspense sequence, an intricate set, a crowd scene, even a musical number (as in The Wizard of Oz and, more surprisingly, Jaws.).
Also an act climax is often more a climactic sequence than a single scene, which is why it sometimes feels hard to pinpoint the exact climax. And sometimes it’s just subjective! These are guidelines, not laws. When you do these analyses, the important thing for your own writing is to identify what you feel the climaxes are and why you think those are pivotal scenes.
Now specifically:
ACT ONE CLIMAX
- (30 minutes into a 2-hour movie, 100 pages into a 400 page book. Adjust proportions according to length of book.)
- We have all the information we need to get and have met all the characters we need to know to understand what the story is going to be about.
- The Central Question is set up – and often is set up by the action of the act climax itself.
- Often propels the hero/ine Across the Threshold and Into The Special World. (Look for a location change, a journey begun).
- May start a TICKING CLOCK (this is early, but it can happen here)
MIDPOINT CLIMAX
- (60 minutes into a 2 hour movie, 200 pages into a 400 page book)
- Is a major shift in the dynamics of the story. Something huge will be revealed; something goes disastrously wrong; someone close to the hero/ine dies, intensifying her or his commitment.
- Can also be a huge defeat, which requires a recalculation and a new plan of attack.
- Completely changes the game
- Locks the hero/ine into a situation or action
- Is a point of no return.
- Can be a “now it’s personal” loss
- Can be sex at 60 – the lovers finally get together, only to open up a whole new world of problems
- May start a TICKING CLOCK.
- The Midpoint is not necessarily just one scene – it can be a progression of scenes and revelations that include a climactic scene, a complete change of location, a major revelation, a major reversal – all or any combination of the above.
ACT TWO CLIMAX
– (90 minutes into a 2 hour film, 300 pages into a 400 page book)
- Often can be a final revelation before the end game: the knowledge of who the opponent really is.
- Often comes immediately after the “All is Lost” or “Long Dark Night of the Soul” scene - or may itself BE the "All is Lost" scene.
- Answers the Central Question
- Propels us into the final battle.
- May start a TICKING CLOCK
ACT THREE CLIMAX
- (near the very end of the story).
- Is the final battle.
- Hero/ine is forced to confront his or her greatest nightmare.
- Takes place in a thematic Location - often a visual and literal representation of the Hero/ine’s Greatest Nightmare
- We see the protagonist’s character change
- We may see the antagonist’s character change (if any)
- We may see ally/allies’ character changes and/or gaining of desire
- There is possibly a huge final reversal or reveal (twist), or even a whole series of payoffs that you’ve been saving (as in BACK TO THE FUTURE and IT’S A WONDERFUL LIFE)
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
RAIDERS OF THE LOST ARK
Screenplay by Lawrence Kasdan, Story by George Lucas & Philip Kaufman
Directed by Stephen Spielberg
Please feel free to argue my points!
And note all times are APPROXIMATE - I'm a Pisces.
1 hour 55 minute running time.
ACT ONE CLIMAX:
Act One Climax here is easy: the great Nepalese bar scene. Total setpiece scene – the visuals of that snowy mountain and the tiny bar, the drinking contest that Marion wins, the fight between Indy and Marion with its emotional backstory and sexual chemistry, the entrance of Toht and his heavies, who are ready to torture Marion for the medallion, the re-entrance of Indy and the huge, fiery fight, which ends in the escape of Indy and Marion with the medallion and Marion’s capper line: “I’m your goddamn partner!” (34 minutes in).
Everything you could ever want in a setpiece sequence, visuals, action, sex, emotion: and all we need to know to understand what the story is going to be has been laid out.
MIDPOINT
An interesting and tonally very unique Midpoint happens in RAIDERS OF THE LOST ARK. I’m sure some people would dispute me on this one (and people argue about the exact Midpoint of movies all the time), but I would say the midpoint is the scene that occurs exactly 60 minutes into the film, in which, having determined that the Nazis are digging in the wrong place in the archeological site, Indy goes down into the Well of Souls with the medallion and a staff of the proper height, and uses the crystal in the pendant to pinpoint the exact location of the Ark.
This scene is quiet, and involves only one person, but it’s mystically powerful – note the use of light and the religious quality of the music… and Indy is decked out in robes almost like, well, Moses - staff and all. Indy stands like God over the miniature of the temple city, and the beam of light comes through the crystal like light from heaven. It’s all a foreshadowing of the final climax, in which God intervenes much in the same way. Very effective, with lots of subliminal manipulation going on. And of course, at the end of the scene, Indy has the information he needs to retrieve the Ark. I would also point out that the midpoint is often some kind of mirror image of the final climax – it’s an interesting device to use, and you may find yourself using it without even being aware of it.
I will concede that this is a two-part climax, though – the twist that comes just after it that Marion is still alive is a big emotional beat, and the subsequent twist that Indy doesn’t release her because leaving her captive will buy him time to get down into the Well of Souls, is a great relationship beat (great maybe isn’t the word I’m looking for; maybe the word is more like “male”.)
ACT TWO CLIMAX
(About 1 hr. 15 min. in) After the big setpiece/action scene of crashing through the wall in the Well of Souls to escape the snakes, Indy and Marion run for a plane on the airfield to escape, and Indy has to fight that gigantic mechanic. Indy has to simultaneously race to stop the plane, with Marion on it, from blowing up from the spilled gas (reliving his nightmare – losing her again). He saves Marion just before the plane blows up. And the capper- Indy learns the Nazis have put the Ark on a truck to take to Cairo – cut to Indy on a horse, charging after them.
CLIMAX
Of course, the opening of the Ark and the brutal deaths of all the Nazis who look at it. This is a unique climax in that the protagonist does virtually nothing but save his own and Marion’s lives; there’s no battle involved; they’re tied up all the way through the action. It’s a classic deus ex machina as God steps in (metaphorically) to take the Ark back.
But this non-action is actually a big CHARACTER ARC for Indy. I'll be talking about that in the full story breakdown I'm doing for Raiders this month, since I'm using the film to teach the Sisters in Crime Sinc into Great Writing workshop at Bouchercon, the World Mystery Convention, in Toronto.
If you want to get this free breakdown, be sure you're signed up to my Story Structure extras list!
Okay, so any examples of your own for me today? Or any stories you're having trouble identifying the climaxes of that we can help with? Or problems with your love life? I'm here to help.
- Alex
=====================================================
All the information on this blog and more, including full story structure breakdowns of various movies, is available in my Screenwriting Tricks for Authors workbooks. Any format, just $3.99 and $2.99.
STEALING HOLLYWOOD
This new workbook updates all the text in the first Screenwriting Tricks for Authors ebook with all the many tricks I’ve learned over my last few years of writing and teaching—and doubles the material of the first book, as well as adding six more full story breakdowns.
STEALING HOLLYWOOD ebook $3.99 STEALING HOLLYWOOD US print $12.99 STEALING HOLLYWOOD print, all countries
WRITING LOVE
Writing Love is a shorter version of the workbook, using examples from love stories, romantic suspense, and romantic comedy - available in e formats for just $2.99.
- Smashwords (includes online viewing and pdf file)
- Amazon/Kindle
- Barnes & Noble/Nook
- Amazon UK
- Amazon DE
Get free Story Structure extras and movie breakdowns
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
HUNGER MOON, Book 5 of myThriller Award-nominated Huntress/FBI Thrillers, releases October 24. The books follow a haunted FBI agent in pursuit of a female serial killer, and it really is a series that needs to be read in order, so Thomas & Mercer has put the first four books in the series ON SALE for $1.99 US, 99p UK, and 1.49 AU.
Click here to shop.
Enter to win one of 100 print copies of HUNGER MOON on Goodreads.
So now that we've talked about WHY Act Climaxes (plot points, turning points, act breaks, curtain scenes, whatever you want to call them) are important, let's take a look at some classic examples so you can see HOW they work.
Get free Story Structure extras and movie breakdowns
First, a quick review of what each Act Climax does:
Remember, in general, the climax of an act is very, very, very often a SETPIECE SCENE – there’s a dazzling, thematic location, an action or suspense sequence, an intricate set, a crowd scene, even a musical number (as in The Wizard of Oz and, more surprisingly, Jaws.).
Also an act climax is often more a climactic sequence than a single scene, which is why it sometimes feels hard to pinpoint the exact climax. And sometimes it’s just subjective! These are guidelines, not laws. When you do these analyses, the important thing for your own writing is to identify what you feel the climaxes are and why you think those are pivotal scenes.
Now specifically:
ACT ONE CLIMAX
- (30 minutes into a 2-hour movie, 100 pages into a 400 page book. Adjust proportions according to length of book.)
- We have all the information we need to get and have met all the characters we need to know to understand what the story is going to be about.
- The Central Question is set up – and often is set up by the action of the act climax itself.
- Often propels the hero/ine Across the Threshold and Into The Special World. (Look for a location change, a journey begun).
- May start a TICKING CLOCK (this is early, but it can happen here)
MIDPOINT CLIMAX
- (60 minutes into a 2 hour movie, 200 pages into a 400 page book)
- Is a major shift in the dynamics of the story. Something huge will be revealed; something goes disastrously wrong; someone close to the hero/ine dies, intensifying her or his commitment.
- Can also be a huge defeat, which requires a recalculation and a new plan of attack.
- Completely changes the game
- Locks the hero/ine into a situation or action
- Is a point of no return.
- Can be a “now it’s personal” loss
- Can be sex at 60 – the lovers finally get together, only to open up a whole new world of problems
- May start a TICKING CLOCK.
- The Midpoint is not necessarily just one scene – it can be a progression of scenes and revelations that include a climactic scene, a complete change of location, a major revelation, a major reversal – all or any combination of the above.
ACT TWO CLIMAX
– (90 minutes into a 2 hour film, 300 pages into a 400 page book)
- Often can be a final revelation before the end game: the knowledge of who the opponent really is.
- Often comes immediately after the “All is Lost” or “Long Dark Night of the Soul” scene - or may itself BE the "All is Lost" scene.
- Answers the Central Question
- Propels us into the final battle.
- May start a TICKING CLOCK
ACT THREE CLIMAX
- (near the very end of the story).
- Is the final battle.
- Hero/ine is forced to confront his or her greatest nightmare.
- Takes place in a thematic Location - often a visual and literal representation of the Hero/ine’s Greatest Nightmare
- We see the protagonist’s character change
- We may see the antagonist’s character change (if any)
- We may see ally/allies’ character changes and/or gaining of desire
- There is possibly a huge final reversal or reveal (twist), or even a whole series of payoffs that you’ve been saving (as in BACK TO THE FUTURE and IT’S A WONDERFUL LIFE)
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
RAIDERS OF THE LOST ARK
Screenplay by Lawrence Kasdan, Story by George Lucas & Philip Kaufman
Directed by Stephen Spielberg
Please feel free to argue my points!
And note all times are APPROXIMATE - I'm a Pisces.
1 hour 55 minute running time.
ACT ONE CLIMAX:
Act One Climax here is easy: the great Nepalese bar scene. Total setpiece scene – the visuals of that snowy mountain and the tiny bar, the drinking contest that Marion wins, the fight between Indy and Marion with its emotional backstory and sexual chemistry, the entrance of Toht and his heavies, who are ready to torture Marion for the medallion, the re-entrance of Indy and the huge, fiery fight, which ends in the escape of Indy and Marion with the medallion and Marion’s capper line: “I’m your goddamn partner!” (34 minutes in).
