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| Foreword | |
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| Preface | |
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| Getting ideas | |
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| Creativity and general problem-solving | |
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| Understanding the writing process | |
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| De Bono's creativity theories and screenwriting | |
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| What causes weak writing | |
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| How to use vertical and lateral thinking | |
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| The Development Strategies method | |
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| Development Strategies 1 and 2: diagnosis and general problem-solving | |
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| Getting good ideas fast from screen models | |
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| Writing to a screen model | |
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| Getting ideas for a film (for example, a low-budget romance) | |
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| Genre and audience expectations | |
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| Pitfalls of genre | |
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| Combining genres | |
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| Inventing genres | |
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| Getting good ideas fast from fairytale, myth and fable | |
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| Getting story ideas from Cinderella | |
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| Fairytales as templates for thrillers | |
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| Myth, fable and literature | |
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| Getting good ideas fast from non-narrative triggers | |
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| The outside world | |
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| Social roles or behaviors | |
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| Events | |
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| Photographs, music, art works and other sensory stimuli | |
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| Concepts and themes | |
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| Finding other triggers | |
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| Narrative structure | |
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| Overview of traditional narrative structure | |
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| Parallel storytelling is driven by the three-act structure | |
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| Structure = good timing | |
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| Visualizing the three-act structure | |
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| The importance of the protagonist | |
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| Assembling the fragments | |
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| Making a structure chart | |
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| Nine steps to a three-act structure | |
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| Subplot/background story/relationship line | |
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| Index cards | |
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| Development Strategies for a traditional three-act film | |
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| Parallel storytelling | |
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| Getting a good setup | |
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| Finding the action line | |
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| Conflict and the chain of events | |
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| Action line and relationship line | |
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| Three-act structure in the relationship line | |
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| Protagonist and antagonist | |
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| Relationship line antagonists and action line antagonists | |
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| Getting into character | |
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| Laying the foundations for suspense and surprise | |
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| Second-act complications | |
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| The second-act turning point | |
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| Finding the climax | |
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| Resolution and ending | |
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| Final steps before the first draft | |
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| Finding the story sentence (advanced form) | |
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| Checking that the relationship line is moving | |
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| Close planning | |
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| Opening scenes | |
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| Symbolism and myth | |
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| Specific plotting problems: adaptation | |
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| Specific plotting problems: comedy and satire | |
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| Specific plotting problems: the short film | |
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| Specific plotting problems: the journey film | |
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| Rewrites and problem-solving generally | |
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| Using criticism to best advantage | |
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| Structural analysis of The Piano | |
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| Alternative narrative structures: flashback | |
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| Varieties of parallel narrative | |
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| Narrative told in flashbacks | |
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| What is flashback narrative? | |
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| Other versions of flashback | |
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| Flashback as illustration | |
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| Flashback as life-changing incident | |
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| Autobiographical flashback narrative | |
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| Plot requirements in flashback narrative | |
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| Requirements of the story in the past and the story in the present | |
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| Three-act structure in flashback narrative | |
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| Full circle, chronologically | |
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| The hook/triggering crisis | |
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| Varieties of flashback narrative | |
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| Differences between thwarted dream and case history | |
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| Protagonist and antagonist | |
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| When to use flashback as case history | |
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| The investigator | |
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| Climax twist | |
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| When to use flashback as thwarted dream | |
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| Protagonist and antagonist | |
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| Pursuit of the dream | |
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| New understanding in the third act | |
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| Living the dream | |
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| The ticking clock | |
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| Restoring the balance | |
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| Thwarted dream becoming case history | |
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| Autobiographical flashback | |
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| Flashback as life-changing incident | |
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| Other flashback uses in Catch-22 | |
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| Recurrent flashback as moment of calm | |
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| Quick reference guide to using flashback narrative | |
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| Plot material | |
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| The past | |
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| Detective element | |
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| The enigmatic outsider | |
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| Thwarted dream or case history | |
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| Protagonists and antagonists | |
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| Hunt, quest, or journey | |
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| Structure in flashback narrative | |
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| Length | |
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| Three-act structure | |
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| Flashbacks appear chronologically | |
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| Placing and content | |
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| Protagonist and antagonist | |
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| The story in the present | |
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| The story in the past | |
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| Triggering crisis | |
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| Contents of triggering crisis | |
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| Full circle | |
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| Third-act quest | |
