If you’ve got to adapt a 400 page book into a 100 page script, something’s got to go. In fact, a lot of the book will necessarily have to be cut. But how do you decide? How can you even wrap your head around the expanse that is a long novel in order to start making cuts?

Nicholas Meyer (STAR TREK 4, SOMMERSBY) has a great idea (via Joel Engel’s enjoyable book Screenwriters on Screenwriting.)

You can check out the video here:

WHY IS SCRIPT STRUCTURE SO FRUSTRATING?

I’ll be honest. I don’t like three act structure.

But it’s not the THREE that bothers me. It’s the ACT. Everyone has a different take on what an “act” is, so the term doesn’t mean much.

Consider this:

• Syd Field (Screenplay) promotes three acts. The classic model.
• Pilar Alessandra (The Coffee Break Screenwriter) breaks Act 2 into Act 2a and Act 2b – so are those sub-acts?
• Shakespeare was an OK writer, and he preferred five acts.
• Robert McKee (Story) describes movies with more than 5 acts.
• Blake Snyder (Save the Cat!) calls three act structure too thin to be helpful and substitutes a 15-part beat sheet that still follows three act structure.
• John Truby (The Anatomy of Story) calls the three act model shallow and worthless, but his 22-step story structure is awfully familiar. (Hint: It’s three act structure.)
• Christopher Vogler (The Writer’s Journey) uses a different model for his Joseph Campbell inspired “Hero’s Journey”… which still perfectly lines up with three act structure.

No wonder everyone is confused!

INTRODUCING…

That’s a snippet from my new ebook:

THE SCRIPT ATLAS

How to Navigate Any Story and
Discover the Great Screenplay Hidden Within

You see, I used to have a big problem…

I read all the books on screenwriting I could find, but they didn’t actually help me write a better movie. Sure, all of their systems and beat sheets were eye-opening. And yes, their examples were interesting. But when it came time for me to apply what I’d learned, I couldn’t transition from a 2-page outline to a 120 page script.

Even if I could identify all the key beats they listed, something was missing.

That’s when I decided to dig even deeper into film structure. I performed DEEP analyses of movies and scripts. I picked apart the popular systems for structuring scripts from Syd Field, Robert McKee, Blake Snyder, Christopher Vogler and many more. I found the contradictions and gaps between their systems and started building a better model for film structure.

That’s when I discovered the missing piece: WHY.

WHY DO SCREENPLAYS WORK?

Why does a script have to have these steps — in this order?

How does each step in the script contribute to the story?

How does each step contribute to the emotional undercurrent and broad strokes in a script?

When you understand WHY a screenplay works — and HOW each piece contributes to the story — it’s much easier to structure your own scripts.

Instead of blindly following some checklist, you understand why your story should be structured a certain way.

Instead of stumbling around in-between the major steps in your script, you see where you’re going and how to get there at all times.

Instead of structure feeling like some joyless chore, you look forward to the process.

THE POWER OF THE SCRIPT ATLAS

All movies share the same structure.

The characters change.

The situations change.

The settings change.

The styles change.

But the underlying structure remains the same. Across genres and across decades, every great screenplay includes the same four broad strokes, the same emotional shifts, and the same 15 steps to drive the story forward.

I call this structure the SCRIPT ATLAS.

And once you master it, you’ll unlock the structure of every movie you’ll ever see and ever write.

You’ll understand movies at a deeper level. But even more importantly, you’ll be able to more quickly and m

ore confidently turn your ideas into strong, engaging screenplays. Screenplays that sell.

That’s the power of the SCRIPT ATLAS.

BUT I DON’T WANT TO…!?!

When some writers hear about the power of structure, they lament or rebel. How can great art come from a one page checklist?

But that’s like saying: “Why do I have to mix blue and yellow to get green?”

Or: “Why do I have to put gas in my car if I want to drive somewhere?”

Welcome to reality. That’s just the way the world works.

Now, I don’t want you to just take my word for it. I wrote this book to show you the logic and power of the SCRIPT ATLAS. That’s why I’m going to explain the WHY and HOW behind film structure.

I don’t want to just give you a list of scenes with page numbers and scare you into using them. That’s stupid. And worse, it’s not actually helping you become a better writer. Have you ever sat down with your list of scenes and page numbers and been completely stumped? Of course you have! That’s because you didn’t understand at a deep level how your story was supposed to work.

But those days are over.  The SCRIPT ATLAS is here.

DOWNLOAD YOUR FREE COPY TODAY

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THE SCRIPT ATLAS

Learn how to navigate any story and
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How do you get your script to flow organically?”

I love this question because it separates the novices from the pros. The big secret…there is no secret. Writing a script that flows organically isn’t the result of some secret formula or story hack. It comes after hours and hours of rewriting.

Are you familiar with the concept of the shit draft?