Everything you could ever want in a setpiece sequence, visuals, action, sex, emotion: and all we need to know to understand what the story is going to be has been laid out.
MIDPOINTAn interesting and tonally very unique Midpoint happens in RAIDERS OF THE LOST ARK. I’m sure some people would dispute me on this one (and people argue about the exact Midpoint of movies all the time), but I would say the midpoint is the scene that occurs exactly 60 minutes into the film, in which, having determined that the Nazis are digging in the wrong place in the archeological site, Indy goes down into the Well of Souls with the medallion and a staff of the proper height, and uses the crystal in the pendant to pinpoint the exact location of the Ark.
This scene is quiet, and involves only one person, but it’s mystically powerful – note the use of light and the religious quality of the music… and Indy is decked out in robes almost like, well, Moses - staff and all. Indy stands like God over the miniature of the temple city, and the beam of light comes through the crystal like light from heaven. It’s all a foreshadowing of the final climax, in which God intervenes much in the same way. Very effective, with lots of subliminal manipulation going on. And of course, at the end of the scene, Indy has the information he needs to retrieve the Ark. I would also point out that the midpoint is often some kind of mirror image of the final climax – it’s an interesting device to use, and you may find yourself using it without even being aware of it.
I will concede that this is a two-part climax, though – the twist that comes just after it that Marion is still alive is a big emotional beat, and the subsequent twist that Indy doesn’t release her because leaving her captive will buy him time to get down into the Well of Souls, is a great relationship beat (great maybe isn’t the word I’m looking for; maybe the word is more like “male”.)
ACT TWO CLIMAX
(About 1 hr. 15 min. in) After the big setpiece/action scene of crashing through the wall in the Well of Souls to escape the snakes, Indy and Marion run for a plane on the airfield to escape, and Indy has to fight that gigantic mechanic. Indy has to simultaneously race to stop the plane, with Marion on it, from blowing up from the spilled gas (reliving his nightmare – losing her again). He saves Marion just before the plane blows up. And the capper- Indy learns the Nazis have put the Ark on a truck to take to Cairo – cut to Indy on a horse, charging after them.
CLIMAX
Of course, the opening of the Ark and the brutal deaths of all the Nazis who look at it. This is a unique climax in that the protagonist does virtually nothing but save his own and Marion’s lives; there’s no battle involved; they’re tied up all the way through the action. It’s a classic deus ex machina as God steps in (metaphorically) to take the Ark back.
But this non-action is actually a big CHARACTER ARC for Indy. I'll be talking about that in the full story breakdown I'm doing for Raiders this month, since I'm using the film to teach the Sisters in Crime Sinc into Great Writing workshop at Bouchercon, the World Mystery Convention, in Toronto.
If you want to get this free breakdown, be sure you're signed up to my Story Structure extras list!
Okay, so any examples of your own for me today? Or any stories you're having trouble identifying the climaxes of that we can help with? Or problems with your love life? I'm here to help.
- Alex
=====================================================
All the information on this blog and more, including full story structure breakdowns of various movies, is available in my Screenwriting Tricks for Authors workbooks. Any format, just $3.99 and $2.99.
STEALING HOLLYWOOD
This new workbook updates all the text in the first Screenwriting Tricks for Authors ebook with all the many tricks I’ve learned over my last few years of writing and teaching—and doubles the material of the first book, as well as adding six more full story breakdowns.
STEALING HOLLYWOOD ebook $3.99 STEALING HOLLYWOOD US print $12.99 STEALING HOLLYWOOD print, all countries
WRITING LOVE
Writing Love is a shorter version of the workbook, using examples from love stories, romantic suspense, and romantic comedy - available in e formats for just $2.99.
- Smashwords (includes online viewing and pdf file)- Amazon/Kindle
- Barnes & Noble/Nook
- Amazon UK
- Amazon DE
Get free Story Structure extras and movie breakdowns
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
HUNGER MOON, Book 5 of myThriller Award-nominated Huntress/FBI Thrillers, releases October 24. The books follow a haunted FBI agent in pursuit of a female serial killer, and it really is a series that needs to be read in order, so Thomas & Mercer has put the first four books in the series ON SALE for $1.99 US, 99p UK, and 1.49 AU.
Click here to shop.
Enter to win one of 100 print copies of HUNGER MOON on Goodreads.
October 7, 2017
Nanowrimo Prep: The Three-Act, Eight Sequence Structure
Today we talk about maybe the most useful thing you can ever learn about story structure. If you read any post in this Nanowrimo Prep series, this is the one!
(If you're just joining us today, here's the first Nanowrimo Prep assignment.)
Get free Story Structure extras and movie breakdownsThere is a rhythm to dramatic storytelling, just as there’s a rhythm to every other pleasurable experience in life, and the technical requirements of film and television have codified this rhythm into a structure so specific that you actually already know what I’m about to say in this post, even if you’ve never heard it said this way before or consciously thought about it. And what’s more, your reader or audience knows this rhythm, too, and unconsciously EXPECTS it. Which means if you’re not delivering this rhythm, your reader or audience (or prospective agent or editor) is going to start worrying that something’s not right, and you have a real chance of losing them.You don’t want to do that!
Alexandra SokoloffSo today we’re going get conscious, and talk about everyone’s favorite subject. You know it’s true! What’s not to like about a climax?Early playwrights (and I’m talking really early, starting thousands of years ago in the Golden Age of Greece) were forced to develop the three-act structure of dramatic writing because of intermissions (or intervals). Think about it. If you’re going to let your audience out for a break a third of the way through your play, you need to make sure you get them back into the theater to see the rest of the play, right? After all, there are so many other things a person could be doing on a Saturday night….So the three acts of theater are based on the idea of building each act to a CLIMAX: a cliffhanger scene that spins the action of the play in such an interesting direction that the audience is going to want to hurry back into the theater at the warning chime to see WHAT HAPPENS NEXT. Many plays have just one break, at the middle, so the Midpoint Climax is equally important.This climactic rhythm was in operation for literally thousands of years before film and television came along and the need for story climaxes became even more, um, urgent. Not just because life was faster paced in the 20th century, but again, because of the technical requirements of film and television.In a two-hour movie, you have not three climaxes, but seven, because film is based on an eight-sequence structure.The eight-sequence structure evolved from the early days of film when movies were divided into reels (physical film reels), each holding about 10-15 minutes of film. The projectionist had to manually change each reel as it finished, so early screenwriters incorporated this rhythm into their writing, developing sequences that lasted exactly the length of a reel and built to a cliffhanger climax, so that in that short break that the projectionist was scrambling to get the new reel on, the audience was in breathless anticipation of “What happens next?” – instead of getting pissed off that the movie just stopped right in the middle of a crucial scene. (If you get hold of scripts for older movies, pre-1950’s, you can find SEQUENCE 1, SEQUENCE 2, etc, as headings at the start of each new sequence.)Modern films still follow that same storytelling rhythm, because that rhythm was locked in by television – with its even more rigid technical requirements of having to break every fifteen minutes for a commercial. Which meant writers had to build to a climax every 15 minutes, to get audiences to tune back in to their show after the commercial instead of changing the channel.So what does this mean to you, the novelist or screenwriter?It means that you need to be aware that your reader or audience is going to expect a climax every 15 minutes in a movie – which translates to every 50 pages or so in a book. Books have more variation in length, obviously, so you can adjust proportionately, but for a 400-page book, you’re looking at climaxing every 50 pages, with the bigger climaxes coming around p. 100 (Act I Climax) p. 200 (Midpoint Climax), p. 300 (Act II Climax), and somewhere close to the end. Also be aware that for a shorter movie or book, you may have only six sequences.If you put that structure on a grid, it looks like this:
Looking at that grid, you can see that what I started out in this article calling the three-act structure has evolved into something that is actually a four-act structure: four segments of approximately equal length (30 minutes or 100 pages), with Act II containing two segments (60 minutes or 200 pages, total). That’s because Act II is about conflict and complications. While plays tend to have a longer Act I, because Act I is about setting up character and relationships, the middle acts of films have become longer so that the movies can show off what film does best: action and conflict. And books have picked up on that rhythm and evolved along with movies and television, so that books also tend to have a long, two-part Act II as well.You don’t have to be exact about this (unless you’re writing for television, in which case you better be acutely aware of when you have to hit that climax!). But you do need to realize that if you’re not building to some kind of climax in approximately that rhythm, your reader or audience is going to start getting impatient, and you risk losing them.
Once you understand this basic structure, you can see how useful it is to think of each sequence of your story building to a climax. Your biggest scenes will tend to be these climaxes, and if you can fit those scenes onto the grid, then you already have a really solid set of tentpoles that you can build your story around.So here’s the challenge: Start watching movies and television shows specifically looking for the climaxes. Use the clock on your phone or the counter on your DVD player to check where these climaxes are coming. It won’t take long at all for you to be able to identify climactic scenes.Your next task is to figure out what makes them climactic!I can give you a few hints. The most important thing is that the action of your story ASKS A QUESTION that the audience wants to know the answer to. But climaxes also tend to be SETPIECE scenes (think of the trailer scenes from movies, the big scenes that everyone talks about after the movie).And what goes into a great setpiece scene?Well, that’s another post, isn’t it?
- Alex
=====================================================
All the information on this blog and more, including full story structure breakdowns of various movies, is available in my Screenwriting Tricks for Authors workbooks. Any format, just $3.99 and $2.99.
STEALING HOLLYWOOD
This new workbook updates all the text in the first Screenwriting Tricks for Authors ebook with all the many tricks I’ve learned over my last few years of writing and teaching—and doubles the material of the first book, as well as adding six more full story breakdowns.
STEALING HOLLYWOOD ebook $3.99 STEALING HOLLYWOOD US print $12.99 STEALING HOLLYWOOD print, all countries
WRITING LOVE
Writing Love is a shorter version of the workbook, using examples from love stories, romantic suspense, and romantic comedy - available in e formats for just $2.99.
