Does your story start at the beginning and run straight through? Do you pick it up late, and double back to tell the tale? Do you go Memento and get completely unconventional?

Think of structure as the movie clock. Conventional stories are told in linear fashion, from 12:01am to midnight. Sure, there can be flashbacks, but these serve to conventionally drive the story forward. An example of this is The Babe. Pick up The Bambino dropped off by daddy at Catholic school. Follow the fat, unpopular boy through school; see him pick up the bat for the first time, his first baseball contract, his time in Boston, then the New York fame, a best-of series of golden moments until his death.

More unconventionally is Tarantino in Pulp Fiction. He uses non-linear structure, agile transpositions in time, advancing story out of order.

How about Citizen Kane? The movie picks up at 11:30pm on the clock, very near the end. Kane’s “Rosebud” death scene leads to the investigation of what the word Rosebud meant, which leads to a linear structure following the life of Kane, the glorious rise and fall. The whole movie, then, is told in linear flashback. The search for the meaning of the word Rosebud doesn’t come full circle until the final image of the sled in the fire. The movie clocks chimes midnight, and we have gone full circle.

The method of starting the movie at or near the end is often used. Two old Pacino movies I like to compare structurally are Carlito’s Way and Serpico. They are identical; opening with Pacino shot and on a gurney, one as a PR drug lord, and another as valiant real-life cop Frank Serpico. Both movies show how the men were shot, the story behind the shootings. This is useful when the movie is a real life story.

Milk opens the same way. Documentary footage of Milk’s assassination opens the movie. Why? Because it’s common knowledge the man was shot. Everyone paying a ticket knows that. What they didn’t know is the how, the story behind the story. Who was Dan White and how did this terrible event happen? This is what the movie delivers.

Some movies defy conventional structural boundaries. Mulholland Drive and Memento obliterate standard linear storytelling. In the case of Memento, the story of a man with selective memory disease should play out from a tortured, non-linear POV.

When choosing a time frame for your story, keep in mind there are many patterns beside the standard linear progression. Find what works best for you, and write the hell out of it.

So many gurus, so little time…

Who do you like, Dara Marks or Blake Snyder? Go Old School with Syd Field or Robert McKee? How about looking over the grand-daddy of ‘em all, the Hero’s Journey by Joseph Campbell?

What’s wrong with books that help thousands of people conceptualize their writing?

Nothing at all.

So what’s my issue with the writers of screenplay-structure books?

For one, I start scratching when you tell me that EVERY movie fits into the 15 categories of your system. What if I can’t find  my “Come To Jesus!” moment? How about if I don’t have a “Protagonist’s Pink Elephant” scene? Guess I’m screwed…

I’m talking about not falling into the trap. What trap? Taking marching orders from gurus who would have you shoe-horn your story into pre-fab structural systems that might have absolutely no bearing on what you’re trying to do. You think Altman worried about his Inciting Incident? Think Cassavettes or Fellini concerned themselves with Plot Points?

These are storytellers first and foremost, and I guess that’s my point: Don’t make structuring your story more important than the story itself.

Judith Malina, founder of the Living Theater (and Grandmama in the Adams Family movie) once told me: “First, I figure out what it is exactly I want to say. Then I say it.” Simple. Why are you writing this story? What is it that resonates with you? You need to know this up front. Then you can worry about how you will tell the tale. I somehow can’t see Judith Malina ever concerning herself with whether her plays fit into perfect 3-Act Structure.

The tale and the telling of the tale—concern yourself with these, you can’t go wrong.

This is not meant as a full-on attack on structure. I told you last week I outline myself, I need my Linus Blanket. And yes, I use an off-shoot of the Syd Field system. Without going into detail (nobody peddles Syd better than Syd) you can see his “Paradigm” method is standard 3-Act structure originated in ancient Greek drama. The movie is broken up into 3 Acts, 3 Acts broken up into 10-15 page Sequences, Sequences broken up into multiple Scenes. First and Third Acts of equal length. Second Act twice as long as First and Third. Thus, say, in a 100 page drama:

ACT 1 = 1-25

ACT 2 = 25- 75

ACT 3 = 75- 100

Lynch pin scenes are Plot Points. These are scenes so important there would be no movie without them. They are also the two scenes that end one act and begin another. Because the Syd Field model is so prevalent, I’ll show one example before we move on. Here’s Plot Point 1 from The Matrix:

Here’s the scene:

Matrix–The Pill

Neo has to swallow the red pill! If he swallows the blue pill, there ain’t no movie! He takes the red pill and we’re off to Wonderland. In classic Syd Field structure, Act 1 ends here. Then comes Act 2:  The bungee-chord fights, the Oracle, the betrayal by Cypher, and Morpheus taken by the Agents. This leads us to Plot Point 2:

Now, what if Neo had said: “You know, Trinity, you’re looking mighty fine in that black latex. Why don’t we just chill, order in some fake Moo Goo Gai Pan, maybe some cyber-Chicken Tikka with paprika? Morpheus will be fine. He’s going to a truer, better place.”

