Story: Style, Structure, Substance, and the Principles of Screenwriting

by Robert McKee

Next, look across the scene and ask: What forces of antagonism block this desire?

What do the forces of antagonism want?

Step Two: Note Opening Value

Identify the value at stake in the scene and note its charge, positive or negative, at the opening of the scene.

Step Three: Break the Scene into Beats

Name this subtextural action with an active gerund phrase, such as “Begging.”

Now look across the scene to see what reaction that action brought, and describe that reaction with an active gerund phrase. For example, “Ignoring the plea.”

This exchange of action and reaction is a beat.

Step Four: Note Closing Value

and Compare with Opening Value

At the end of the scene, examine the value-charged condition of the character’s situation and describe it in positive/negative terms. Compare...

Step Five: Survey Beats and Locate Turning Point

Within the arc locate the moment when the major gap opens between expectation and result, turning the scene to its changed end values. This precise moment is the Turning Point.

THE PRINCIPLE OF ANTAGONISM: A protagonist and his story can only be as intellectually fascinating and emotionally compelling as the forces of antagonism make them.

Convert exposition to ammunition.