- Smashwords (includes online viewing and pdf file)
- Amazon/Kindle
- Barnes & Noble/Nook
- Amazon UK
- Amazon DE
Get free Story Structure extras and movie breakdowns
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
HUNGER MOON, Book 5 of myThriller Award-nominated Huntress/FBI Thrillers, releases October 24. The books follow a haunted FBI agent in pursuit of a female serial killer, and it really is a series that needs to be read in order, so Thomas & Mercer has put the first four books in the series ON SALE for $1.99 US, 99p UK, and 1.49 AU. <!-- /* Font Definitions */ @font-face {font-family:"ＭＳ 明朝"; mso-font-charset:128; mso-generic-font-family:roman; mso-font-pitch:fixed; mso-font-signature:-536870145 1791491579 134217746 0 131231 0;} @font-face {font-family:"Cambria Math"; panose-1:2 4 5 3 5 4 6 3 2 4; mso-font-charset:0; mso-generic-font-family:roman; mso-font-pitch:variable; mso-font-signature:-536870145 1107305727 0 0 415 0;} @font-face {font-family:Cambria; panose-1:2 4 5 3 5 4 6 3 2 4; mso-font-charset:0; mso-generic-font-family:roman; mso-font-pitch:variable; mso-font-signature:-536870145 1073743103 0 0 415 0;} @font-face {font-family:inherit; panose-1:0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0; mso-font-alt:"Times New Roman"; mso-font-charset:0; mso-generic-font-family:roman; mso-font-format:other; mso-font-pitch:auto; mso-font-signature:0 0 0 0 0 0;} @font-face {font-family:"\.SFNSText-Regular"; mso-font-charset:136; mso-generic-font-family:swiss; mso-font-pitch:variable; mso-font-signature:536871567 168296451 16 0 1048991 0;} /* Style Definitions */ p.MsoNormal, li.MsoNormal, div.MsoNormal {mso-style-unhide:no; mso-style-qformat:yes; mso-style-parent:""; margin:0in; margin-bottom:.0001pt; mso-pagination:widow-orphan; font-size:12.0pt; font-family:"Cambria",serif; mso-ascii-font-family:Cambria; mso-ascii-theme-font:minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family:"ＭＳ 明朝"; mso-fareast-theme-font:minor-fareast; mso-hansi-font-family:Cambria; mso-hansi-theme-font:minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family:"Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-theme-font:minor-bidi;} .MsoChpDefault {mso-style-type:export-only; mso-default-props:yes; font-family:"Cambria",serif; mso-ascii-font-family:Cambria; mso-ascii-theme-font:minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family:"ＭＳ 明朝"; mso-fareast-theme-font:minor-fareast; mso-hansi-font-family:Cambria; mso-hansi-theme-font:minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family:"Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-theme-font:minor-bidi;} @page WordSection1 {size:8.5in 11.0in; margin:1.0in 1.0in 1.0in 1.0in; mso-header-margin:.5in; mso-footer-margin:.5in; mso-paper-source:0;} div.WordSection1 {page:WordSection1;} -</style> </div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><a href="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-KM973run8F..." style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="402" data-original-width="1600" height="160" src="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-KM973run8F..." width="640" /></a> </i></div><div class="MsoNormal"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><b><a href="https://tinyurl.com/y6up595f" target="_blank">Click here to shop</a>.</b></i><br /><br /><br /><span style="font-family: "cambria";"><b><a href="https://www.goodreads.com/giveaway/sh..." target="_blank"> Enter to win one of 100 print copies of HUNGER MOON on Goodreads</a>.</b></span><br /><br /><br /><br /><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><b> </b> </i></div><b> </b>
(If you're just joining us today, here's the first Nanowrimo Prep assignment.)
Get free Story Structure extras and movie breakdownsThere is a rhythm to dramatic storytelling, just as there’s a rhythm to every other pleasurable experience in life, and the technical requirements of film and television have codified this rhythm into a structure so specific that you actually already know what I’m about to say in this post, even if you’ve never heard it said this way before or consciously thought about it. And what’s more, your reader or audience knows this rhythm, too, and unconsciously EXPECTS it. Which means if you’re not delivering this rhythm, your reader or audience (or prospective agent or editor) is going to start worrying that something’s not right, and you have a real chance of losing them.You don’t want to do that!
Alexandra SokoloffSo today we’re going get conscious, and talk about everyone’s favorite subject. You know it’s true! What’s not to like about a climax?Early playwrights (and I’m talking really early, starting thousands of years ago in the Golden Age of Greece) were forced to develop the three-act structure of dramatic writing because of intermissions (or intervals). Think about it. If you’re going to let your audience out for a break a third of the way through your play, you need to make sure you get them back into the theater to see the rest of the play, right? After all, there are so many other things a person could be doing on a Saturday night….So the three acts of theater are based on the idea of building each act to a CLIMAX: a cliffhanger scene that spins the action of the play in such an interesting direction that the audience is going to want to hurry back into the theater at the warning chime to see WHAT HAPPENS NEXT. Many plays have just one break, at the middle, so the Midpoint Climax is equally important.This climactic rhythm was in operation for literally thousands of years before film and television came along and the need for story climaxes became even more, um, urgent. Not just because life was faster paced in the 20th century, but again, because of the technical requirements of film and television.In a two-hour movie, you have not three climaxes, but seven, because film is based on an eight-sequence structure.The eight-sequence structure evolved from the early days of film when movies were divided into reels (physical film reels), each holding about 10-15 minutes of film. The projectionist had to manually change each reel as it finished, so early screenwriters incorporated this rhythm into their writing, developing sequences that lasted exactly the length of a reel and built to a cliffhanger climax, so that in that short break that the projectionist was scrambling to get the new reel on, the audience was in breathless anticipation of “What happens next?” – instead of getting pissed off that the movie just stopped right in the middle of a crucial scene. (If you get hold of scripts for older movies, pre-1950’s, you can find SEQUENCE 1, SEQUENCE 2, etc, as headings at the start of each new sequence.)Modern films still follow that same storytelling rhythm, because that rhythm was locked in by television – with its even more rigid technical requirements of having to break every fifteen minutes for a commercial. Which meant writers had to build to a climax every 15 minutes, to get audiences to tune back in to their show after the commercial instead of changing the channel.So what does this mean to you, the novelist or screenwriter?It means that you need to be aware that your reader or audience is going to expect a climax every 15 minutes in a movie – which translates to every 50 pages or so in a book. Books have more variation in length, obviously, so you can adjust proportionately, but for a 400-page book, you’re looking at climaxing every 50 pages, with the bigger climaxes coming around p. 100 (Act I Climax) p. 200 (Midpoint Climax), p. 300 (Act II Climax), and somewhere close to the end. Also be aware that for a shorter movie or book, you may have only six sequences.If you put that structure on a grid, it looks like this:
Looking at that grid, you can see that what I started out in this article calling the three-act structure has evolved into something that is actually a four-act structure: four segments of approximately equal length (30 minutes or 100 pages), with Act II containing two segments (60 minutes or 200 pages, total). That’s because Act II is about conflict and complications. While plays tend to have a longer Act I, because Act I is about setting up character and relationships, the middle acts of films have become longer so that the movies can show off what film does best: action and conflict. And books have picked up on that rhythm and evolved along with movies and television, so that books also tend to have a long, two-part Act II as well.You don’t have to be exact about this (unless you’re writing for television, in which case you better be acutely aware of when you have to hit that climax!). But you do need to realize that if you’re not building to some kind of climax in approximately that rhythm, your reader or audience is going to start getting impatient, and you risk losing them.
Once you understand this basic structure, you can see how useful it is to think of each sequence of your story building to a climax. Your biggest scenes will tend to be these climaxes, and if you can fit those scenes onto the grid, then you already have a really solid set of tentpoles that you can build your story around.So here’s the challenge: Start watching movies and television shows specifically looking for the climaxes. Use the clock on your phone or the counter on your DVD player to check where these climaxes are coming. It won’t take long at all for you to be able to identify climactic scenes.Your next task is to figure out what makes them climactic!I can give you a few hints. The most important thing is that the action of your story ASKS A QUESTION that the audience wants to know the answer to. But climaxes also tend to be SETPIECE scenes (think of the trailer scenes from movies, the big scenes that everyone talks about after the movie).And what goes into a great setpiece scene?Well, that’s another post, isn’t it?- Alex
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All the information on this blog and more, including full story structure breakdowns of various movies, is available in my Screenwriting Tricks for Authors workbooks. Any format, just $3.99 and $2.99.
STEALING HOLLYWOOD
This new workbook updates all the text in the first Screenwriting Tricks for Authors ebook with all the many tricks I’ve learned over my last few years of writing and teaching—and doubles the material of the first book, as well as adding six more full story breakdowns.
STEALING HOLLYWOOD ebook $3.99 STEALING HOLLYWOOD US print $12.99 STEALING HOLLYWOOD print, all countries
WRITING LOVE
Writing Love is a shorter version of the workbook, using examples from love stories, romantic suspense, and romantic comedy - available in e formats for just $2.99.
- Smashwords (includes online viewing and pdf file)- Amazon/Kindle
- Barnes & Noble/Nook
- Amazon UK
- Amazon DE
Get free Story Structure extras and movie breakdowns
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
HUNGER MOON, Book 5 of myThriller Award-nominated Huntress/FBI Thrillers, releases October 24. The books follow a haunted FBI agent in pursuit of a female serial killer, and it really is a series that needs to be read in order, so Thomas & Mercer has put the first four books in the series ON SALE for $1.99 US, 99p UK, and 1.49 AU. <!-- /* Font Definitions */ @font-face {font-family:"ＭＳ 明朝"; mso-font-charset:128; mso-generic-font-family:roman; mso-font-pitch:fixed; mso-font-signature:-536870145 1791491579 134217746 0 131231 0;} @font-face {font-family:"Cambria Math"; panose-1:2 4 5 3 5 4 6 3 2 4; mso-font-charset:0; mso-generic-font-family:roman; mso-font-pitch:variable; mso-font-signature:-536870145 1107305727 0 0 415 0;} @font-face {font-family:Cambria; panose-1:2 4 5 3 5 4 6 3 2 4; mso-font-charset:0; mso-generic-font-family:roman; mso-font-pitch:variable; mso-font-signature:-536870145 1073743103 0 0 415 0;} @font-face {font-family:inherit; panose-1:0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0; mso-font-alt:"Times New Roman"; mso-font-charset:0; mso-generic-font-family:roman; mso-font-format:other; mso-font-pitch:auto; mso-font-signature:0 0 0 0 0 0;} @font-face {font-family:"\.SFNSText-Regular"; mso-font-charset:136; mso-generic-font-family:swiss; mso-font-pitch:variable; mso-font-signature:536871567 168296451 16 0 1048991 0;} /* Style Definitions */ p.MsoNormal, li.MsoNormal, div.MsoNormal {mso-style-unhide:no; mso-style-qformat:yes; mso-style-parent:""; margin:0in; margin-bottom:.0001pt; mso-pagination:widow-orphan; font-size:12.0pt; font-family:"Cambria",serif; mso-ascii-font-family:Cambria; mso-ascii-theme-font:minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family:"ＭＳ 明朝"; mso-fareast-theme-font:minor-fareast; mso-hansi-font-family:Cambria; mso-hansi-theme-font:minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family:"Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-theme-font:minor-bidi;} .MsoChpDefault {mso-style-type:export-only; mso-default-props:yes; font-family:"Cambria",serif; mso-ascii-font-family:Cambria; mso-ascii-theme-font:minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family:"ＭＳ 明朝"; mso-fareast-theme-font:minor-fareast; mso-hansi-font-family:Cambria; mso-hansi-theme-font:minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family:"Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-theme-font:minor-bidi;} @page WordSection1 {size:8.5in 11.0in; margin:1.0in 1.0in 1.0in 1.0in; mso-header-margin:.5in; mso-footer-margin:.5in; mso-paper-source:0;} div.WordSection1 {page:WordSection1;} -</style> </div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><a href="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-KM973run8F..." style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="402" data-original-width="1600" height="160" src="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-KM973run8F..." width="640" /></a> </i></div><div class="MsoNormal"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><b><a href="https://tinyurl.com/y6up595f" target="_blank">Click here to shop</a>.</b></i><br /><br /><br /><span style="font-family: "cambria";"><b><a href="https://www.goodreads.com/giveaway/sh..." target="_blank"> Enter to win one of 100 print copies of HUNGER MOON on Goodreads</a>.</b></span><br /><br /><br /><br /><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><b> </b> </i></div><b> </b>
October 6, 2017
All Huntress books now on sale in US, UK and AU: 1.99, .99, 1.49
Book 5 of my Thriller Award-nominated Huntress/FBI Thrillers, following a haunted FBI agent in pursuit of a female serial killer, releases October 24.
