This summer, watch movies for craft!
Screenwriting Tricks for Authors
Summer is coming and some of us are bracing for the great invasion - schools close and the kids are unleashed. On us.
Summer eats into our time as writers, no doubt. With or without kids, there are vacations (I’m really looking forward to our annual European adventure with The Holiday Hat, which I write about here). It’s book festival season (and just try living with a festival organizer!). Some of us have summer releases, or there are book parties for our friends who do.
Just in general, all that sun and fun makes it hard to focus.
But there’s something you can do with your family, with a significant other, or on your own, that will significantly improve your craft and get your book or script over the finish line.
You can watch movies consciously, for story structure and story elements.
Watching a movie from your MASTER LIST is ideal, but not necessary - any movie will do.
Once you’ve learned how to watch movies for story structure, every movie - and then every TV show and book — becomes a master class in craft.
And I know - f you’re a parent, there are movies you might not particularly like that you end up seeing two or three (or two or three hundred) times. I feel your pain!
But repeat viewing of movies, and repeat reading of books, is a golden opportunity to elevate your craft - faster than any other method of learning writing - once you’ve learned to watch consciously.
So here’s an Act I viewing guide to work your way through.
First, if you haven’t already, make a MASTER LIST- 10 or so movies that are similar to your own book or script in genre, story pattern, hero/ine, or some other aspect. (And keep that Master List handy for movies to slyly suggest to the significant other or family on movie night).
Narrow your list down to the three most similar to your own story, and then choose one of those movies to start with.
If you've never done a breakdown before, I recommend choosing one of the movies I’ve already broken down into Acts, Sequences, and Story Elements to start, and it really helps to choose one you already know.
In the workbooks - Stealing Hollywood and Writing Love - I’ve done ten full story breakdowns of well-known movies in lots of genres.
This Substack Table of Contents has links to more movie breakdowns for paid subscribers (go to Movie Breakdowns, toward the bottom of the post).
If the Three-Act, Eight-Sequence Structure is brand new to you, you’ll want to start by reading some of these posts:
The Three-Act, Eight-Sequence Structure – with VIDEO
Watch the first 15 minutes (Sequence 1) of the movie you’ve chosen, and answer the following questions.
If you can watch the whole first Act (about 30 minutes), great! But you can usually see almost all of these ESSENTIAL STORY ELEMENTS at work in just those first 15 minutes. The rest will almost always be in the next 15 minutes:
Who is the protagonist?
What do they WANT? (their DESIRE)
How do we know what they want?
What are their SUPERPOWERS or SKILLS? How do we see these skills or powers in action?
Who are their ALLIES? How do we meet them? (These characters will become the Protagonist’s TEAM, but the TEAM might not be assembled until a little later in the story).
What is the Protagonist’s GHOST, or WOUND? How do we know? (Sometimes this is overt, sometimes it will be hinted at, but it will always be referred to in some way).
What do you want for the PROTAGONIST?
Who is the main ANTAGONIST? Is the antagonist a villain?
How do they oppose the Protagonist?
Are there other Antagonists? Who, or what?
What THEMES can you already see working in the story?
Does the INCITING EVENT (CALL TO ADVENTURE) happen in Sequence 1? If so, what is it? (If not, you’ll have to keep watching!)
What is the CLIMAX of Sequence 1? What makes it climactic? (See discussions on Sequence Climaxes and Setpieces below)
Chapters 5-19 in Stealing Hollywood, Chapters 5-21 in Writing Love
What do the filmmakers do to clearly end Sequence 1 and begin Sequence 2? Look for a LOCATION CHANGE, CONTRAST in visual style, in tone, Day vs, Night, a crowd scene vs. a single character on their own, loud vs. quiet — or even something more blatant like a title card or chapter card. (See my post on Sequence and Act Bridges.)
You can do this analysis with any film that you want to know better. Watch the first fifteen minutes, and ask yourself those same assignment questions.
This is how you learn your craft, 15 minutes at a time. This is why I keep insisting that 15 minutes a day is all you need to write a book. Your week could go like this:
Day 1: Take 15 minutes to watch the first sequence of a movie from your Master List.
Day 2: Take 15 minutes the next day to take a stab at answering these questions.
Day 3: 15 minutes the next day to watch Sequence 1 again and fill out your answers.
Day 4: Another 15 minutes a day just to make sure you haven’t missed anything.
Days 5-7: 15 minutes a day to answer all these same questions about YOUR book or script!
Obviously, you will end up doing much more than 15 minutes a day. Because your creative brain will be working on these questions all day long and in your sleep. You are giving it an assignment that it purely loves to do, lives to do - and it will be bombarding you with ideas all day long, especially in the shower, or when you’re driving, or working out, or gardening, or cleaning…
Try it for a week. See what happens!
And for heaven’s sake, ask questions! There’s nothing I love more than talking about story. If you really want to learn how to jump start your book with these screenwriting tricks, then use the Comments or the private subscriber board to ask specific questions about whatever movie(s) you’re working with, and about your own story. And let’s figure it out!
—Alex
All material ©Alexandra Sokoloff, Screenwriting Tricks for Authors.
Movie breakdowns
Both workbooks, Stealing Hollywood and Writing Love, have ten full story breakdowns of well-known movies in lots of genres, as well as shorter Act and Sequence breakdowns of others.
I’ve started a page where I can put links to all the movies I’ve broken down on Substack.
Why subscribe?
Screenwriting Tricks for Authors is a reader-supported publication. Please consider contributing to this work by becoming a free or paid subscriber!
Get the workbooks!
Stealing Hollywood has all the material of the workshops, with story examples and elements from all genres.
Writing Love has all the material of the workshops, with more story examples and elements specific to romance and love stories.
Stealing Hollywood ebook, $4.99, also available as large format print workbook
Writing Love ebook, $2.99
Need some help? The Screenwriting Tricks for Authors workshop is available online, as a self-paced course with all the videos, assignments, movie breakdowns and personalized feedback you need to get that book written this year, 15 minutes at time.
In three parts, and you only pay for what you use.
If you have a first draft of a book or script already, or need more feedback, get targeted help getting you over the finish line in The Writers’ Room.
Great ideas, Alex. Practical and accessible.
Hi Alex. I'm curious if you watched the new Dept Q (there's an older Nordic one that's quite good). My husband and I watched it. We liked it pretty well till the end. It was dragged out overall - but most series are, so that was a mild mutter. We both liked the secondary team members a lot. The main actor gave an excellent performance, but his character felt sort of contrived - still entertaining once he began to be a bit likable. Dramatic conclusion. Then the 10 minute wrap up. Possibly the worst we've ever seen. We were both staring with our mouths hanging open. We've got a dangling psychopath, some cutesy blackmail in lieu of justice, and some cutesy almost goodbye scenes. Everyone else is praising this show to the skies. We're flummoxed.