Screenwriting : What Is Story? by Frankie Gaddo

You are 100% right. One of the hardest things for me as an actor to do is turn down roles because the script is very basic or lack much substance. Humans for the longest time enjoyed theatre because of the STORY

Characters on a journey (that hopefully someone wants to read, listen to, or see).

Best fortunes in your creative endeavors, Frankie!

The story is the depiction that makes the audience care about a person or situation getting what they most want/require while being denied what they want or require until we are convinced there is no way they will ever get it, and then in the end, sometimes they do and sometimes they don't, but we always really CARE. The story is the situations that create and drive character relatability/audience emotion and take us on an emotional journey where someone or something matures/awakens/is conquered/changes over time, the audience so drawn inside that they also experience metamorphosis.

Story must have several things

A point? Why does it exist

Internal logic. Characters must act true to character and have a purpose to their actions

A beginning, a middle and an end.

A story has a theme, mood or concept.

A story is not just a series of events. That can be a film or a piece of art. But that is not a story.

Also cadence, timing, and space. Dynamic range: highs and lows, discord and resolution, nuance and texture -- sprinkled with subtext, well-placed pointers, and a few potent, story-driving secrets. Great topic!

Simply put, a story is the telling or retelling of a series of events (imaginary or real) that leads to a conclusion. ;) A story often shares or explores or tests a point of view or attitude or subject or experience and/or is a means of presenting information or insight into the human condition. All stories have a teller and a listener, no? The next relevant questions are: What makes a story effective? What elements are found in great stories? What makes a story entertaining?

Story includes everything that's been pointed out above - and so much more. That's why I don't think you'll ever get a precise & concise 'sound bite' answer. As a reader of scripts, I can assure you that only a few screenwriters understand the importance of story. I can also say that there is a 'proper' (no rules) way to present a story - an 'improperly' presented script simply won't get read so its story (good/bad) really doesn't matter.

No-rules-proper, really Doug Nelson? What fresh hell is this? ;)

Story has been written and read since ancient Greeks, to Shakespeare through to Tarrantino. Story is complex, diverse and yet can evolve solely on the journey of one simple human being. A complex story is about TWO journeys the character takes, both psychological and physical, Internal and External. Eg External .....They have a goal, something or someone is stopping them and they prep a strategic plan in order to achieve goal but first couple of plans usually fail. Then the “Crucible” test occurs that ensues they either fail or succeed. Then they have an inner battle with some emotional memory or demon, its usually something that hurts only themselves and they need to figure a way out of the worst maze .....the problem within. Off course this is a very simple answer to a MEGA question but I could rant on for hours, so if someone wants my full input they can private message me. I studied with script gurus who have different takes on this topic, yet whom all share the common denominator of Internal and External battles. Scott Myers has cool info if you can’t get to his classes @intothestory also John Truby has free blogs and Linda Aronson has free info if join her email. I studied in person with these guys, also did masterclasses with others who don’t have free blogs I can recommend here. Eg Christopher Vogler delves into ancient writings to pinpoint the journey of a character’s (hero’s) journey The beauty of story is it can be about absolutely anybody, absolutely anywhere but reader must bond in some way to care about their plight. Love, hate, empathise etc.

Cheryl - what I mean by 'proper' way of presenting a story via screenplay - what I think of as script format - is that it (the script) ought to be presented in a generally industry recognized traditional script format. But there is so,e flexibility to that format; so there are no hard & fast 'Rules'. Scripts that deviate significantly from these long standing customs and traditions will be summarily passed over by entry level Reader Interns so as to never make up the Reader ladder so that the story - good/bad - will not be exposed to those who and move it up through the many levels it takes to reach the 'green light' stage. That's not fresh hell but it's just the way it is & has been.

Like a comic is a series of images that convey an idea, a story is a series of narrative retellings that convey an idea. It could be two or three or 1,000 little episodes. “Priest walks into a bar and says, ‘Ow,’” meets the minimum requirements, as does Ulysses.

A series of unfortunate events, placed upon compelling characters, who are driven by something that propels a plot from start to finish.

The journey of a character or characters - and piggybacking on that journey - JAMES CAMERON

A presentation of events, real or fictitious, that are connected by a theme or narrative.

Change, lessons, learning, theme

Back to your comment, Doug, if you're still checking this thread — what percentage of the scripts you read would you say are properly formatted to industry standard? And what percentage of these are well crafted stories?

Cheryl Boyles format has nothing to do with story. Format is just an accepted norm, nothing more. If something is great but not formatted correctly it would still be read and purchased. It may be overlooked by people that can’t really assess the value of work.

If format was the only thing in assessing story people would never purchase rights of novels. Format can be fixed to please the story myopic.