This really is a series that needs to be read in order, so Thomas & Mercer has put the first four books in the series ON SALE for $1.99 US, 99p UK, and 1.49 AU.
Shop for all four here
Special Agent Matthew Roarke and mass killer Cara Lindstrom return - in
Book 5 of the Huntress/FBI Thrillers.
College rapists better watch their backs.
Book 5: out October 24, 2017 in print, ebook and audio. Pre-order here.
In the new book, Roarke and his FBI team are forced to confront the new political reality when they are pressured to investigate a series of mysterious threats vowing death to college rapists... while deep in the Arizona wilderness, mass killer Cara Lindstrom is fighting a life-and-death battle of her own.
For thousands of years, women have been prey.
No more.
Enter to win one of 100 print copies on Goodreads.
If you are caught up with the series, HUNGER MOON is also now up on Netgalley, if you have an account. Blogger/Reviewers, please message me for the direct link or a pdf! alex AT alexandrasokoloff DOT com
You'll find out what's been happening with some of the other characters while Roarke was off in the desert in Bitter Moon. It's - complicated.
As always, you're in for a road trip: the book takes Roarke and Cara (not together!) to the canyons of Arizona; the wealthy coastal enclave of Santa Barbara; the gorgeous campus of my alma mater, UC Berkeley; the Santa Ynez wine country; and the surreal desert wasteland of the Salton Sea.
And speaking of surreal - there's the political... roller coaster. Imagine trying to write a realistic contemporary FBI series with all of the current madness going on. (Actually, imagine how hard it is to write ANYTHING with all of the current madness going on. My publishers had to ask me if they could move the book out a month because none of the authors who had deadlines before me had gotten their books in on time. Yeah. That bad.)
So no, I haven't backed off from writing about the unreality of it all, and I'm not sorry. I know that readers are already loving this book for telling it like it is. I'm also anticipating death threats. (Like that's anything worse that what's happening everywhere.) I will happily repost and distribute any trolling and disgruntled emails to all relevant media, so bring it on. :)
Best of all, no matter what Betsy DeVos is trying to do, or undo, some college rapists are going to learn that no matter what complicit judges or moronic Secretaries of Education say - they're not going to get away with it any more.
----------------- SPOILERS ---------------
Special Agent Matthew Roarke is back from his desert sojurn to head an FBI task force with one mission: to rid society of its worst predators.
But when the skeletal symbols of Santa Muerte, “Lady Death,” mysteriously appear at universities nationwide, threatening death to rapists, Roarke’s team is pressured to investigate. Then a frat boy goes missing in Santa Barbara, and Roarke knows a bloodbath is coming.
Meanwhile, avenging angel Cara Lindstrom is in hiding in the Arizona wilderness, still on her own ruthless quest - until an old enemy comes after both her and the FBI team, forcing her back into Roarke’s orbit. This time, the huntress has become the hunted . . .
Out October 24, 2017 in print, ebook and audio.
Pre-order
Goodreads
This really is a series that needs to be read in order, so Thomas & Mercer has put the first four books in the series ON SALE for $1.99 US, 99p UK, and 1.49 AU.
Shop for all four here
Special Agent Matthew Roarke and mass killer Cara Lindstrom return - in
Book 5 of the Huntress/FBI Thrillers.
College rapists better watch their backs.
Book 5: out October 24, 2017 in print, ebook and audio. Pre-order here.
In the new book, Roarke and his FBI team are forced to confront the new political reality when they are pressured to investigate a series of mysterious threats vowing death to college rapists... while deep in the Arizona wilderness, mass killer Cara Lindstrom is fighting a life-and-death battle of her own.
For thousands of years, women have been prey.
No more.
Enter to win one of 100 print copies on Goodreads.
If you are caught up with the series, HUNGER MOON is also now up on Netgalley, if you have an account. Blogger/Reviewers, please message me for the direct link or a pdf! alex AT alexandrasokoloff DOT com
You'll find out what's been happening with some of the other characters while Roarke was off in the desert in Bitter Moon. It's - complicated.
As always, you're in for a road trip: the book takes Roarke and Cara (not together!) to the canyons of Arizona; the wealthy coastal enclave of Santa Barbara; the gorgeous campus of my alma mater, UC Berkeley; the Santa Ynez wine country; and the surreal desert wasteland of the Salton Sea.
And speaking of surreal - there's the political... roller coaster. Imagine trying to write a realistic contemporary FBI series with all of the current madness going on. (Actually, imagine how hard it is to write ANYTHING with all of the current madness going on. My publishers had to ask me if they could move the book out a month because none of the authors who had deadlines before me had gotten their books in on time. Yeah. That bad.)
So no, I haven't backed off from writing about the unreality of it all, and I'm not sorry. I know that readers are already loving this book for telling it like it is. I'm also anticipating death threats. (Like that's anything worse that what's happening everywhere.) I will happily repost and distribute any trolling and disgruntled emails to all relevant media, so bring it on. :)
Best of all, no matter what Betsy DeVos is trying to do, or undo, some college rapists are going to learn that no matter what complicit judges or moronic Secretaries of Education say - they're not going to get away with it any more.
----------------- SPOILERS ---------------
Special Agent Matthew Roarke is back from his desert sojurn to head an FBI task force with one mission: to rid society of its worst predators.
But when the skeletal symbols of Santa Muerte, “Lady Death,” mysteriously appear at universities nationwide, threatening death to rapists, Roarke’s team is pressured to investigate. Then a frat boy goes missing in Santa Barbara, and Roarke knows a bloodbath is coming.
Meanwhile, avenging angel Cara Lindstrom is in hiding in the Arizona wilderness, still on her own ruthless quest - until an old enemy comes after both her and the FBI team, forcing her back into Roarke’s orbit. This time, the huntress has become the hunted . . .
Out October 24, 2017 in print, ebook and audio.
Pre-order
Goodreads
September 30, 2017
It's Nanowrimo PREP month!!!
by Alexandra Sokoloff
It's October first, and you know what that means....
It's Nanowrimo PREP month!
Get free Story Structure extras and movie breakdowns
I always do a brainstorming and story structure review series in October, and continue throughout November with prompts and encouragement, based on my Screenwriting Tricks for Authors workbooks and workshops. (Bearing in mind, of course, I have my own new thriller coming out October 24, which is going to take some of my time!)
If you’re going to put a month aside to write 50,000 words, doesn’t it make a little more sense to have worked out the outline, or at least an overall roadmap, before November 1?
So let's get this party started with The Master List.
I'm teaching the SinC into Great Writing Masterclass at Bouchercon in Toronto, October 11.
And he first thing I always have my workshop students do is make a Master List of their favorite movies in the genre they're writing in.
And you guys who have done this master list before, remember, it helps to do a new one every time you sit down with a new project, and brainstorm a list of movies and books that are structurally similar to your new project.
It’s very simple: in order to write stories like the ones that move you, you need to look at the specific stories that affect you and figure out what those authors and filmmakers are doing to get the effect they do.
Every genre has its own structural patterns and its own tricks — screenwriter Ryan Rowe says it perfectly: “Every genre has its own game that it’s playing with the audience.”
For example: with a mystery, the game is “Whodunit?” You are going to toy with a reader or audience’s expectations and lead them down all kinds of false paths with red herrings so that they are constantly in the shoes of the hero/ine, trying to figure the puzzle out.
But with a romantic comedy or classic romance, there’s no mystery involved. 99.99% of the time the hero and heroine are going to end up together. The game in that genre is often to show, through the hero and heroine, how we are almost always our own worst enemies in love, and how we throw up all kinds of obstacles in our own paths to keep ourselves from getting what we want.
So if you’re writing a story like It’s A Wonderful Life, it’s not going to help you much to study Apocalypse Now. A story that ends with a fallen hero/ine is not going to have the same story shape as one that ends with a transcended hero/ine (although if both kinds of films end up on your list of favorite stories, you might find one is the other in reverse. That’s why you need to make your own lists!)
Once you start looking at the games that genres play, you will also start to understand the games that you most love, and that you want to play with your readers and audience.
I’m primarily a thriller writer, and my personal favorite game is: “Is it supernatural or is it psychological?” I love to walk the line between the real and unreal, so I am constantly creating story situations in which there are multiple plausible explanations for the weird stuff that’s going on, including mental illness, drug-induced hallucinations, and outright fraud. That’s why my master list for any book or script I write will almost always include The Haunting of Hill House and The Shining, both classic books (and films) that walk the line between the supernatural and the psychological.
But what works for me structurally is not necessarily going to do it for you.
If you take the time to study and analyze the books and films that have had the greatest impact on you, personally, or that are structurally similar to the story you’re writing, or both, that’s when you really start to master your craft. Making the lists and analyzing those stories will help you brainstorm your own, unique versions of scenes and mega-structures that work in the stories on your master list; it will help you figure out how your particular story will work. And doing this analysis will embed story structure in your head so that constructing a story becomes a fun and natural process for you.
Another great benefit of making the master list is that it helps you “brand” yourself as an author. Agents, editors, publishing houses, publicists, sales reps, bookstores, reviewers, media interviewers, librarians, and most importantly, your readers — all of these people want to be able to categorize you and your books. You need to be able to tell all of these people exactly what it is you write, what it’s similar to, and why it’s also unique. That’s part of your job as a professional author. So the first order of business is to make your master list.
And I encourage you to splurge on a nice big beautiful notebook to work in. We writers live so much in our heads it’s important to give ourselves toys and rewards to make the work feel less like work, and also to cut down on the drinking.
ASSIGNMENT: Go to an office or stationery store or shop on line and find yourself a wonderful notebook to work in.
ASSIGNMENT: List ten books and films that are similar to your own story in structure and/or genre (at least five books and three movies if you’re writing a book, at least five movies if you’re writing a script.).
Or – if you’re trying to decide on the right project for you to work on, then make a list of ten books and films that you wish you had written!
ANALYZING YOUR LIST
Now that you’ve got your list, and a brand-new notebook to keep it in, let’s take a look at what you’ve come up with.
For myself, I am constantly looking at:
Silence of the Lambs (book and film) A Wrinkle in Time (book) The Wizard of Oz (film) The Haunting of Hill House (book and original film) Anything by Ira Levin, especially Rosemary’s Baby (book and film), and The Stepford Wives The Exorcist (book and film) Jaws (film, and it’s interesting to compare the book) Pet Sematery (book, obviously!) The Shining (book and film) It’s A Wonderful Life
That's off the top of my head, just to illustrate the point I'm about to make – and not necessarily specific to the book I’m writing right now. On another day my list could just as easily include Hamlet, The Fountainhead, Apocalypse Now, The Treatment, Alice in Wonderland, Philadelphia Story, and Holiday Inn.
All of those examples are what I would call perfectly structured stories. But that list is not necessarily going to be much help for someone who's writing, you know, romantic comedy. (Although the rom coms of George Cukor, Preston Sturges, and Jane Austen, and Shakespeare are some of my favorite stories on the planet, and my master list for a different story might well have some of those stories on it).
