Story Deconstructions – Coming Soon

The best way to learn how to put a good story together is to tear a good one apart. Reverse engineering. Deconstruct books you’ve read or movies you’ve seen. I’m going to tackle some movies, and to a lesser extent, some books.

Movies are easier, so, since I’m chronically lazy, I’ll start with them.

Classics like “How to Steal a Million” and “The In-Laws”. And “Dirty Dancing”.

Crappy movies like “Chappie”. (Great premise, dialog that makes me cringe every single time I watch it.) And maybe “The Interview”. (Not that bad, if you recognise that it’s 100% Seth Rogan’s baby.)

Kids’ movies like “Despicable Me” and “Matilda”.

Action adventure flicks like “Knight and Day”, “Spy”, “Limitless” and take your pick of the “Mission Impossible” movies.

I’ll start with one of these (probably “Spy”, since it’s my current favourite) and over the course of a few posts take apart the structure and the character arc.

Oh, yeah. Books. I think a Michael Robotham psychological thriller or two and a couple of Jack Reacher books, and Andy Weir’s “The Martian”. (If I get my hands on the movie, “The Martian”, I’ll do a side-by-side comparison.)

All in due course.

If there are any movies (or books, for that matter) you’d like to see me tear apart, let me know in the comments below.