Structure – Door #1
Structure is the software for your imagination
Putting the story in the right order allows people to read it in the best way possible :
Beginning
Middle
End
Or as some people have:
Beginning
Muddle
End
Concept:
Golden Gate Bridge in San Francisco
- Pillars go deep into the ground
- Cables suspend the bride
Act 1 | Act 2 | Act 3
————-|————-|————-
Beginning| Middle | End
(just pretend that is a suspension bridge with road in the middle, pillars underneath, and steel cables on top please).
Info on how to create disturbance for your hero is below the cut.
Disturbance:
The story begins when you strike the match, not when you lay out the wood
`The cat sat on the mat` is not the beginning of a plot.
`The cat sat on the dog`s mat` is.
~ John Le Carre
The Wizard of Oz
- Starts with Dorothy running down the road, looking over her shoulder
Gone with the Wind
- Starts with Scarlet flirting at a bbq, then gets the news that Ashley is going to marry Melanie
Star Wars
- Prologue with Darth Vader capturing Princess Leia
- Then Luke with uncle buying droids, messing around with one and then gets Leia`s message: `help me Obi Wan Kenbi, you are my only hope`
Opening sentences:
Even before the events in the supermarket, Jim Ironheart should have known that trouble was coming (Cold Fire)
~ Dean Koontz
The world outside the window was in flames. The leaves on the pistachio trees shone fire-red and orange. Mattie studied the early morning light. She was lying on the side f the bed where her husband should have been sleeping
~ Anne Lamot – Blue Shoe
First person
- Needs to have a distinctive voice
- Have an attitude
- Interesting enough to listen to
- Eg catcher in the rye – opening sentence shows narrator is disturbed `know about my lousy childhood`
Doorway of No Return #1
See Christopher Voegler`s work on heroes journey
Characters are comfortable, don’t want to leave the comfy chair in their home – need to push them through the doorway
Need to turn their world upside down, so they can`t go back to the comfortable world (at least not the way they left it)
First doorway / first act:
1/4 way through a movie
1/5 way through a book
Wizard of Oz – when Dorothy gets to Oz
- Symbolised by change to colour
Casablanca
- Ilsa and Viktor walk into Rick`s Café Americain 1/4 through the movie
On the Waterfront
- When Brando`s character goes to leave the dead man`s sister after saying he can`t help, but then stays with her afterall
Gone with the wind
Civil war breaks out 1/4 of the way into the movie