Okay, what does that list say about me?
• It’s heavily weighted toward thrillers, fantasy, horror, and the supernatural. In fact, even the two more realistic stories on the list, Jawsand Silence of the Lambs, are so mythic and archetypal that they might as well be supernatural – they both have such overwhelming forces of nature and evil working in them.
• It’s a very dark list, but it includes two films and a book that are some of the happiest endings in film and literary history. I read and watch stories about the battle between good and evil… but if you’ll notice, except for the Ira Levin books, I do believe in good triumphing.
• The stories are evenly split between male protagonists and female protagonists, but except for Jaws, really, women are strong and crucial characters in all of them.
And guess what? All of the above is exactly what I write.
A lot of the stories on your own list will probably be in one particular genre: thriller, horror, mystery, romance, paranormal, historical, science fiction, fantasy, women’s fiction, YA (Young Adult, which is really more of an umbrella for all genres). And odds are that genre is what you write.
(If you’re not clear on what your genre is, I suggest you take your master list to the library or your local independent bookstore and ask your librarian or bookseller what genre those books and films fall into. These people are a writer’s best friends; please use them, and be grateful!)
But there will also always be a few stories on your list that have nothing to do with your dominant genre, some complete surprises, and those wild cards are sometimes the most useful for you to analyze structurally. Always trust something that pops into your head as belonging on your list. The list tells you who you are as a writer. What you are really listing are your secret thematic preferences. You can learn volumes from these lists if you are willing to go deep.
Every time I teach a story structure class it’s always fantastic for me to hear people’s lists, one after another, because it gives me such an insight into the particular uniqueness of the stories each of those writers is working toward telling.
You need to create your list, and break those stories down to see whythey have such an impact on you - because that's the kind of impact that you want to have on your readers. My list isn't going to do that for you. Our tastes and writing and themes and turn-ons are too different - even if they're very similar.
So try it:
ASSIGNMENT: Analyze your master list of stories. What does the list say about the stories, themes and characters that most appeal to you?
- Alex
=====================================================
All the information on this blog and more, including full story structure breakdowns of various movies, is available in my Screenwriting Tricks for Authors workbooks. e format, just $3.99 and $2.99; print 13.99.
STEALING HOLLYWOOD
This new workbook updates all the text in the first Screenwriting Tricks for Authors ebook with all the many tricks I’ve learned over my last few years of writing and teaching—and doubles the material of the first book, as well as adding six more full story breakdowns.
STEALING HOLLYWOOD ebook $3.99
STEALING HOLLYWOOD US print $14.99
STEALING HOLLYWOOD print, all countries
WRITING LOVE
Writing Love is a shorter version of the workbook, using examples from love stories, romantic suspense, and romantic comedy - available in e formats for just $2.99.
- Smashwords (includes online viewing and pdf file)
- Amazon/Kindle
- Barnes & Noble/Nook
- Amazon UK
- Amazon DE
---------------------
You can also sign up to get free movie breakdowns here:
Get free Story Structure extras and movie breakdowns
It's October first, and you know what that means....
It's Nanowrimo PREP month!
Get free Story Structure extras and movie breakdowns
I always do a brainstorming and story structure review series in October, and continue throughout November with prompts and encouragement, based on my Screenwriting Tricks for Authors workbooks and workshops. (Bearing in mind, of course, I have my own new thriller coming out October 24, which is going to take some of my time!)
If you’re going to put a month aside to write 50,000 words, doesn’t it make a little more sense to have worked out the outline, or at least an overall roadmap, before November 1?
So let's get this party started with The Master List.
I'm teaching the SinC into Great Writing Masterclass at Bouchercon in Toronto, October 11.
And he first thing I always have my workshop students do is make a Master List of their favorite movies in the genre they're writing in.
And you guys who have done this master list before, remember, it helps to do a new one every time you sit down with a new project, and brainstorm a list of movies and books that are structurally similar to your new project.
It’s very simple: in order to write stories like the ones that move you, you need to look at the specific stories that affect you and figure out what those authors and filmmakers are doing to get the effect they do.
Every genre has its own structural patterns and its own tricks — screenwriter Ryan Rowe says it perfectly: “Every genre has its own game that it’s playing with the audience.”
For example: with a mystery, the game is “Whodunit?” You are going to toy with a reader or audience’s expectations and lead them down all kinds of false paths with red herrings so that they are constantly in the shoes of the hero/ine, trying to figure the puzzle out.
But with a romantic comedy or classic romance, there’s no mystery involved. 99.99% of the time the hero and heroine are going to end up together. The game in that genre is often to show, through the hero and heroine, how we are almost always our own worst enemies in love, and how we throw up all kinds of obstacles in our own paths to keep ourselves from getting what we want.
So if you’re writing a story like It’s A Wonderful Life, it’s not going to help you much to study Apocalypse Now. A story that ends with a fallen hero/ine is not going to have the same story shape as one that ends with a transcended hero/ine (although if both kinds of films end up on your list of favorite stories, you might find one is the other in reverse. That’s why you need to make your own lists!)
Once you start looking at the games that genres play, you will also start to understand the games that you most love, and that you want to play with your readers and audience.
I’m primarily a thriller writer, and my personal favorite game is: “Is it supernatural or is it psychological?” I love to walk the line between the real and unreal, so I am constantly creating story situations in which there are multiple plausible explanations for the weird stuff that’s going on, including mental illness, drug-induced hallucinations, and outright fraud. That’s why my master list for any book or script I write will almost always include The Haunting of Hill House and The Shining, both classic books (and films) that walk the line between the supernatural and the psychological.
But what works for me structurally is not necessarily going to do it for you.
If you take the time to study and analyze the books and films that have had the greatest impact on you, personally, or that are structurally similar to the story you’re writing, or both, that’s when you really start to master your craft. Making the lists and analyzing those stories will help you brainstorm your own, unique versions of scenes and mega-structures that work in the stories on your master list; it will help you figure out how your particular story will work. And doing this analysis will embed story structure in your head so that constructing a story becomes a fun and natural process for you.
Another great benefit of making the master list is that it helps you “brand” yourself as an author. Agents, editors, publishing houses, publicists, sales reps, bookstores, reviewers, media interviewers, librarians, and most importantly, your readers — all of these people want to be able to categorize you and your books. You need to be able to tell all of these people exactly what it is you write, what it’s similar to, and why it’s also unique. That’s part of your job as a professional author. So the first order of business is to make your master list.
And I encourage you to splurge on a nice big beautiful notebook to work in. We writers live so much in our heads it’s important to give ourselves toys and rewards to make the work feel less like work, and also to cut down on the drinking.
ASSIGNMENT: Go to an office or stationery store or shop on line and find yourself a wonderful notebook to work in.
ASSIGNMENT: List ten books and films that are similar to your own story in structure and/or genre (at least five books and three movies if you’re writing a book, at least five movies if you’re writing a script.).
Or – if you’re trying to decide on the right project for you to work on, then make a list of ten books and films that you wish you had written!
ANALYZING YOUR LIST
Now that you’ve got your list, and a brand-new notebook to keep it in, let’s take a look at what you’ve come up with.
For myself, I am constantly looking at:
Silence of the Lambs (book and film) A Wrinkle in Time (book) The Wizard of Oz (film) The Haunting of Hill House (book and original film) Anything by Ira Levin, especially Rosemary’s Baby (book and film), and The Stepford Wives The Exorcist (book and film) Jaws (film, and it’s interesting to compare the book) Pet Sematery (book, obviously!) The Shining (book and film) It’s A Wonderful Life
That's off the top of my head, just to illustrate the point I'm about to make – and not necessarily specific to the book I’m writing right now. On another day my list could just as easily include Hamlet, The Fountainhead, Apocalypse Now, The Treatment, Alice in Wonderland, Philadelphia Story, and Holiday Inn.
All of those examples are what I would call perfectly structured stories. But that list is not necessarily going to be much help for someone who's writing, you know, romantic comedy. (Although the rom coms of George Cukor, Preston Sturges, and Jane Austen, and Shakespeare are some of my favorite stories on the planet, and my master list for a different story might well have some of those stories on it).
Okay, what does that list say about me?
• It’s heavily weighted toward thrillers, fantasy, horror, and the supernatural. In fact, even the two more realistic stories on the list, Jawsand Silence of the Lambs, are so mythic and archetypal that they might as well be supernatural – they both have such overwhelming forces of nature and evil working in them.
• It’s a very dark list, but it includes two films and a book that are some of the happiest endings in film and literary history. I read and watch stories about the battle between good and evil… but if you’ll notice, except for the Ira Levin books, I do believe in good triumphing.
• The stories are evenly split between male protagonists and female protagonists, but except for Jaws, really, women are strong and crucial characters in all of them.
And guess what? All of the above is exactly what I write.
A lot of the stories on your own list will probably be in one particular genre: thriller, horror, mystery, romance, paranormal, historical, science fiction, fantasy, women’s fiction, YA (Young Adult, which is really more of an umbrella for all genres). And odds are that genre is what you write.
(If you’re not clear on what your genre is, I suggest you take your master list to the library or your local independent bookstore and ask your librarian or bookseller what genre those books and films fall into. These people are a writer’s best friends; please use them, and be grateful!)
But there will also always be a few stories on your list that have nothing to do with your dominant genre, some complete surprises, and those wild cards are sometimes the most useful for you to analyze structurally. Always trust something that pops into your head as belonging on your list. The list tells you who you are as a writer. What you are really listing are your secret thematic preferences. You can learn volumes from these lists if you are willing to go deep.
Every time I teach a story structure class it’s always fantastic for me to hear people’s lists, one after another, because it gives me such an insight into the particular uniqueness of the stories each of those writers is working toward telling.
You need to create your list, and break those stories down to see whythey have such an impact on you - because that's the kind of impact that you want to have on your readers. My list isn't going to do that for you. Our tastes and writing and themes and turn-ons are too different - even if they're very similar.
So try it:
ASSIGNMENT: Analyze your master list of stories. What does the list say about the stories, themes and characters that most appeal to you?
- Alex
=====================================================
All the information on this blog and more, including full story structure breakdowns of various movies, is available in my Screenwriting Tricks for Authors workbooks. e format, just $3.99 and $2.99; print 13.99.
STEALING HOLLYWOOD
This new workbook updates all the text in the first Screenwriting Tricks for Authors ebook with all the many tricks I’ve learned over my last few years of writing and teaching—and doubles the material of the first book, as well as adding six more full story breakdowns.
STEALING HOLLYWOOD ebook $3.99
STEALING HOLLYWOOD US print $14.99
STEALING HOLLYWOOD print, all countries
WRITING LOVE
Writing Love is a shorter version of the workbook, using examples from love stories, romantic suspense, and romantic comedy - available in e formats for just $2.99.
- Smashwords (includes online viewing and pdf file)- Amazon/Kindle
- Barnes & Noble/Nook
- Amazon UK
- Amazon DE
---------------------
You can also sign up to get free movie breakdowns here:
Get free Story Structure extras and movie breakdowns
September 28, 2017
Happy Banned Books Week!
