From the course: Learning Screenwriting

What makes a good story? - Final Draft Tutorial

From the course: Learning Screenwriting

Start my 1-month free trial Buy for my team

What makes a good story?

"

- [Narrator] What makes a good story? Well, once upon a time there lived a clever little lad who took care of his mother on their farm. Then one day, a nasty giant attacked. It seems he couldn't be stopped. But the clever boy got his goose to honk at the giant, who had a giant heart attack and fell over, dead. And they all lived happily ever after, except for the giant who was dead. That's just a rough draft but it does fulfill the requirements of most good screen stories. It has a beginning, a middle and an end. Plus a few more essential milestones in between. Let's take a look. Firs, it establishes the world of the story. We meet a protagonist who wants something. In this case, to care for and protect his mother. We introduce an obstacle to the protagonist, getting what they want, a nasty giant. The protagonist does something to overcome the obstacle and fails. We tell you what finally happened. Thank goodness for geese. We show you what the new story world is like. Together, these simple steps underpin every good story. They reflect the essential nature of life. Change because that's what makes a story relatable. They do it in a way that focuses on conflict because, that is the heart of drama. And they enact that drama through distinctive characters. Yet you'd be surprised how many would-be storytellers leave out one or more of these fundamental steps, with fatal results. Fail to clearly identify the one or two heroes of your story and it quickly becomes vague and emotionless. Fail to assign a clear desire to your protagonist and your story won't compel attention. Put no obstacles between the hero and what they want and what you get isn't a story, it's, just boring. Fail to show your audience how your protagonist, your story world or both, have changed forever, renders your tale puzzling and disquieting. Like a sentence that's missing a period. Having every one of these tent poles propping up your narrative, still won't guarantee that your story is a good one. But not having them, is a guarantee that your story won't be anywhere near as good as it could be. So how to make sure that your story has this minimum basic structure. Once you've come up with what you think is a good storyline, run it past these questions. Who's your hero? What do they want? What gets in the way? What do they do about it? And what happens? If you have strong answers to these questions, you just may have the makings of a good story. And you'll live happily ever after.

Inhalt