If not, check out my latest video. What sounds demoralizing — the knowledge that your first draft if going to suck — is actually a blessing in disguise. Find out why…

If you like that, you can also check out my other “Ask the Coach” videos:

How do you map out the middle of a character arc?

How do you find the time and energy to write EVERY day?

Happy writing!

HERE’S SOMETHING YOU HAVEN’T HEARD ANYONE SAY…

“You know, I’m glad they rebooted SPIDER MAN. I was excited to see what they’d do with the story this time!”

All I heard was moans and complaints.

It debuted to a warm but not great reception: 73% on Rotten Tomatoes.

The critical consensus? It’s OK but not essential. Certainly not as good as SPIDER-MAN or SPIDER-MAN 2. Why make this movie again?

And yet…lots of people went to see it. As in $650 million worldwide and counting. And now a sequel to “the movie that no one wanted” is on the way.

People love to whine that it’s only been 5 years since SPIDER-MAN 3, but then they praise The Dark Knight Trilogy even though BATMAN BEGINS only waited 8 years from BATMAN & ROBIN to hit theaters.

Does that three years really make a difference?

Or is it that BATMAN BEGINS took the franchise in a new direction (from a bad one) while THE AMAZING SPIDER-MAN is too similar to the original (and beloved) one?

That sounds plausible, but the box office results tell another story.

Maybe all the hullabaloo about reboots and remakes is overdone?

Millions of people watch CSI every week — but isn’t every episode the exact same?

Home Improvement was a massive hit — but didn’t it reuse the same 20 jokes over and over?

Maybe original stories aren’t as valuable as people want to believe? (I’ve already pointed out that Hollywood has ALWAYS been more of a popularizer than a creator.)

Here’s what we do know: THE DARK KNIGHT RISES is a hit. It’s already made over $550 million.

With numbers like that, there will be another Batman movie sooner than later. And that means someone will have the enjoyable, difficult, and highly-scrutinized task of rebooting the franchise.

If THE AMAZING SPIDER-MAN wasn’t essential, how could it have been improved?

Better yet, if you were hired to reboot Batman, how would you do it?

How would you top The Dark Knight Trilogy?

(NOTE: For wannabe writers, this is a rhetorical question. For real writers, this is a real challenge that deserves a real answer. What’s yours?)

“How do you map out the middle of a character’s arc without making the characters seem contrived or dull?”

Act 2 is tough. Writing three-dimensional characters with a believable arc is tough. Putting them together can seem impossible…but it doesn’t have to. There’s any easy trick you can use to crack this problem.

No, it won’t write the character for you, but it will help you wrap your head around the long journey your character takes in Act 2. And sometimes knowing the way is all you need make it work. In the video below, I share how I approach this problem and use the broad strokes of the character’s arc to drive the plot.

Enjoy!

If you liked the video, help me share it with a tweet: CLICK TO TWEET!

“How do you find the time and energy to write every day?”

One of the best and most common questions I hear. Since so many things impact your energy levels and schedule throughout the day, there are many ways to answer this. Earlier this year I wrote two mega-posts on boosting your energy and optimizing your time. Both of those are a great place to start.

But what if you’re frazzled and don’t want to work toward the best system. You just want a simple hack that will make things happen.

Well, here you go. I picked one of my favorite screenwriting hacks to kick off my first Ask the Coach video.

Enjoy!

(If you like video, help me share it with a tweet. Thanks!)

I’VE WRITTEN SIX FEATURE-LENGTH SCREENPLAYS.

Five of those I wrote a page or two at a time while going to work or school. (Or playing disc golf, as was the case with one script.)

Slow and steady wins the race.

MY FAVORITE WRITING EXPERIENCE, HOWEVER, IS THE EXCEPTION…

When I first moved to LA, I spent a long fourth of July weekend in San Francisco with my friends. As luck would have it, three weeks later I had a family vacation in Hawaii. (It was a tough summer.)

After convincing myself that it didn’t make sense to start looking for work until after my second vacation, I decided to use those three weeks to finally write an action comedy I’d been thinking about for years. With my roommates gone all day at work, I had the apartment to myself.

My own little staycation-meets-writing retreat.

I didn’t waste the opportunity. I wrote every day, about 6-7 hours a day. And finished a 187 page rough draft.

Yes, that’s WAY too long for a script, but it gives you a sense of how productive and engaged I was. The experience was thrilling, and I’ve always wanted to take another writing retreat.

Today, I’m going to show you how you can do it even if you don’t have weeks to spare.