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mso-fareast-theme-font:minor-latin; mso-hansi-font-family:Calibri; mso-hansi-theme-font:minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family:"Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-theme-font:minor-bidi;} @page WordSection1 {size:8.5in 11.0in; margin:1.0in 1.0in 1.0in 1.0in; mso-header-margin:.5in; mso-footer-margin:.5in; mso-paper-source:0;} div.WordSection1 {page:WordSection1;} /* List Definitions */ @list l0 {mso-list-id:1665166158; mso-list-type:hybrid; mso-list-template-ids:-410218290 797104120 67698691 67698693 67698689 67698691 67698693 67698689 67698691 67698693;} @list l0:level1 {mso-level-start-at:35; mso-level-number-format:bullet; mso-level-text:-; mso-level-tab-stop:none; mso-level-number-position:left; text-indent:-.25in; font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif; mso-fareast-font-family:Calibri; mso-fareast-theme-font:minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family:"Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-theme-font:minor-bidi;} @list l0:level2 {mso-level-number-format:bullet; mso-level-text:o; mso-level-tab-stop:none; mso-level-number-position:left; text-indent:-.25in; font-family:"Courier New",serif;} @list l0:level3 {mso-level-number-format:bullet; mso-level-text:; mso-level-tab-stop:none; mso-level-number-position:left; text-indent:-.25in; font-family:Wingdings;} @list l0:level4 {mso-level-number-format:bullet; mso-level-text:; mso-level-tab-stop:none; mso-level-number-position:left; text-indent:-.25in; font-family:Symbol;} @list l0:level5 {mso-level-number-format:bullet; mso-level-text:o; mso-level-tab-stop:none; mso-level-number-position:left; text-indent:-.25in; font-family:"Courier New",serif;} @list l0:level6 {mso-level-number-format:bullet; mso-level-text:; mso-level-tab-stop:none; mso-level-number-position:left; text-indent:-.25in; font-family:Wingdings;} @list l0:level7 {mso-level-number-format:bullet; mso-level-text:; mso-level-tab-stop:none; mso-level-number-position:left; text-indent:-.25in; font-family:Symbol;} @list l0:level8 {mso-level-number-format:bullet; mso-level-text:o; mso-level-tab-stop:none; mso-level-number-position:left; text-indent:-.25in; font-family:"Courier New",serif;} @list l0:level9 {mso-level-number-format:bullet; mso-level-text:; mso-level-tab-stop:none; mso-level-number-position:left; text-indent:-.25in; font-family:Wingdings;} ol {margin-bottom:0in;} ul {margin-bottom:0in;} </style> <br /><div class="MsoNormal">So this has been a great week of protest and pushing back against forces that would silence free speech and protest demonstrations. Let me be very clear - I’m <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">not</i> a fan of the NFL. I support the boycott of the league for its tolerance of/whitewashing of domestic abuse and sexual assault. But I #TaketheKnee to protest violence against people of color. I completely support that life-and-death cause, and I very much hope that meaning doesn’t get lost in all the flag waving. </div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal">That protest coincides with Banned Books Week – not by design, but certainly not unrelated. Both are pushbacks against authoritarianism. </div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-LlVX1Iala4..." imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1600" data-original-width="1068" height="320" src="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-LlVX1Iala4..." width="213" /></a></div>I’ve had my own run-in with censorship this week as well. <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><a href="https://www.amazon.com/Hunger-Moon-Hu..." target="_blank">Hunger Moon</a> </i>went up on Netgalley for early review, and I’ve had some savagely great reviews already. Readers are responding to the book exactly as I’d hoped – there’s shock, empathy, anger, and apparently a whole lot of catharsis.</div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal">And one reader has also responded exactly as I anticipated some people will – she went on a furious crusade to one-star the book everywhere she could, saying things like “this book should never have been written” and “I read for entertainment – I don’t want to read politics in FICTION,” and “your career is over.”</div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal">There’s not a little absurdity in these attacks. I have no idea how anyone who says they’re after “entertainment” could be a long-time follower of the Huntress series. Who in the world reads books about rape culture, child abuse, sex trafficking, and serial killing - for entertainment?<br /><br />And if you’ve read four books out of this series and haven’t figured out that they’re political, I don’t understand what you’ve been reading.</div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal">If you don’t want to read politics in fiction, then don’t read political books. It’s as simple as that. We’re all free to choose what we do and don’t read. We’re all free to boycott books we find morally reprehensible. But no one has any right to say “this book shouldn’t have been written.” That – isn’t freedom at all. Threatening an author with career annihilation is also pretty low – I don’t have any fear of that myself, having gone through more career iterations than I can count. But less battle-scarred authors than I am <i>do</i> have that fear and it’s another form of silencing dissent to play on that fear.</div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal">I don’t mind the negative review (even if the volume of tweets at me and the running around to different sites commenting on every positive review is a bit much…). I knew <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Hunger Moon </i>would be controversial. It’s too real and of the moment not to evoke strong emotion. But as any author can tell you, the best thing that could happen for me and this book would be to have it end up on the banned book list. You can’t buy that kind of controversy and attention. If some people react with anger, it means I’m doing my job.</div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal">And I know my readers well enough to know there are plenty of them who want to read this book EXACTLY as I wrote it. I’d go so far as to say that a lot of us NEED this book right now. We need to be able to work through our anger and terror and despair at the current political nightmare we’re living.</div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal">But the sobering thing about all this is that this reader is also a librarian. </div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal">Let that sink in. </div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal">Anyone has any right to hate the book. Anyone has the right to post negative reviews. But to say – and believe – “This book should never have been written”? </div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal">That’s advocating censorship. That’s authoritarianism. </div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal">Now, the hopeful thing is that I’ve (carefully at first) engaged this librarian in dialogue and she’s admitted that she’s enjoying the discussion. I do have a certain amount of empathy for the cognitive dissonance the book must have brought up for her. I can’t imagine how difficult it is to be an intelligent woman who is passionately against rape culture – and at the same time defends the sexual predator we have holding the White House hostage. That is a whole lot of mental conflict going on there.</div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal">The fact remains that she doesn’t like my politics, and she wants to shut that kind of thought down. Which is also politics. I don’t have sympathy for anyone who uses their power to unilaterally prevent other people from choosing what they read.</div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal">It’s not the only instance of censorship I’m facing this month, either. A college where I’ve taught my Screenwriting Tricks for Authors workshop for six years now has told me I’m no longer welcome unless I stop “bringing politics” to it (I wore an “Impeach Trump” tank top this year.) This is in Texas, where every year I go I am surrounded by a very particular, very aggressive, 24/7 political bias. </div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal">Again – authoritarianism. Silencing dissenting politics. If you can call words on a piece of fabric “politics.”</div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal">But that’s the power of words, isn’t it? A few words on a tank top can get someone banned from a supposed writing academy. Words are just that threatening. Just as threatening as kneeling during the National Anthem.</div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal">Needless to say, I won’t be going back to teach there without my politics, although I am sick about not being there any more to support the students who are too afraid to speak out because of that authoritarianism.</div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal">These forces have always been part of this country and the world. But all the simmering atavistic ugliness has boiled over because of the rise of this unrepentant racist, misogynist, authoritarian unpresident. The protests will continue. They have to continue.</div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal">And in <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Hunger Moon</i>, I’ve written about just that. I’ve always written about rape culture. Now rape culture is being given free rein (and free reign) – by the unpresident, by the so-called Secretary of Education, by all-male committees making decisions about women’s health and reproductive rights, by the appointment of patriarchal judges. Many of my characters in the book are protesting, in vastly different ways. Others - have a different reaction.</div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal">The book is NOT easy. It is not perfect, either. I hope people will continue to find catharsis in it.</div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal">But if you’re looking for escapist entertainment, there’s plenty of it out there. You’re not going to find it here. </div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal">I am NOT writing for entertainment. I’m writing for my life.</div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"> <b> “A book must be an ice axe to break the sea frozen inside us.”</b></i><b><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></b></div><b> </b><br /><div class="MsoNormal"><b><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>- Franz Kafka</b></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoListParagraph" style="mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -.25in;"><span style="mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">-<span style="font: 7.0pt "Times New Roman";"> </span></span></span>Alex</div><div class="MsoListParagraph" style="mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -.25in;"> <b><br /></b></div><div class="MsoListParagraph" style="mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -.25in;"><b>-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------</b> </div><div class="MsoListParagraph" style="mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -.25in;"> </div><div class="MsoNormal"><b><i> On another note, but just as necessary to say - </i><i>please join me in donating to help the people of Puerto Rico in this horrific time. You can </i><a href="https://secure.actblue.com/donate/kh_..." target="_blank">express donate here</a><i>, there are a number of aid organizations </i><a href="https://www.thefader.com/2017/09/24/d..." target="_blank">listed here</a><i>, and you can donate to the </i><a href="https://www.redcross.org/donate/donation" target="_blank">Red Cross here</a>.</b></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal"><b> ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------</b></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal"><b><span style="font-size: large;">About the book - </span> </b></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal"></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-5GF-oQyq-S..." style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1600" data-original-width="1068" height="320" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-5GF-oQyq-S..." width="213" /></a></div><br /><br /><b> Out October 24, 2017 in print, ebook and audio. </b><b><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-family: "cambria";"><a href="https://www.amazon.com/Hunger-Moon-Al..." target="_blank">Pre-order</a> here.</span></span></b> <br /><br />In the new book, Roarke and his FBI team are forced to confront the new political reality when they are pressured to investigate a series of mysterious threats vowing death to college rapists... while deep in the Arizona wilderness, mass killer Cara Lindstrom is fighting a life-and-death battle of her own.<br /><br />For thousands of years, women have been prey.<br /><br />No more. <br /><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><span style="font-family: "cambria";"><b><a href="https://www.goodreads.com/giveaway/sh..." target="_blank"> Enter to win one of 100 print copies on Goodreads</a>.</b></span><br /><br /><br /><br /><div class="MsoNormal"><b><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Hunger Moon</i> is Book 5 of the Huntress/FBI series. The series is chronological and It is strongly recommended that you read the series in order, starting with <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Huntress Moon.</i></b></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><a href="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-KM973run8F..." style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="402" data-original-width="1600" height="160" src="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-KM973run8F..." width="640" /></a> </i></div><div class="MsoNormal"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><b><a href="https://tinyurl.com/y6up595f" target="_blank">Click here to shop</a>.</b> </i></div><b> </b> <br /><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div>
September 23, 2017
The Big Twist
The Big Twist is a highly prized commodity in Hollywood; done well it's as close to a guaranteed script sale as you can get, and over and over has meant gonzo box office even in movies that would have been a hard sell otherwise (think THE CRYING GAME).
Book editors swear that a good ending is a good ending, twist or not, and I believe them, but I also believe a good twist can't hurt, so that's what we're going to be talking about today.
Get free Story Structure extras and movie breakdowns
If you're interested in learning about twists work, I of course advocate the same method of study I have been preaching... I mean suggesting... all along.
Make a list.
What are ten twist endings that surprised and delighted you, or even sent you right back into the theater or to the first page of the book to see the movie or read the story again?
In this post, I'll lay out twists that I've particularly liked and why they worked for me, and I'm going to put my list up front because there are SPOILERS galore, and it you haven’t read or seen some of these and would like to, unspoiled, you may want to proceed cautiously.