If Neo doesn’t rescue Morpheus, there’s no movie. The whole Act 3 of The Matrix is the Morpheus rescue, one long action sequence, followed by Neo’s realization that he’s “The One”, the vanquishing of Agent Smith, etcetera.

All these structural systems seek to accomplish the same thing: To order chaos. Or, as Mamet defined 3-Act structure: ORDER—CHAOS—RE-ORDER.

When you’re first starting out, you’re at the idea stage. This can be intimidating. It can also be exciting, and an opportunity. From here you can take your story, literally, in any direction. Pitch the idea to an “inner circle” to get feedback.  Open yourself up to multiple possibilities. Consider: “If A happens, then…” “If B happens, then…” Note what strikes you—or others—as  implausible. See the multiple paths your movie can take, pick the one you want to write, and then write it.

In the idea stage, never censor yourself. There will be plenty of time for criticism. Let the first, rough draft be the one you want to write.  Work your scene lists, build continuity. Make sure every scene is necessary to advance character or plot.  Plotting Point A to Z, you’ll have the road map in front of you. If you get stuck, you move on to the next scene which is already “written” in outline form.

Some people want a more organic approach. They want surprise. They want the characters to dictate dialogue and action and story. The upside to not outlining is freshness, spontaneity. The downside? What happens when you get to page 62 and your characters suddenly stop speaking to you? This is how writer’s block commences. This is how scripts are abandoned.

This is a process choice. My outlining, occasionally, has taken months. Breaking the full story down.  But once done, the script, I find, writes itself very fast. I prefer this approach, if only because it’s what I’ve always done. Call it artistic insecurity, call it a Linus Blanket.

Make your own choice to outline or not. But make it your choice.

Matrix– Lobby Scene

“What make screenplays difficult are the things that require the most discipline and care and are just not seen by most people. I’m talking about movement — screenwriting is related to math and music, and if you zig here, you know you have to zag there. It’s like the descriptions for a piece of music — you go fast or slow or with feeling. It’s the same.”   –Robert Towne

Beautiful thought from a man whose movies will be around 100 years from now. He’s talking about balance, about setups and payoffs, and about structure.

This leads us to the question of outlining. Will you outline your movie or will you not?

Outlining, for me, is a Linus Blanket. You might not need it, but you feel better with it wrapped around you. So, how does one outline? The Old School/Syd Field Method is to write out every scene of your movie on 3-by-5  index cards, place the cards on a table in sequential order, and then begin the vetting process of determining that every scene is necessary. You break it down by Act 1-2-3. Double-check the order of your scenes. Is it logical? Is it inevitable? Does it make sense? Is your movie compelling, void of fat, relentless?

I personally outline (though not in Syd Field-style, and not because Syd says I must do so). At Chicago Filmmakers or Columbia College, and with every client I work with, the screenwriter has the option to outline or not. This is about process. Your process. What process do you feel most comfortable with as a writer? Maybe you want discovery, you don’t want to know exactly what happens. One writer described it as taking a vacation and knowing not only every road you’ll drive but every twist in the road ahead of time. Some writers are more intuitive, the last thing they want to do is kill the spontaneous writing impulse by outlining.

I am not one of those writers. I need my Linus Blanket!

Maybe you have a story idea but nothing more. You’ve got the plot but no firm characters yet. Or you might have all the characters, even down to how they talk, but aren’t 100% sure about where the story should go. How should you go about outlining?

Find your strength, and write to it.

Let’s say you know the story. You know what-where-why-how things will happen. Begin by writing down—with a one or two line description–every scene that’s in your mind. It might look something like this:

FINAL DRAFT CARDS

This is the Final Draft outline for my screenplay CROSSROADERS. It details the opening of the movie, scene by scene. If you have screenwriting software, you can create a “card” by typing in a slugline: INT. DANNY’S ROOM- NIGHT, followed by a single line or two of the action of the scene. You don’t need any more than that, just the slugline and a single line about what will happen.