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| Stories in tandem | |
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| No pursuit of the dream | |
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| Method for constructing flashback narrative | |
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| Exercise in creating flashback narrative | |
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| Standard Cinderella story | |
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| Cinderella as thwarted dream | |
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| Cinderella as case history | |
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| Using other sorts of flashback | |
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| Turning Cinderella into flashback as life-changing incident | |
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| Turning Cinderella into autobiographical flashback | |
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| Incorporating flashback as memory into Cinderella | |
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| Incorporating alternative versions of events via flashback | |
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| Starting flashbacks at the disturbance and ending just after the first-act turning point | |
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| Structure charts of flashback narrative | |
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| Shine | |
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| The Remains of the Day | |
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| The Usual Suspects | |
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| Citizen Kane | |
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| The Sweet Hereafter | |
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| Tandem narrative and sequential narrative | |
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| Advantages and problems | |
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| Closure and meaning | |
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| Pace and jeopardy | |
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| Length | |
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| Problems with closure, meaning, and pace: case studies | |
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| Magnolia | |
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| Short Cuts | |
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| Go | |
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| Sliding Doors | |
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| Techniques to handle closure, pace, jeopardy, and length | |
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| Three films that solve the problems | |
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| City of Hope | |
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| Facilitating characters | |
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| Meaning, connection, pace, and closure | |
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| Close weave | |
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| Crimes and Misdemeanors and Pulp Fiction | |
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| Pace | |
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| Structure | |
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| Tandem narrative in Crimes and Misdemeanors | |
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| Pulp Fiction: closure by portmanteau plot | |
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| City of Hope, Crimes and Misdemeanors, and Pulp Fiction as models | |
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| Actor improvisation and the macro | |
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| Multiple protagonists and antagonists | |
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| How all the narratives fit together | |
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| Group action line or survival macro | |
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| Responses by individuals to the common problem (macro plot) | |
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| Relationships between individuals | |
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| The dominant character | |
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| The outsider | |
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| The traitor within | |
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| Creating a strong multiple protagonist/antagonist structure | |
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| Group action line (survival macro) | |
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| The group as a family | |
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| The threat to the group | |
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| Steps in the action line | |
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| The disturbance and "whose film is it?" | |
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| Normality | |
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| Skeletal structure of the macro/action line | |
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| Relationship lines | |
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| Quest films | |
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| Relationship lines | |
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| Reunion films | |
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| A macro that leads to closure | |
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| The group on the cusp of change | |
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| Siege films | |
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| Siege structure in American Beauty | |
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| Lost in the telling: films with structural flaws | |
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| Prelude to a Kiss | |
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| Falling in Love | |
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| Wedlock | |
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| Jaws 3 | |
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| Jack and Sarah | |
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| Guarding Tess | |
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| Mr. Saturday Night | |
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| Parallel Lives | |
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| Common script problems | |
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| Why a script might feel slow | |
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| Why a script might feel boring | |
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| Why a script might fizzle | |
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| Getting it onto paper | |
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| Dialogue | |
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| Different dialogue skills | |
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| Dialogue and structure | |
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| Writing dialogue | |
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| Visuals and sound | |
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| Real time | |
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| Getting information across (exposition) | |
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| Talking heads and poor exposition | |
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| Keeping to the point | |
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| Pace | |
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| Character and emotions behind the words (subtext) | |
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| To get into character for the scene | |
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| Productive conflict and redundant conflict | |
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| Self-control | |
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| Acting and camera directions | |
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| Writing well for the camera | |
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| Examples of flawed dialogue writing | |
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| "Going on holiday" (Version 1) | |
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| "Going on holiday" (Version 2) | |
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| "The Breakup" (Version 1) | |
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| "The Breakup" (Version 2) | |
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| "The Breakup" (Version 3) | |
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| Treatment writing and the script as instruction manual | |
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| What is a treatment? | |
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| What distracts readers from the film in their heads? | |
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| What is the sequence about? | |
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| Action | |
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| Emotional state of the characters | |
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| New details that will be important later | |
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| Position | |
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| Mood | |
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| Going to cards before writing the treatment | |
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| Exercise in treatment technique | |
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| Poor treatment writing | |
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| Better treatment writing--alternative versions | |
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| Points to remember | |
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| Scene breakdowns and stage directions | |
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| Strategy for writing under pressure | |
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| Filmography | |
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| Bibliography | |
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| Index | |
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| About the Author | |