WRITE EVERY DAY

If there was a 10 commandments of writing, this would be #1: Write every day. (Tweet this)

Writing daily is one of the most important habits you can develop as an aspiring screenwriter. Tracking your writing — even if it’s just 30 minutes — can be a huge motivator. Momentum is powerful, and doing at least a little writing every day is the best way to prevent writer’s block. As novelist Anna Quindlin says:

“I don’t believe in writer’s block. It’s not that sometimes you can’t write, it’s that you can’t write well. Experience has told me that writing poorly sometimes leads to something better. Not writing at all leads only to reruns of “Law and Order.”

Another reason writing daily is so powerful is that it keeps your story top of mind. Often, the hardest part about writing is getting into the story. And the longer you’re away from it, the harder it is to get back. Even a long weekend can throw you off.

Daily writing is the goal.

BUT…

Sometimes, daily writing isn’t enough.

Even if you’re making great progress day after day, 120 pages can be a daunting finish line. Especially for your rough draft. Keeping your focus and spirits up for three months of daily writing isn’t easy. It’s easy to lose the forest for the trees.

That’s when scheduling a writing retreat is so powerful. Imagine having a large block of uninterrupted time to blast through your script. If you could work, uninterrupted, how long would you need? Instead of producing a script during a hundred short strolls, what if you used a few all-out sprints?

That’s the goal behind a writing retreat. In my experience, this works better for writing a rough draft vs. outlining your story (especially if you’ve already got your 25 page outline).

Why is this?

Because writing your rough draft is about finally getting your story down on paper. You’ve already put a lot of thought into it and your energy and momentum can translate to the page. Outlining, on the other hand, is a much more deliberate process. Full of stops and starts, detours, dead-ends. It’s slow. (And also why I recommend you have multiple outlines in the works at the same time while focusing 100% on a rough draft when the time comes to write it.)

PLANNING YOUR WRITING RETREAT

Well, If you can afford to take a few weeks off, I recommend you bookend your writing retreat with vacations to San Francisco and Hawaii. (Alas, I haven’t been able to manage that one since.)

But if you’re in the same situation I’m in now, where money is tight and time is tighter, you have to be creative to make a writing retreat happen. Luckily, a little bit of creativity and drive goes a long way.

Here are four writing retreats that nearly anyone can take a few times a year:

• The Getaway – Find a bank holiday and throw in a vacation day to make a four-day weekend. Plan ahead so you’re sure you have nothing to do but write. If you’re out of vacation time, call in sick. With a good outline, you could write half a script in four full, uninterrupted days.
• Split-time — Take half-days at work for a week. Devote your mornings to writing and your afternoons to work. This will give you enough office time to deal with the “emergencies” while keeping your head clear for writing each day. Start early and you can easily put in a 4-hour power session every day. This is a great way to power through your first Act and build momentum for Act 2.

• Take a media holiday — Chances are you spend hours every week watching TV, surfing the web, checking Facebook, fiddling with your phone. Give yourself a break. TiVo the shows if you have to, but spend your evenings writing (even for a week) instead of consuming info. I love this one because you don’t have to give up anything important to do it.

• Double down — Double your daily writing time for a set period of time. If you write for 30 minutes every evening before bed, then push yourself to work for an entire hour. The extra willpower of writing more will be easier to exert when you know that it only lasts for a week or two. (Plus, pushing yourself will improve your productivity even after you go back to your normal schedule.)

What is your favorite writing experience? How has that shaped your writing habit?

What if I said you could even save months of work?

And you could make your screenplay better while writing it faster?

Too good to be true?

Nope.

The fact is most aspiring writers waste TONS of time on each script because they don’t understand one simple fact about storytelling….

STORYTELLING AND WRITING YOUR SCRIPT AREN’T THE SAME THING

A lot of aspiring writers bemoan outlining.

Especially the “creative” ones who never seem to finish a script, let alone a really good one.

They say things like, “Outlining sucks the life out of your story. I just listen to my characters. I like to let my story go where it wants.”

Which is usually nowhere.

Unless you have an incredibly advanced Gestalt understanding of story and plotting AND you’re telling an episodic story, “just listening to your characters” is a recipe for, if not disaster, at least weeks or months of wasted time.

Look at the professionals. Most working screenwriters outline their scripts in a fair amount of detail.

Why do they do this?

Because they’ve learned that screenplays — all stories, actually — have two distinct layers: STORY and TELLING.

• STORY refers to what happens, how it happens, when and to whom. The main deliverable at this stage is the outline.
• TELLING refers to how you communicate the story to someone else. The deliverable here is the actual script.

By focusing on these two layers one at a time, professional writers can make sure their story is tight before worrying about how to write the actual scenes. Just as you can’t have a great film without a great script, you can’t have a good “telling” without a good “story”.

Doesn’t matter how crisp your dialogue is, if the scene is pointless or misguided — it’s dead in the water.