I'm not confused about the two, Craig, as I learned to write scripts to industry standard miles ahead of my ability to craft a story, which is still, and ever will be, evolving. I'm just curious to know how much quality material script readers are seeing, and wondering, like everyone here, how to get my projects noticed.

Cheryl. More often than not if a readers sees a lot of formatting error or the script is overwritten they are going to assume the screenwriter doesn't have much experience so reading the entire screenplay would probably be a waste of time. If they have a stack of script to read the trash-bin will look awfully apearling after reading the first ten pages.

Readers at Agencies and Prod Companies rarely see weird formatting. It's understood that a submitted screenplay by a repped screenwriter knows basic formatting. It's been vouched before Readers do coverage. It's not the Reader's job to comment on formatting. We're reading for concepts and storytelling geniuses.

Readers are reading piles of garbage. The reason is there is no barrier to entry. You can open up a word processor and bang out a screenplay. You can go crazy and buy software to format it (that makes them feel professional).

So millions of scripts are written, formatted perfect because of the software, which are absolute garbage. A lot of these people never write a second. Some do. The biggest thing that separates them from writers. Is that they focus on everything except the craft.

Story is the power to make someone reading, care

So over the dozens of scripts I've read this summer, separating the okay from the good. Relating directly to What is story. Breaks down to this IMO:

Good scripts:

Character motivations. They WANT something. Internal or external narrative.

The story moves from scene to scene with a strong driving narrative or conflict. Some form of action is DRIVING the story forward.

There is a natural progression. Meaning the stakes are raised organically until the natural De-escalation.

I've read a lot of scripts that are beautifully written, the scenes are gorgeous, characters are interesting. Yet there is nothing to bring it all together. Nothing to rally behind. Empathize with.

That may seem like some more platitudes so lets compare two really simple examples.

Johnny has to find a job or else his parents are going to kick him out (external motivation). Johnny is given ten days (urgency). He fails over and over. Five days left, he doesn't get the job. Two days left. Nothing. He has ten hours left. The parents don't think he is even trying. So they are going to kick him out and take away his car (raising the stakes). Until the last hour he gets a phone call from someone who's seen him handing out resumes for ten days straight, showing his true character.

VS

Johnny is lazy and is told he needs to get a job. He as a hard time finding one. Has a rough go for a couple of weeks. Finally lands the job.

My examples aren't perfect (I wrote them on the fly). These are simply but IMO sum up a lot of stories. Even if in the second example, Johnny has to fight a tiger to get to a job. Then is abducted by aliens before another interview. While these may be interesting instances or scenes. There is no story without the driving forces or narratives. Hope this helps.

Cheryl - I really hesitate about giving you a precise percentage but I've observed that a great majority are not presented in anything close to a recognisable 'industry standard' script format (I no longer read the number of scripts that I used to). The real difficulty with an improperly formatted script (there is some slack) is that it throws the reader out of the story line. Maybe it's a good story, maybe not - but nobody's gonna read it to find out. Of the few well formatted scripts that I've read - very few show an interesting story. Most are clieshed re-hashes or to small to have audience appeal.

So, a person who has been told her whole life that she is a gifted writer but has refused to believe it, now thinks she has a great, non-cliched story, well written and in industry standard format. How does she get it noticed?

Story is important but it is not everything if we are talking about spec screenplays. Sure you need a good story that someone would think would make a good movie or they won't want to waste their time reading the screenplay. If they do request the screenplay and it's overwritten and reads more like a novel than a screenplay they probably won't read past a the first few pages and why not. They would assume the screenwriter doesn't have a much experience and reading it would probably turn out to be a waste of their time. If the screenplay has a lot of formatting error and doesn't follow any structure the script will have to work twice as harder to convince them Also contacts are everything in this business so even if you have a great story you want the person reading it to think that you know the business and how to write for it because maybe they will consider you for an assignment or recommend you or at least be willing to read more of your screenplays in the future. Just my opinion based on my own experience.

Cheryl. One thing I did to get noticed was to attach some well-known directors to my screenplays so I could use their name and credits to make my screenplays more marketable.

Cheryl Boyles I would drop the focus on “industry standard format” and replace that with something about excellence. Software can guarantee format so everyone has that. If everyone has something it is a benefit to no one.

These are my internal questions.

* Why does the world need this story?

* Is there a real identifiable audience for this story?

* Can this be made into a movie?

* Can it be made in a reasonable budget?

* Does it have a real theme?

* Does it have real characters to work with?

These answers will trigger more questions.

You stand out by producing great work that can make money for people that are willing to invest in it. This will either get you a sale or work because you prove you can write in that way.

People will tell you budget, look etc are a producers or directors job. That is correct once there is one. Until then those jobs are yours.