Film Courage: Why does story structure exist?
Cody Smart, Writer/Script Doctor/Teacher: I think that story structure exists because people have
expectations obviously it all started in my opinion with Aristotle's Poetics. He described
the three act structure he described the way stories move but it's not just that it's the
fact that we want to see a journey and regardless of what story structure you're following or what
school of thought you're following you want to see a journey you don't want to
see someone doing something and then not see an ending you don't want to see someone just
remain the same through an entire story so I think that you need structure because you need
pattern of change you need to have a protagonist that is going through something and because of
the events of the story they change they arc they grow in a way that by the end they don't
necessarily become a whole new person obviously but they've been affected by those events and they
have overcome something or they have changed in a way or something has happened to them so I think
that structure is that is the expectations that we have but also because that's the way life works
it's like from birth till death you expect that journey so there are steps to follow and I think
that's what we want to see in a story obviously we're not watching someone literally from death
from birth to death but we're watching even if it's a snippet of their story we still want to
follow a beginning middle and end and just like in life it's not just constant action
there's resting points exactly and there's times when nothing's happening it's totally boring and
then there's other times where you wish it was boring and so it's kind of so those are kind of
like the turning points of the story right like something happens to you when we would call that
maybe the inciting incident right that disrupts the world of your protagonist and then maybe
we get a little leeway because they're trying to assess what they want but then the midpoint comes
and something terrible happens and we go into a new direction and then things like that so like
we're having this ups and downs but hopefully through that your protagonist is changing
right there's some flaw that they have and some goal that they have that probably oppose each
other so we're trying to track that arc and that change what confuses writers most about structure
I think that for writers the problem is that they're either trying to follow a formula or
they're forgetting that structure and character are connected so yes there are a lot of formulas
out there right the three act structure the eighth sequence approach save the cat here is Journey so
many more but I don't think screenwriting should be a fill in the blanks type of thing it should be
more creative than that obviously those are great ways to kind of map out a story and I use them
myself when I'm writing I love the eight sequence approach which I'm super OCD about things and I
liked mapping it but it's also because it works and it gives you ideas of turning points at the
same time I don't believe things should be at minute 12 that should happen I mean at 24 that
should happen it's not that level of exact science but I think that when you're tracking structure
and when you're working with things like that you are trying to get somewhere in that sense you need
a path you need to follow something like that so I think that one of the problems for writers is that
structure needs to be linked to that character as I was saying so they kind of like
make things happen to the character instead of the character making things happen and that's
what I see the most so it shouldn't just be that things are changing in the world it should be the
way the character is doing things that are impacting him and are changing things that
are happening so a hero should be there and kind of like giving obstacles to themselves in a way
we talk about breaking bad right Walter White is his own enemy in a way and by the end he becomes
his own antagonist but he is constantly doing things that are just impeding what where he wants
to go and how to get to that goal at one point obviously he gets money crazy and power crazy
and then he starts doing things that are going to get him eventually caught so if we're tracking a
structure those are the things that we should be thinking of that change and the character that
if we're thinking about a feature obviously there should be that womb at the beginning or that flaw
that the protagonist has that we're tracking through these turning points and that's why we
need structure and that's one of the things that writers tend to forget they should be the turning
points should be emotional turning points for the protagonist they shouldn't just be changes
like oh this big things happen that's external to the characters it should be linked to them
so we were talking about Juno at another section and let's suppose we decide to write a screenplay
Juno 20 years later maybe she's got a pretty good paying job somewhere how would we make it where is
things start happening to her or she's initiating it so she gets a letter from someone saying
I'm the child you gave up for adoption or she's looking for that child what would you what would
make it more interesting I think that in that case it's interesting if I were writing this
if she go where to get the letter because that disrupts her world right maybe she's think bad
let's say she gets this letter right maybe she gets the letter at a time where she's thinking
about having kids with a spouse at that point right so getting this letter disrupts her plans
because she was thinking about having kids which obviously for her at that point would be hard
right she gave up her baby years ago when she was a teenager now she's at a point in her life where
she's ready to have a kid she has a wife or a husband or whatever a partner and she wants to
have a family right what if that happened and then she gets the letter from the child she gave up I
want to meet so what do you do and that becomes something about her yes there's an external thing
that happens this letter that comes but it will directly affect her emotional core wound
and flaw obviously for her she might have always wondered about what if I had kept this baby what
if so getting that letter will shake her world but she still needs to arc and grow she needs
to for example accept that she gave up that baby and accept that things turned out a certain way
at the same time maybe she needs to come to terms with the fact that yes that's something
she had to do in the past but now she's in a different position and she could have a
baby maybe when she was having that discussion when the letter came she wasn't sure and her
partner wanted to have a baby but she's still struggling with can I have another baby maybe
should I have another baby I'm imagining all of the things that would go on in her head like
should I be having a baby I already gave one up is it okay if I have one all of these things that
she might be questioning are the things that are going to move the story forward and along right so
every turning point later would have to do with that then maybe at the first act turning point
she will meet this kid and then that will be her journey that she'll set out through the remainder
of the story right act two is where that journey will get explored then maybe my the midpoint
she realizes she is pregnant or something like that and then what will she do this
time around and things like that they just could keep evolving but all tracks through her emotional
journey which again is linked to that core wound that she has connected to what happened in her
past and that she needs to overcome by the end of the story and that in that climax she would
be hopefully realizing okay I'm okay with my past I can move forward and I can have a life.