As I learn more about writing, I have tried to develop my
own approach. In this post I will try to organize my thoughts.
Many writers distain "formula" writing. I am not
one of those. I look to formulas as a tool to help me write. I think that all
writers use formulas, but great writers develop a new formula for each story.
Structure
In movie making the most common structure is three acts.
When I've tried to use this, I find it doesn't help me with the second act,
which usually makes up 70% to 90% of the movie.
I found an approach that I find works better for me through a study of the
writers Lester Dent and Edgar Rice Burroughs.
Lester Dent's article on his formula was particularly useful. (see: http://www.paper-dragon.com/1939/dent.html
)
Dent formula is for a 6,000 word action story, but I have
used it for other types of stories. I want to write stories that are longer than 6,000 words. Since he
divides a story into four parts, I developed a multilevel structure based on
the four parts. My structure has three levels.
Acts - The top level I think of as parts, but they could be
called acts. The story has four acts.
Sequences - The second level I call sequences. Most movie
writers think of sequences as a series of scenes that build upon each other.
This is how I use it in my formula. Each act has four sequences.
Scenes - The third level are scenes. By this I mean what
most people think of a scene. Each scene will tell a little story that moves
the main story along. In my way of looking at it, several scenes can happen at
the same location and time. Each sequence has four scenes.
The final structure will have four acts, sixteen sequences
and sixty-four scenes. This structure is used for planning the story. As you
work through the story, you can add or eliminate scenes sequences and event
acts as needed to make the story work.
Purpose of Each of
Part
I deviate from Dent's approach in how I see the purpose of
each of the four parts of the structure. The different parts are:
Realization - where the protagonist realizes that he faces a
barrier. Initially the protagonist doesn't want to deal with the barrier, but
then realises that they need to.
Weak Response - where the protagonist makes an initial attempt
to over come the barrier. In general this attempt will fail. In cases where it
succeeds, it will turn out that he has only succeeded with part of the barrier.
Distraction - where the protagonist is distracted from the
goal to get past the barrier. This is a special kind of barrier, in that it is
not directly related to the primary barrier, it only distracts them from their
efforts to over come the primary barrier.
Strong Response - where the protagonist makes a more
concerted effort to get past the barrier. This may, or may not succeed.
These four parts are repeated at each level. The four acts
will be realisation, weak response, distraction and strong response. The four
sequences within each act will have the same structure, as will the four scenes
within each sequence.
The mistake I have often made in the past is to put too much
effort into subplots. This structure forces me to concentrate on the main
story. Any subplots would only show up in the distraction step.
Barriers
Each of the acts, sequences and scenes involves the
protagonist meeting a barrier and either overcoming it, or failing to over come
it. I start by brainstorming a collection of barriers and ways of overcoming
them. We would need a total of 84 barriers for
the complete outline. However, it is wise to generate far more than
that. Many ideas just won't fit into the story when you need them.
My next step is to start identifying at which level a
barrier is used. A locked door could be a barrier in a scene, or in a sequence
or in an act. It might even be that the goal of the whole story is to open the
door. The various barriers can then be slotted into a scene, sequence or act. I
would start with the acts and then move to sequences and finally scenes.
Characters
I haven't really put much thought into characters. Usually I
focus on the plot and the character develops from that. Some times I come up
with lines that I want the character to say, and then use them to define the
character. This may not be a good way to do it, but I do find that characters
will often begin to take on a life of their own.
Flexibility
As I said above, I see this formula as a way to get started
with a story. When it comes time to write, I don't want to be trapped by the
outline. It needs to stay flexible. I often find it hard to rewrite because I
have become attached to the story the way it is. Even when I am not happy with
the story, I find it difficult to break out of the structure.
Writing
I see the creation of the outline (formula, structure,
whatever) as the bulk of the work of writing. The actually writing of the story
is much easier after a good outline has been done. That said, I still have
difficulty with the actual writing of the story. In part this may reflect that
I think like a movie maker, and the script is really just an outline you fill
in with the help of others.
This post is a mirror from my main blog http://www.dynamiclethargyfilms.ca/blog
