“Screenplays are structure, and that’s all they are. The quality of writing – which is crucial in almost every other form of literature – is not what makes a screenplay work. Structure isn’t anything else but telling the story, starting as late as possible, starting each scene as late as possible.” William Goldman, Oscar-Winning screenwriter.
Storytelling: Beginning, Middle & End
When we learn to tell stories, we are often pointed in the direction of structure. People writing books to sell you the dream of a career in Hollywood talk about turning points and flag up the matching moments in highly successful films. There’s talk of 3 act screenplays, 5 acts (like Shakespeare’s plays), 9 acts and so on.
Ultimately though, all elements involved in telling a story are formed in 3 sections (or acts, if you want): beginning, middle and end.
- The Beginning: where we start.
- The Middle: where we travel through.
- The End: where we stop.
I’m sure you are familiar with the idea of the whole story having a beginning, middle and end. If you are writing a 90 minute screenplay, you will decide where the story starts, what happens to the characters for the duration of the film and then how it all resolves (or doesn’t resolve) before the screen fades to black and the credits roll.
You just read the beginning
By the way, this blog post will also have a beginning, middle and end, which I am consciously aware of as a writer. I want to make this blog post as interesting and engaging as possible, so I’ve structured it.
In the beginning, my task was to introduce you to the idea of structure in stories. So I had to spend a moment thinking about where best to begin. I tried to keep it simple and get to the focus of the article quickly, to draw you in at the same time.
Did I succeed? If you just read that last sentence, then I did.
It’s like building a ladder which you want people to climb: Make sure the first step of the ladder is within reach of someone’s foot when standing on the ground. Then set the next step so it’s easy to move up the ladder. Then the next and so on.
A good story does exactly that.
What if I’d started the blog like this: “On page 30, have your first major turning point propel the action from act 1 into act 2.”
If that was literally the first thing you read on this page, you would be excused for feeling a bit lost. Like you’d just walked into a classroom halfway through the lesson and you’re panicking hoping you can find a way to catch up somehow.
This would be like building a ladder with the first rung 6 feet from the floor. Then what chance have you of encouraging people to climb up?
Build a good ladder
When you come to think about where to start your story, think about where most people will be when the story starts: at ground level.
Remember that nobody has a clue what’s on your mind. Because it’s very easy to get so involved in your own story that you forget other people are at the bottom – they don’t even know your ladder exists. You have to go back to the beginning; go back to where you started before you got involved in this story.
To build a good ladder, you will want to space those steps evenly from the bottom to the top. Each step should be exactly the same distance apart and a good distance too: not too far so that each step is too hard to make, and not too near so that progress up the ladder is too slow.
Now that we’re in the middle…
We’re past 600 words here so – as I don’t want to write more than about 1200 words – we’re past the middle of the middle. That means you should already have a lot to think about and be well into the progress of the article. You should fully understand the point of what you’re reading by now. And hopefully more.
I’ve also introduced you to a visual metaphor for story structure (a ladder). I didn’t think of this until I started writing. It came to me instinctively and seemed like a good way to communicate to you the core idea for structuring stories.
The visual metaphor of the ladder enabled me to place the next rung on my ladder (if this blog is like a story ladder) to make the step easy. Why?
Well, I think nearly everyone reading this has used a ladder. And if you haven’t, you’ve seen someone else use one; it’s a concept nearly all of us can… grasp. Yes, like grasping the next rung of the ladder with your hands.
Let’s not forget we use our hands to climb a ladder too.
We should be thinking about the end now
Past 800 words, the end is on the horizon. If we look up and down, we’ll see we are nearer the top of the ladder than the bottom. My challenge as a storyteller is to keep you climbing, until the end. You’re probably starting to get a bit tired by now so I need to encourage you to keep going – you can do it!
Probably I’ll also need to introduce a new idea, or a fresh twist on the old idea, to keep your interest.
Did you know that there’s sets of “beginning, middle and end” within each beginning, middle and end section? Yes, the beginning has it’s own beginning, middle and end. And so does the middle. And so does the end.
Which in turn, when divided into sections, also each have their own beginning, middle and end. And so on, like Russian dolls, getting smaller and smaller, infinitely.
Look, each sentence of this blog has a beginning, middle and end. The beginning of the last sentence was “look”, the middle “each sentence of this blog has a”… you get the idea.
In video terms, each movie has a beginning, middle and end. Each act in the movie has a beginning middle and end. Each scene has a beginning, middle and end. And each shot has a beginning, middle and end…
Arcs with arcs within arcs within arcs…
And so we find ourselves at the end. I’ve told you everything I wanted to tell you in this blog. Hopefully, you feel that you have gained something from reading this far. Also, you’ll hopefully feel a little sad that it’s over.
I hope that you’ve enjoyed being with me, these last 1093 words. And that you’ll be eager to spend some time with me again tomorrow, when I present you with a new ladder-climbing opportunity.
The prize to take away from this story (as you’ve climbed so far, make sure it was worth the effort) is the importance of being aware of where everything in your story starts, where it travels through, and where it ends.
The End.
Consider Supporting us on Patreon.
We have a limited offer! Be listed on our exclusive filmmaker network page and submit any films to our festival free.
Eager to learn more?
Join our weekly newsletter featuring inspiring stories, no-budget filmmaking tips and comprehensive equipment reviews to help you turn your film projects into reality!
