While story keeps us wanting, it’s the scenes that keep us watching. If there’s one area of screenwriting craft discussion that frustrates me, it’s the lack of focus on scene mechanics. In fact, while I’ve seen screenwriters lose their minds over incorrectly formatted slug-lines, I’ve seen those same screenwriters discard any conversation about how to structure scenes as overthinking things. This is the sad and all-too-common side of screenwriting, where we obsess over the easy and avoid the difficult. As you can probably tell, this is something that really grinds my gears. The most notable difference I observe between good writers and bad writers is their ability to craft scenes that advance the story, character development, and overall theme.
Emotion Equals Entertainment
If there’s one book I feel every screenwriter should buy or pester their local library to stock, it’s Karl Iglesias’ Writing For Emotional Impact, and I know I’m not the only writer who feels this way. There’s really no substitute for reading the book itself, but to summarise its message, we find emotion compelling, be it via poetry, novels, or movies. There is no substitute. As screenwriters, it’s our job to work out how to bring the most amount of emotion to a scene in the form of happiness, amusement, fascination, excitement, anger, fear, and sadness.
End the Writer’s Block Standoff With a Bullet Point to the Head
We need to abandon the notion that we are merely creative printers that churn out material from a spool of paper. The typewriter is dead. We do not need to pain ourselves with a blank sheet of paper and curse ourselves when we can’t continue to write near-perfect prose. In fact, this outdated concept of writing most likely does us more harm than good, as we become distracted by the superficial when we should really be concerned with the foundations. We are writers, not typists.
Bullet point everything you have and move on. If you’re using a story structure, then just bullet point the key sections (Yearn, Learn, Turn, Burn, Earn) and add more bullet points under those sections until your page becomes pages. Let beats become sequences, let sequences become scenes, let scenes become a story. Bullet points are easy to go in and change, so there’s less to worry about in terms of committing material to the page. Use a note system to capture your ideas electronically and easily copy and paste them into your bullet points. Then, when you’re finally happy with everything, you can start with the formatting and flowery prose, knowing exactly where you are going and being able to focus on what really matters.
Writing blind can too often be writing in fear. Imagine trying to perfectly paint a blank canvas by starting in the top corner and having no idea what the final image will be. No sketching out. No thought about proportions. No consideration of colour. That would be considered madness, or at best, a poor way to execute craft.
Scene Structure and a Nice Big Bowl of PASTO
While there are an endless number of story structure concepts out there, little seems to exist for movie scene structure, and I find that a shame since this is where the rubber really hits the road. We’re advised to come in late and leave early, have some sort of turnaround, use conflict, and that’s about it. It’s really weak. We’re also told that every line in a scene should move the story forward, but we know there’s a rich cinematic tapestry of great movie scenes that can stand alone and would be redundant within a story if it weren’t for the fact that they are entertaining to watch.
For me, PASTO was a revelation. It was something I learned from another working screenwriter. PASTO stands for: Preparation, Attack, Struggle, Turnaround, Outcome. It’s all about how a scene flows in terms of what characters want to happen, how they try to make it happen, and how they have to deal with the results.
Preparation – The characters go into the scene wanting something and already knowing the obstacles that face them and the likely conflict that will arise, and thus have some form of action prepared on their part.
Action – The characters interact, and the conflict unfolds.
Struggle – The conflict becomes more dramatic as the character’s actions heighten the conflict.
Turnaround – Something significant and surprising happens as a result of the drama.
Outcome – The characters are now burdened with tackling the new issue that the turnaround has brought about.
Now I think the first reaction screenwriters have when they look at PASTO is “Holy crap! That’s a lot to try and cram in a movie scene!” and it would be, but that’s the wrong way of looking at it. A character’s entire backstory is too much to cram into a movie, as is every detail about their fantasy universe. We cannot afford the page space to log every thought of theirs. PASTO is no different. It just means we build more behind the scenes and focus on the dynamic that the audience becomes invested in. It looks like more work, but it actually makes writing scenes easier as it encourages us to focus on the mechanics and reasoning at play. PASTO helps you get from point A to point B in the most entertaining way possible.
TURN & BURN SCENE DEVELOPMENT WORK SHEET **************************************** WHAT NEEDS TO HAPPEN TO PROGRESS THE STORY? ------------------------------------------------------------------------- WHAT DO THE CHARACTERS WANT? ------------------------------------------------------------------------- WHAT'S IN THEIR WAY? ------------------------------------------------------------------------- HOW DO THE CHARACTERS PREPARE TO GET WHAT THEY WANT? ------------------------------------------------------------------------- HOW DO THE CHARACTERS COME INTO CONFLICT? ------------------------------------------------------------------------- HOW DOES THE CONFLICT BECOME MORE CHALLENGING? ------------------------------------------------------------------------- WHAT IS THE A REVERSAL/REVELATION? ------------------------------------------------------------------------- HOW DO THE CHARACTERS ADAPT AND GET WHAT THEY WANT? ------------------------------------------------------------------------- WHAT PRICE IS PAID? ------------------------------------------------------------------------- WHAT IS THE OUTCOME AND NEW GOAL? ------------------------------------------------------------------------- WHAT CHARACTER EXPOSITION AND DIMENSIONS ARE SHOWN? ------------------------------------------------------------------------- WHAT QUESTIONS HAVE BEEN PLANTED? ------------------------------------------------------------------------- CONFLICT ENVIRONMENTAL/INTERNAL: ------------------------------------------------------------------------- HERO CONTRAST PERSONAL/ENVIRONMENTAL: ------------------------------------------------------------------------- THEME: ------------------------------------------------------------------------- HOW CAN THE AUDIENCE EMOTIONALLY RELATE? ------------------------------------------------------------------------- SCORES: Action: Humor: Emotion: Tension: ------------------------------------------------------------------------- NOTES: