Fixing Story Problems

It’s impossible to say what makes a film great. Useless to prescribe any rules, since often the best films break them anyway. A more helpful discussion, then, might be to talk about what makes a film bad — and what can be done about it (this is the helpful part).

Lately we’ve been reading Blake Snyder’s classic book on screenwriting, Save the Cat!, to see what lessons a major Hollywood screenwriter offers independent filmmakers like ourselves. One of the most useful sections comes toward the end, when Snyder discusses common story problems and what he suggests writers do about them. Even though we’re not particularly interested in writing the next Hollywood blockbuster, these tips were surprisingly great and helped clarify some story fundamentals in our minds. So we thought we’d share them.

...Read the full article here to find fixes for these common problem:

1. The Problem of the Passive Hero

2. The Problem of Talking the Plot

3. The Problem of Nothing on the Line

4. The Problem of One Thing After Another

5. The Problem of the Emotional Color Wheel

6. The Problem of Primality