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| Acknowledgments | |
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| Preface | |
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| Story and Storytelling | |
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| The Story | |
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| The Chronology of Events | |
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| A Crucial Paradox | |
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| Life Is What Happens | |
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| The World of the Story | |
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| Collisions | |
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| Where's the Antagonist? | |
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| Characters' Baggage and Unfinished Business | |
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| Lightning, Decisions, and Protagonists | |
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| Character Arc | |
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| What If This Story Were a Fairy Tale or Myth? | |
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| The Audience's Fragile Involvement | |
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| The Telling of the Story | |
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| The Seamless Dream | |
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| The Intended Impact | |
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| Camera as Storyteller | |
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| Genre, Style, and Tone | |
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| Separation of Experience and Knowledge | |
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| Hope versus Fear: The Creation of Tension | |
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| The "Game" of Storytelling | |
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| Building Stories | |
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| The Creation of Drama | |
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| Main Character or Ensemble Story? | |
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| Protagonist and the Creation of Story | |
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| Worthy Antagonist | |
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| Supportive and Reflective Characters | |
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| Tension from First to Last | |
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| Actions and Goals | |
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| Character Arc | |
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| Pivotal Decisions | |
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| Time Compression and Intensity | |
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| The Possible and the Impossible | |
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| Foundations | |
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| Building from the Ground Up | |
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| Main Character's Passion | |
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| Objective and Subjective Drama | |
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| Theme | |
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| Backstory | |
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| What's at Stake? | |
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| Six Types of Characters | |
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| Carpentry and Craftsmanship | |
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| Creating the Audience's Experience | |
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| Immediacy and the Sense of Here and Now | |
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| Exposition | |
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| Rising Action | |
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| Point of No Return | |
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| Willing Suspension of Disbelief | |
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| Demonstration versus Explanation | |
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| Number of Clearly Definable Characters | |
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| Character Motivations | |
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| Subtext | |
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| Recapitulations | |
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| Dealing with Coincidence | |
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| Creating Living Characters | |
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| Inner Life and Character Attitude | |
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| Protagonist and Antagonist | |
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| Secondary Characters | |
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| Underlying Motives | |
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| Time and Storytelling | |
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| Screen Time and Drama | |
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| Time and Complexity | |
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| Action Time | |
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| Amount of Story and Screen Time | |
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| Real Time versus Screen Time versus Time Frame | |
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| The Simplest Use of Time | |
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| Why Alter Simple Chronology? | |
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| Time and the Lives of the Characters | |
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| Objective Time and Subjective Time | |
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| Basic Dramatic Structure | |
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| What Is Drama? | |
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| The Three Acts | |
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| The Beginning: Engaging the Audience | |
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| The Middle: Elaborating and Extending the Engagement | |
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| The End: Releasing the Engagement | |
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| The Writer's Relationship to the Acts | |
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| Sequences | |
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| From Acts to Sequences | |
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| The Elements of a Sequence | |
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| Special Needs of the First Sequence | |
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| Pretitle Sequences and Codas | |
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| Crucial Moments | |
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| Crucial Moments in the Main Character's Life | |
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| Crucial Moments in the Telling of the Story | |
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| Subplots | |
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| The Role of Subplots | |
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| Subplot Characters | |
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| Beginning, Middle, and End | |
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| Resolution of Subplots and Main Plot | |
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| How to Weave in Subplots | |
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| The Classical Screenplay Structure | |
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| Main Character's Undisturbed Status Quo | |
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| Creating the Dilemma | |
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| Elaborating on the Dilemma and the World of the Story | |
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| First Potential Breakthrough | |
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| Main Subplot and Main Character | |
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| Greatest Exertion | |
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| False Resolution | |
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| Final Test of Character and True Resolution | |
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| Typical Placements and Proportions | |
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| Relationships of Midpoint, Culmination, and Resolution | |
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| Where Does "Climax" Fit In? | |
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| Beyond Classical Dramatic Structure | |
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| The Single Unbreakable Rule of Drama | |
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| Anything But Classical Screenplay Structure | |
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| Being Different | |
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| Breaking the Form | |
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| Storyteller Intentions and Priorities | |
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| The Limits of Classical, the Beginnings of Revolutionary | |
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| Are All "Revolutionary" Films Revolutionary? | |
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| Mainstream Experiments in Storytelling | |
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| A Few Lessons from Past Experiments | |
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| Storytelling Myths, Legends, and Lies | |
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| How to Shake Up Classical Structure-and Why | |
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| Why Some Stories Can't Be Classically Told | |
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| The Physics of Drama | |
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| How to Stir the Pot | |
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| Cost-Benefit Analyses with Rule-Breaking | |
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| Using the Rules to Break the Rules | |
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| Clarity and Obscurity | |
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| Writing and Work Strategies | |
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| Before the First Draft | |
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| What Keeps the Audience in Their Seats | |
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| Consider the Audience's Position | |
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| The First Draft | |
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| The Sequence Breakdown | |
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| The Step Outline | |
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| Writing the First Draft | |
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| After the First Draft | |
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| Clarifying Your Theme | |
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| Rewriting | |
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| Know Your Long Suit and Short Suit | |
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| Dramatic Instincts | |
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| A Final Note | |
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| Index | |
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| About the Author | |