Like a home, the right structure will help a story stand true and withstand time (and criticism). Readers (and movie watchers) have expectations and if you don’t deliver, your story will never get off the ground.
There is a lot of material out there on structure techniques and methodologies. What you use is not the focus of this workshop. The focus is on analyzing stories and identifying key plot points and their timing to show that all good stories have the same “beats” and they typically happen around the same time.
We will utilize both James Scott Bell’s “12 Signpost Scenes” and Blake Snyder’s Save the Cat! beat sheet as guides to decompose/breakdown the stories into the core elements that help move the plot forward efficiently and with vigor. We will analyze one movie completely, along with excerpts from a book and key scenes from other movies, highlight each pivotal beat. As we move along, you will compare your novel’s beats. By the end, you should be able to identify gaps, see why some scenes have worked real well, and what you can do help move your story forward.
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