Presumed Innocent
The Others
Oedipus (but honestly, if you don’t know that one…)
Chinatown
The Sixth Sense
The Crying Game
Seven
Bladerunner
A Kiss Before Dying
Fight Club
Identity
The Eyes of Laura Mars
Psycho
Don’t Look Now
In Bruges
Boxing Helena
Open Your Eyes (Abre Los Ojos)
Falling Angel
Angel Heart
The Murder of Roger Ackroyd
No Way Out
Eastern Promises
It should come as a surprise to no one that my list is all thrillers, supernatural and otherwise. Hey, it's MY list!
But surely there are great twists in comedies and romances - I just couldn't seem to think of any except RUTHLESS PEOPLE. Maybe I need to see something light once in a while.
So I'd be very grateful for some suggestions of great twists in OTHER genres, and I would be happy to talk about that in another post.
Of course, as mystery and thriller authors, designing story twists is a regular part of our job. After all, we don’t want our readers to guess the identity of our killers before our detectives do! We employ classic story tricks… I mean, literary devices… like red herrings, misdirection, false leads, false alibis, plants and payoffs, irony and unreliable narrators, to keep our readers (or viewers) guessing.
If you’re interested in building your skill at twisting a story, make your list and start analyzing how the author, screenwriter, or playwright is manipulating you to give that twist its power, so that you can do the same for your readers and viewers.
It's helpful to realize that these techniques have been around since the beginning of drama, or I’m sure really since the cave-dweller storytellers (“The mastodon did it!”). Knowing the names of techniques is always of use to me, anyway!
And I’d also like to note up front that big twists almost always occur at the act climaxes of a story, because a reveal this big will naturally spin the story in a whole other direction. (If you need more explanation about Act Climaxes and Turning Points, read here.)
Let’s break down some different kinds of twists.
* ANAGNORISIS
The Greeks called twists and reveals Anagnorisis, which means “discovery”: the protagonist's sudden recognition of their own or another character's true identity or nature, or realization of the true nature of a situation.
This is always a great thing if you can pull it off about the protagonist, because we kind of expect to find out unexpected things about other people, or have surprises come up in a situation, but to find out something you never suspected about yourself is generally a life-altering shock.
So here’s a big twist that has worked over and over again:
* THE PROTAGONIST IS THE KILLER (or criminal), BUT DOESN’T KNOW IT
- We find probably the most famous twist endings of world literature in Sophocles’ OEDIPUS THE KING (429 BCE) in which Oedipus, the king of Thebes, is trying to discover the cause of a devastating plague in the city, only to find that he himself is the culprit, cursed by the gods for killing his father and marrying his own mother.
- I’ve talked at length about the influence of Oedipus on the Polanski/Towne classic film CHINATOWN (discussion here).
- But the noir mystery FALLING ANGEL, by William Hjortsberg, and Alan Parker’s movie adaptation of that book, ANGEL HEART, steals its twists from Oedipus as well: PI Harry Angel is hired by Louis Cyphre to find Johnny Favorite, who owes Cyphre (his soul, turns out!). Angel finds out he himself is the man he’s looking for, Johnny Favorite, and also that he’s slept with and killed his own daughter.
- PRESUMED INNOCENT (book and film) is another take on the Oedipal detective story, in which main character and detective (by dint of being a ADA) Rusty Savage is guilty, not of the murder of his mistress, but of infidelity, so he protects his wife, the real killer, from detection.
PRESUMED INNOCENT also employs a great bit of misdirection, in that the victim was sadomasochistically bound and apparently sexually tortured and raped – there was semen found inside her. So even though the cheated wife would ordinarily be the prime suspect, we and all authorities rule her out.
* THE UNRELIABLE NARRATOR
Another literary device that makes for a powerful twist is the unreliable narrator.
- Agatha Christie surprised and therefore irked some critics with this one in THE MURDER OF ROGER ACKROYD.
- THE USUAL SUSPECTS has won classic status for its now famous reveal that meek Verbal Kint is the nefarious Keyser Soze he’s been talking to the police about, using random objects in the police station to add details to his fabricated story.
- FIGHT CLUB puts a spin on the unreliable narrator, as antagonist Tyler Durden is revealed to be an alter ego of split-personality narrator Edward Norton (called just “The Narrator”, which is a sly little hint of the device being used.)
- Of course multiple personality disorder can be used as a twist all on its own, most famously employed in PSYCHO, but also in, hmm, let’s see… THE EYES OF LAURA MARS, and dozens of cheesy ripoffs of the concept (fascinated as I am by MPD, this is one device I’m not sure I’d ever want to tackle, myself).
- The 2003 movie IDENTITY takes the MPD twist several steps further: EVERY character in the movie a different aspect of John Cusack’s fractured personality.
* KILL OFF AN IMPORTANT CHARACTER UNEXPECTEDLY
- While I’m thinking about it, PSYCHO has another famous twist, which I’m sure at the time of the film’s release was just about as shocking as the reveal of “Mother”: the apparent main character, Janet Leigh, is murdered (spectacularly) at the first act climax.
- This was copied much less effectively but still successfully in the 1987 thriller NO WAY OUT, in which the apparent love interest dies at the first act climax.
- The Brian DePalma film THE UNTOUCHABLES kills off a beloved sidekick (the Charles Martin Smith character) at the Midpoint, and as I recall I didn’t see that one coming at all (until he got into the elevator, that is…)
* THE “BIG SECRET”
The big secret reveal, done well, means a pretty guaranteed sale and often gonzo box office. Some famous examples:
- THE SIXTH SENSE. We all know this one: the child psychiatrist who seems to be treating a little boy who claims to see dead people turns out to be – one of the dead people the boy is seeing. This one is especially interesting to note because writer/director M. Night Shyamalan went through several drafts of the script before he realized that the Bruce Willis character should be a ghost. Which goes to prove you don’t have to have a great twist planned from the very beginning of your writing process – you can discover a perfect twist in the writing of the story.
- THE OTHERS takes a page from SIXTH SENSE and triples it: they’re ALL dead. A young mother and her two light-sensitive children think their creepy old house is haunted. A climactic séance reveals that actually the mother has shot herself and the children and THEY’RE the ones haunting the new family in the house.
- THE CRYING GAME’s famous twist reveals gorgeous, sexy Dil, whom we have fallen in love with just as surely as main character Fergus has, is a man. That was a twist that hit squarely below the belt, as writer/director Neil Jordan forced us to question our own sexuality as well as our concepts about gender.
THE CRYING GAME has a couple of earlier twists at the first act climax, too: IRA soldier Fergus becomes more and more sympathetic to his personable hostage Jody, enough so that Fergus lets Jody run free when he takes him out in the forest to execute him. We kind of saw that one coming. But then there’s a horrifying shock when on his run to freedom Jody is suddenly hit and killed by a truck. Devastating, and totally unexpected.
- EASTERN PROMISES. In one of the most emotionally wrenching reveals I’ve seen in a long time, Viggo Mortensen, the on-his-way-up chauffeur for a prominent leader of the Russian mob, turns out to be a Scotland Yard agent so deep undercover that in the end he is able to take over the whole mob operation – but must give up Naomi Watts in the process. A wonderful “love or duty” choice, which you don’t see often, these days. And if that isn’t enough to convince you to see the film, try: Viggo. Naked and tattooed. In a bathhouse. For a five-minute long fight scene. Did I mention he’s naked?
- We see another great reveal about the nature of a protagonist in BLADERUNNER: Harrison Ford, the replicant hunter Deckard, is himself a replicant.
* IRONY
Actually this whole post was inspired by my recent structure breakdown of THE MIST, the film, which takes the idea of its shocker ending from a line in King's original novella, but gives it an ironic twist that is pure horror: After battling these terrifying creatures for the whole length of the movie, our heroes run out of gas and the protagonist uses the last four bullets in their gun to kill all his companions, including his son (with the agreement of the other adults). And as he stumbles out of the car intending to meet his own death by monster, the mist starts to lift and he sees Army vehicles coming to the rescue. People loved it, people hated it, but it was one of the most devastating and shocking endings I've seen it years.
* OTHER COMMON PLOT TWISTS:
Here are several twists that we’ve all seen often:
- The “S/he’s not really dead” twist - as in BODY HEAT (and overused in ten zillion low- budget horror movies).
- The “It was all a dream” twist: OPEN YOUR EYES, BOXING HELENA (I’m not sure what you’d have to do to make that one play, it’s so universally loathed.)
- The “ally who turns out to be an enemy” twist: as in John Connolly’s EVERY DEAD THING, William Goldman’s MARATHON MAN,
- And the “enemy who turns out to be an ally” twist: Captain Renault in CASABLANCA, Professor Snape in the first Harry Potter (and then reversed again later…)
* JUST BE ORIGINAL
A twist doesn’t have to be as cataclysmic as a “big secret” reveal. Sometimes a plot element or action is so unexpected or original that it works as a twist.
- I was watching THE BIG HEAT the other night, shamefully had never seen it, and there are several big surprises. I knew that too-good-to-be-true wife was going to die, but I was totally unnerved by villain Lee Marvin throwing a pot of scalding coffee in girlfriend Gloria Grahame’s face. Although you don’t actually see the burning, that brutality must have made people jump our of their seats in 1953. Then (although she’s one of my favorite actresses of all time and totally up to the task) I was equally shocked to see Grahame’s character take over the movie from hero Glenn Ford (kudos to writer Sydney Boehme and director Fritz Lang for that) and shoot another woman (a co-conspirator of Marvin’s) so that key evidence will be revealed, then go after Marvin herself and burn him in exactly the way he burned her (before he shoots and kills her).
What works as a twist there is the sudden primacy of a seemingly minor character – especially a woman who would normally just be there for eye candy. Sad to say, but portraying a female character who is as interesting as women actually are in real life still counts as a standout.
- In the movie SEVEN there’s a great twist in the second act climax when John Doe, the serial killer the two detectives have been pursuing, walks into the police station and turns himself in. You know he’s up to no good, here, because it’s Kevin Spacey, but you have no idea where the story is going to go next.
And of course then you have that ending: that John Doe has always intended himself as one of the seven victims (his sin is “envy”), and the infamous “head in the box” scene, as Doe has a package delivered to Brad Pitt containing the head of his wife so that Pitt will kill Doe in anger.
Hmm, can’t end this post with that example - too depressing.
- Okay, here’s a favorite of mine, for sheer trippiness: Donald Sutherland being killed by a knife-wielding dwarf in DON’T LOOK NOW – and the delightful homage to the scene in the brilliant IN BRUGES.
And the above are not even scratching the surface of great plot twists – I could really write a book. :)
So, everyone, what are some of your favorite movie and book plot twists? Writers, do you consciously engineer plot twists? And editors, on the level - are you more likely to buy a book that has a big twist?
- Alex
=====================================================
All the information on this blog and more, including full story structure breakdowns of various movies, is available in my Screenwriting Tricks for Authors workbooks. Any format, just $3.99 and $2.99.
STEALING HOLLYWOOD
This new workbook updates all the text in the first Screenwriting Tricks for Authors ebook with all the many tricks I’ve learned over my last few years of writing and teaching—and doubles the material of the first book, as well as adding six more full story breakdowns.
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- Barnes & Noble/Nook
- Amazon UK
- Amazon DE
Get free Story Structure extras and movie breakdowns
Book editors swear that a good ending is a good ending, twist or not, and I believe them, but I also believe a good twist can't hurt, so that's what we're going to be talking about today.
