3-2-1 | Screenwriting Thursday
Happy early Halloween! Let’s look at some tips on through-lines today.
Personal Note: I’m now working with a wonderful woman to set up some high quality advertising for NoonWriters! By this time next week we should see adjustments to the landing page and ads should start appearing! YAY! If you haven’t already, sign-up now!
On with the show -
3 TIPS FROM ME
I.
LOCK YOUR STORY SPINE IN ONE SENTENCE
I recommend doing this after you’ve already gone through a first draft (the first draft is just you telling yourself the story). Write a single present-tense sentence you can tape to your monitor:
“[Name] wants [specific outcome] and will do [strategy class] despite [escalating cost], which forces [irreversible change].”
Examples of the middle “strategy class”: persuade, con, win legally, burn it down, out-love, out-last, out-smart, out-fight.
If you cannot fill this in crisply, there is no through line yet.
Quick test: Could two different scenes on your outline both fit under that same sentence? If not, one scene is off-spine.
II.
BUILD THE THROUGH-LINE TRIANGLE
For the current draft, answer these with concrete nouns and active verbs.
1. Intention: What does the character want by page 10 that still matters on the last page
2. Opposition: Who or what is actively preventing it, and how do they hit back?
3. Stakes: What specific bad thing happens if they fail, and what good thing happens if they succeed?
If any corner is vague, your outline will fight you.
III.
OUTLINE TWEAKS THAT SAVE MONTHS
• Consolidate antagonists: If opposition is split among three soft forces, you will meander. Merge functions so the pressure feels like one hand on the throat.
• Promote the engine: Decide your engine: pursuit, siege, heist, investigation, survival. competition, romance pursuit, redemption. Then restate each act’s goal in that engine’s verbs.
• Set non-negotiable milestones: Choose 5 beats that must happen to fulfill the spine. Label them M1–M5. Everything else is optional. If a scene does not help you reach the next M, it is suspect.
2 QUOTES FROM OTHERS
I.
A fantastic perspective on life from Hunter S. Thompson, perhaps best known for his book Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas (adapted for film by Terry Gilliam), though I do think the effort to wear sunscreen daily is well worth it:
“Life should not be a journey to the grave with the intention of arriving safely in a pretty and well preserved body, but rather to skid in broadside in a cloud of smoke thoughtoughly used up, totally worn out, and loudly proclaiming, “Wow! What a Ride!"”
II.
Krysty Wilson-Cairns, nominated for an academy award for Best Original Screenplay for 1917 (she also wrote Last Night in Soho, and worked on Penny Dreadful):
"Over the last five years I’ve written probably ten screenplays and 1917 is the first one that’s got made. It’s really, really hard to make a film. Even when I write on my own, I still collaborate. It’s usually with other writers that I know. You’ve always asking other people to read your work. I think if you don’t want to collaborate you shouldn’t be a screenwriter."
1 QUESTION FOR YOU
What does the most confident version of yourself look like?
Until next week,
Kate Gaulke
p.s. I’m gonna kill you
(Special thanks to Chase for sending this one over)