“All screenplays have two distinct layers: STORY and TELLING” (Tweet this)

HOW TO SAVE TIME BY BREAKING YOUR STORYTELLING INTO TWO PHASES

I explained how to do this in an earlier post:

Once you have a general overview of your story (a 5-page outline giving you a 30,000 foot view), you still have to decide WHAT happens in each scene of your story and HOW it happens.

• WHAT refers to the mechanics of the plot and character development. What happens in each scene? What do the characters do and think? What does the audience learn in each scene? What is set up or paid off?
• HOW refers to the bringing a story to life. How does each scene play out? How do the characters act? How does the audience feel at each point in the story? How does the story move along?

You can’t do both of these things at the same time. It’s just too much to think about. This is why most people who try end up with wooden scripts that may fit together logically but don’t feel alive. Or they’ll have a couple lively scenes in an otherwise clunky, incomprehensible story.

But if you tackle one at a time, you can dramatically improve your work.

Let me explain how this works…

When you create a 25 page outline (without just adding dialogue and writing the script, a common urge), you have to break down each scene in detail:

• Where did it take place? When?
• Who was involved?
• What did each character want to gain?
• What did the characters do in the scene?
• What did the audience and/or the characters learn in the scene?
• What set-ups or pay offs needed to be included?
• Where did the tension in the scene come from?
• Where did the drama/comedy/fun/surprise in the scene come from?
• How were the characters being developed?
• How did the scene transition to the next scene?
• How many pages should the scene be?
• How does this fit into the sequence? The act? The film?

Most importantly, it’s EASIER to think about these questions in an outline than in a full script. In an outline, this is all the information you have. You’re not distracted by a snappy line of dialogue or clever description you wrote. You don’t have to worry about being attached to any pages in your script because you don’t have any. All you have is notes on the story.

Once you make that work, you’re ready to move on.

Now, since the details are in place, you can focus on the HOW:

• How to bring the characters to life?
• How to show the theme?
• How to make the scene really dramatic, funny, engaging?
• How to pace and stage it for optimal effect?
• How to use my writing style to add to the experience (not just communicate details)?
• How to make sure each scene brings something original and interesting?

As you can see, this lets you focus on the telling little details that bring a scene to life. And most important, instead of wasting weeks (or months) writing scenes that will never make it into the final script or changing your story to fit some dialogue you like, you’ll stay focused on what’s most important for you at that moment.

Write smarter, not harder.

Happy Writing!

Write better, faster, longer…
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Not casually reading lots and lots of scripts. I’m talking about doing a DEEP analysis of a script. Picking it apart layer by layer and really scrutinizing each piece. Then reassembling it and trying to make it better.

This isn’t quick. This isn’t easy. But it is powerful.

And I’m going to prove it to you.

Starting next week, I’m going to walk you through a full script analysis of one of the most popular action films of all time: DIE HARD.

As someone with a film degree, I can guarantee you’ll learn more about screenwriting over the next several weeks than you would in a full year of film school.

However, before we begin…

I HAVE SOME HOMEWORK FOR YOU

First, if you haven’t already read my posts on how to analyze a script, do that now:

• Screenwriting tip #1: Don’t read scripts
• How to analyze a script (part 1)
• How to analyze a script (part 2)

These posts break down why analyzing scripts is so powerful and lays out all of the steps we’re going to go through with DIE HARD.

Second, download a copy of the DIE HARD script. You can find one in the Master the Craft Script Library. Print it — it might help to copy it into Word, then print — and read it.

As you read, write down any questions about screenwriting or the script that come up. Don’t worry about understanding every component and nuance of the script at this stage. You’ll reread it numerous times. For now, the goal is to get an overview of the story.

When you’re done, immediately record your first impression. Take 1/2 – 1 page to jot down your thoughts:

• What did you like?
• What didn’t you like?
• What surprised you?
• What confused you?
• What did you learn?

Third, email me your biggest questions about the screenplay. That might be how the plot was structured, how a character arc was laid out, or how the theme supports the action. Whatever caught your attention. I’ll be sure to cover the answers during my analysis.

HOW TO SUPERCHARGE YOUR LEARNING

BE WARNED: This is an involved process. I’ll be asking you to study a script closer and longer than you’ve probably ever done. That uncomfortable edge where you’re pushing your abilities is the fine line where real learning takes place. (This is what Master the Craft is all about.)

Don’t take it easy! I encourage you to stay one step ahead of me the entire way. The best way you can learn is to analyze the script on your own and THEN compare your notes to mine in the newsletter.

I’ll let you know what to expect each week. Don’t worry, you don’t have to do the full analysis in one week.

For now, just complete the three tasks I gave you above. And if you haven’t signed up for the newsletter, you can do that with the form below.

Yippie ki yea, mother fucker!

[UPDATE: This promotion has come and gone, but you're still welcome to sign up for my FREE newsletter and gets the latest tips and tactics I only share with my subscribers.]