Get free Story Structure extras and movie breakdowns
If you're interested in learning about twists work, I of course advocate the same method of study I have been preaching... I mean suggesting... all along.
Make a list.
What are ten twist endings that surprised and delighted you, or even sent you right back into the theater or to the first page of the book to see the movie or read the story again?
In this post, I'll lay out twists that I've particularly liked and why they worked for me, and I'm going to put my list up front because there are SPOILERS galore, and it you haven’t read or seen some of these and would like to, unspoiled, you may want to proceed cautiously.
Presumed Innocent
The Others
Oedipus (but honestly, if you don’t know that one…)
Chinatown
The Sixth Sense
The Crying Game
Seven
Bladerunner
A Kiss Before Dying
Fight Club
Identity
The Eyes of Laura Mars
Psycho
Don’t Look Now
In Bruges
Boxing Helena
Open Your Eyes (Abre Los Ojos)
Falling Angel
Angel Heart
The Murder of Roger Ackroyd
No Way Out
Eastern Promises
It should come as a surprise to no one that my list is all thrillers, supernatural and otherwise. Hey, it's MY list!
But surely there are great twists in comedies and romances - I just couldn't seem to think of any except RUTHLESS PEOPLE. Maybe I need to see something light once in a while.
So I'd be very grateful for some suggestions of great twists in OTHER genres, and I would be happy to talk about that in another post.
Of course, as mystery and thriller authors, designing story twists is a regular part of our job. After all, we don’t want our readers to guess the identity of our killers before our detectives do! We employ classic story tricks… I mean, literary devices… like red herrings, misdirection, false leads, false alibis, plants and payoffs, irony and unreliable narrators, to keep our readers (or viewers) guessing.
If you’re interested in building your skill at twisting a story, make your list and start analyzing how the author, screenwriter, or playwright is manipulating you to give that twist its power, so that you can do the same for your readers and viewers.
It's helpful to realize that these techniques have been around since the beginning of drama, or I’m sure really since the cave-dweller storytellers (“The mastodon did it!”). Knowing the names of techniques is always of use to me, anyway!
And I’d also like to note up front that big twists almost always occur at the act climaxes of a story, because a reveal this big will naturally spin the story in a whole other direction. (If you need more explanation about Act Climaxes and Turning Points, read here.)
Let’s break down some different kinds of twists.
* ANAGNORISIS
The Greeks called twists and reveals Anagnorisis, which means “discovery”: the protagonist's sudden recognition of their own or another character's true identity or nature, or realization of the true nature of a situation.
This is always a great thing if you can pull it off about the protagonist, because we kind of expect to find out unexpected things about other people, or have surprises come up in a situation, but to find out something you never suspected about yourself is generally a life-altering shock.
So here’s a big twist that has worked over and over again:
* THE PROTAGONIST IS THE KILLER (or criminal), BUT DOESN’T KNOW IT
- We find probably the most famous twist endings of world literature in Sophocles’ OEDIPUS THE KING (429 BCE) in which Oedipus, the king of Thebes, is trying to discover the cause of a devastating plague in the city, only to find that he himself is the culprit, cursed by the gods for killing his father and marrying his own mother.
- I’ve talked at length about the influence of Oedipus on the Polanski/Towne classic film CHINATOWN (discussion here).
- But the noir mystery FALLING ANGEL, by William Hjortsberg, and Alan Parker’s movie adaptation of that book, ANGEL HEART, steals its twists from Oedipus as well: PI Harry Angel is hired by Louis Cyphre to find Johnny Favorite, who owes Cyphre (his soul, turns out!). Angel finds out he himself is the man he’s looking for, Johnny Favorite, and also that he’s slept with and killed his own daughter.
- PRESUMED INNOCENT (book and film) is another take on the Oedipal detective story, in which main character and detective (by dint of being a ADA) Rusty Savage is guilty, not of the murder of his mistress, but of infidelity, so he protects his wife, the real killer, from detection.
PRESUMED INNOCENT also employs a great bit of misdirection, in that the victim was sadomasochistically bound and apparently sexually tortured and raped – there was semen found inside her. So even though the cheated wife would ordinarily be the prime suspect, we and all authorities rule her out.
* THE UNRELIABLE NARRATOR
Another literary device that makes for a powerful twist is the unreliable narrator.
- Agatha Christie surprised and therefore irked some critics with this one in THE MURDER OF ROGER ACKROYD.
- THE USUAL SUSPECTS has won classic status for its now famous reveal that meek Verbal Kint is the nefarious Keyser Soze he’s been talking to the police about, using random objects in the police station to add details to his fabricated story.
- FIGHT CLUB puts a spin on the unreliable narrator, as antagonist Tyler Durden is revealed to be an alter ego of split-personality narrator Edward Norton (called just “The Narrator”, which is a sly little hint of the device being used.)
- Of course multiple personality disorder can be used as a twist all on its own, most famously employed in PSYCHO, but also in, hmm, let’s see… THE EYES OF LAURA MARS, and dozens of cheesy ripoffs of the concept (fascinated as I am by MPD, this is one device I’m not sure I’d ever want to tackle, myself).
- The 2003 movie IDENTITY takes the MPD twist several steps further: EVERY character in the movie a different aspect of John Cusack’s fractured personality.
* KILL OFF AN IMPORTANT CHARACTER UNEXPECTEDLY
- While I’m thinking about it, PSYCHO has another famous twist, which I’m sure at the time of the film’s release was just about as shocking as the reveal of “Mother”: the apparent main character, Janet Leigh, is murdered (spectacularly) at the first act climax.
- This was copied much less effectively but still successfully in the 1987 thriller NO WAY OUT, in which the apparent love interest dies at the first act climax.
- The Brian DePalma film THE UNTOUCHABLES kills off a beloved sidekick (the Charles Martin Smith character) at the Midpoint, and as I recall I didn’t see that one coming at all (until he got into the elevator, that is…)
* THE “BIG SECRET”
The big secret reveal, done well, means a pretty guaranteed sale and often gonzo box office. Some famous examples:
- THE SIXTH SENSE. We all know this one: the child psychiatrist who seems to be treating a little boy who claims to see dead people turns out to be – one of the dead people the boy is seeing. This one is especially interesting to note because writer/director M. Night Shyamalan went through several drafts of the script before he realized that the Bruce Willis character should be a ghost. Which goes to prove you don’t have to have a great twist planned from the very beginning of your writing process – you can discover a perfect twist in the writing of the story.
- THE OTHERS takes a page from SIXTH SENSE and triples it: they’re ALL dead. A young mother and her two light-sensitive children think their creepy old house is haunted. A climactic séance reveals that actually the mother has shot herself and the children and THEY’RE the ones haunting the new family in the house.
- THE CRYING GAME’s famous twist reveals gorgeous, sexy Dil, whom we have fallen in love with just as surely as main character Fergus has, is a man. That was a twist that hit squarely below the belt, as writer/director Neil Jordan forced us to question our own sexuality as well as our concepts about gender.
THE CRYING GAME has a couple of earlier twists at the first act climax, too: IRA soldier Fergus becomes more and more sympathetic to his personable hostage Jody, enough so that Fergus lets Jody run free when he takes him out in the forest to execute him. We kind of saw that one coming. But then there’s a horrifying shock when on his run to freedom Jody is suddenly hit and killed by a truck. Devastating, and totally unexpected.
- EASTERN PROMISES. In one of the most emotionally wrenching reveals I’ve seen in a long time, Viggo Mortensen, the on-his-way-up chauffeur for a prominent leader of the Russian mob, turns out to be a Scotland Yard agent so deep undercover that in the end he is able to take over the whole mob operation – but must give up Naomi Watts in the process. A wonderful “love or duty” choice, which you don’t see often, these days. And if that isn’t enough to convince you to see the film, try: Viggo. Naked and tattooed. In a bathhouse. For a five-minute long fight scene. Did I mention he’s naked?
- We see another great reveal about the nature of a protagonist in BLADERUNNER: Harrison Ford, the replicant hunter Deckard, is himself a replicant.
* IRONY
Actually this whole post was inspired by my recent structure breakdown of THE MIST, the film, which takes the idea of its shocker ending from a line in King's original novella, but gives it an ironic twist that is pure horror: After battling these terrifying creatures for the whole length of the movie, our heroes run out of gas and the protagonist uses the last four bullets in their gun to kill all his companions, including his son (with the agreement of the other adults). And as he stumbles out of the car intending to meet his own death by monster, the mist starts to lift and he sees Army vehicles coming to the rescue. People loved it, people hated it, but it was one of the most devastating and shocking endings I've seen it years.
* OTHER COMMON PLOT TWISTS:
Here are several twists that we’ve all seen often:
- The “S/he’s not really dead” twist - as in BODY HEAT (and overused in ten zillion low- budget horror movies).
- The “It was all a dream” twist: OPEN YOUR EYES, BOXING HELENA (I’m not sure what you’d have to do to make that one play, it’s so universally loathed.)
- The “ally who turns out to be an enemy” twist: as in John Connolly’s EVERY DEAD THING, William Goldman’s MARATHON MAN,
- And the “enemy who turns out to be an ally” twist: Captain Renault in CASABLANCA, Professor Snape in the first Harry Potter (and then reversed again later…)
* JUST BE ORIGINAL
A twist doesn’t have to be as cataclysmic as a “big secret” reveal. Sometimes a plot element or action is so unexpected or original that it works as a twist.
- I was watching THE BIG HEAT the other night, shamefully had never seen it, and there are several big surprises. I knew that too-good-to-be-true wife was going to die, but I was totally unnerved by villain Lee Marvin throwing a pot of scalding coffee in girlfriend Gloria Grahame’s face. Although you don’t actually see the burning, that brutality must have made people jump our of their seats in 1953. Then (although she’s one of my favorite actresses of all time and totally up to the task) I was equally shocked to see Grahame’s character take over the movie from hero Glenn Ford (kudos to writer Sydney Boehme and director Fritz Lang for that) and shoot another woman (a co-conspirator of Marvin’s) so that key evidence will be revealed, then go after Marvin herself and burn him in exactly the way he burned her (before he shoots and kills her).
What works as a twist there is the sudden primacy of a seemingly minor character – especially a woman who would normally just be there for eye candy. Sad to say, but portraying a female character who is as interesting as women actually are in real life still counts as a standout.
- In the movie SEVEN there’s a great twist in the second act climax when John Doe, the serial killer the two detectives have been pursuing, walks into the police station and turns himself in. You know he’s up to no good, here, because it’s Kevin Spacey, but you have no idea where the story is going to go next.
And of course then you have that ending: that John Doe has always intended himself as one of the seven victims (his sin is “envy”), and the infamous “head in the box” scene, as Doe has a package delivered to Brad Pitt containing the head of his wife so that Pitt will kill Doe in anger.
Hmm, can’t end this post with that example - too depressing.
- Okay, here’s a favorite of mine, for sheer trippiness: Donald Sutherland being killed by a knife-wielding dwarf in DON’T LOOK NOW – and the delightful homage to the scene in the brilliant IN BRUGES.
And the above are not even scratching the surface of great plot twists – I could really write a book. :)
So, everyone, what are some of your favorite movie and book plot twists? Writers, do you consciously engineer plot twists? And editors, on the level - are you more likely to buy a book that has a big twist?
- Alex
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