How to Structure Your Screenplay: Master The Script Writing

Hello and welcome to this series covering the fundamentals of screenwriting and storytelling.

Tyler Mowery

If you're new to screenwriting you may have googled story structure or screenwriting structure and come across a lot of different books graphs articles and posts all giving their two cents as to what actually makes a well-structured screenplay. 

Screenplays have specific points.

There's a lot of people saying that screenplays have specific points and moments that are universal to every script and there's a lot of people on the other side that hate these ideas and think that trying to say every screenplay has 5 points or 15 or 22 is academic garbage used to sell books and workshops. so who's right is there a best script structure should you even think about script structure before you start writing. 

I believe that there is a way to look at story structure that is practically helpful for screenwriters whether they're stuck figuring out their full screenplay an act or even a scene.  

Today I want to identify the essential elements of a story and how they can be used in the writing process let's begin by reviewing traditional screenplay structure.  

Screenplays in three acts.

Screenplays are traditionally separated into three acts act one usually takes around 25 percent of the screenplay it sets up the story and sends the main character on his or her journey.  Act 2 comprises about 50 of a screenplay and involves the protagonist going through various obstacles learning to fail and getting closer to their goal. Act 3 contains the climax which is the highest point of conflict and the resolution where the story ties up loose ends. 

This understanding of script structure was popularized by sid field and his book screenplay. this book was very influential in shaping how script structure is viewed in Hollywood today. 

Sid Field's Paradigm.

Syd Field's Paradigm.

This is Sid Field's paradigm where he divides a screenplay into three acts with two turning points that sit in between the acts the turning points are where the action of the story is spun in a new direction usually because of a character choice or action but there's a problem with this system. what do you actually do inside these acts? of course, stories have a beginning middle, and end but how do you actually create narrative drama and momentum and how do you do so without being cliche? 

Many new screenwriters find that the second act of their story is the most difficult to navigate it's where most of the story takes place yet it can feel disorganized and undefined I've seen many scripts where the character stop moving in a meaningful way in the middle of the story and just wait around for the end to come because the purpose of the second act was unclear but I don't think it has to be this way. 

Simplistic Techniques Of Three Act Structure.

John Truby writer of the anatomy of the story said the mechanical and simplistic techniques of three-act structure don't give you a precise map showing how to weave a great plot throughout the difficult middle section of the story but where Truby wants to give you his 22 point plan to a good screenplay. 

I want to take this in another direction and focus on the essential elements of story structure. 

Dan Harmon

This is Dan Harmon he's the creator and showrunner of hit shows like community and Rick and Morty Dan Harmon observed that "stories seem to have an innate structure a pattern that could be seen in all sorts of stories no matter the medium subject matter genre or length in a series of articles" he wrote

Harmon explained that dramatic narratives organically follow a certain rhythmic pattern and the reason for this is because this pattern found in stories is an essential part of the natural order of the world. 

In biology, we see the rhythm of life and death, in psychology, we see the coexistence between the conscious and unconscious mind, and in societies, we see a rhythm of order and chaos this natural rhythm of the world then informs the way that we structure a story. 

Harman says our society each human mind within it and all of life itself has a rhythm and when you play in that rhythm your story resonates stories move through the known world into the unknown world and back again creating change in the characters and or their world and this becomes the basis of story structure. 

Dan Harmon Story Circle.

Now let's get into the details dan Harmon distilled this idea into his story circle the story circle breaks down into eight points that dan Harmon says are the fundamental elements of a dramatic narrative number one a character is in a zone of comfort number two but they want something number three they enter an unfamiliar situation number four they adapt to it number five get what they wanted number six pay a heavy price for it number seven then return to the familiar situation and number eight having changed when we pull each of these points into a single word we get this you need to go search find take return and change this story circle creates a rhythm of momentum and change as the characters go after what they want they will enter a situation that they are unfamiliar with this unfamiliarity forces adaptation the characters must grow when they find what they are looking for it must come at a cost this cost gives meaning to the desire. 

If what they want costs nothing then it isn't valuable this achievement of the want the unfamiliar situation and the sacrifice made creates change in the characters as they return home or to a place of equilibrium outside the conflict of the story. 

of course, there are exceptions but rather than just looking at stories and recognizing a pattern this method looks at why stories exist and how they relate to the rest of the universe that we live within. 

This is why Harman's story circle can be such a strong tool for the writer so this is all a lot of theory. 

The silence of the lambs: Example

Now let's take a look at an example so that you can see these ideas in action in my previous post on the structure I used the dark knight to illustrate the story circle in this post we're going to take a look at the silence of the lambs. 

In the silence of the lambs, Clarice is our character her want is to become an FBI agent Clarice joined the FBI because of her deeper want which is to save people Clarice enters an unfamiliar situation when she is given the assignment to speak with Hannibal Lecter a psychopathic killer currently in prison this is a type of person Clarice has never encountered before in her life or in her FBI training Clarice realizes that Hannibal may have information that would help the FBI find buffalo bill a serial killer currently at large. Clarice adapts to this new situation and begins working with Hannibal to find buffalo bill Clarice makes a deal with Hannibal and gets what she wanted Hannibal gives her valuable information about buffalo bill. Clarice believes she has found what she needs to capture buffalo bill save lives and become an FBI agent but this isn't over dr Chilton reveals to Hannibal that Clarice's deal was a fake so just as Clarice gets what she wanted she pays a heavy price for it and completely loses her leverage this begins her journey back up the circle as Clarice continues to work with Hannibal to find buffalo bill we get a larger insight into who Clarice is and what motivated her to be an FBI agent. Clarice returns to her familiar situation by continuing to work with Hannibal until she finds and kills buffalo bill at the climax and at the end of the film we get Clarice's external change. she has become an FBI agent and we get a small glimpse into her internal change have the lamb stopped screaming. 

So this is the point where some get frustrated at the idea that Harmon is saying that all stories have to follow this structure and Harmon says that there are exceptions to this understanding but he holds that this structure is what you should use to draw a story. Harman writes "it's not that stories have to follow this structure it's that without some semblance of the structure it's not recognizable as a story if you take elements away at some point the story stops working it loses what it is you can have a story where your characters don't change or don't get what they want or never return to a familiar situation but you can only take away so much" 

Why Harmon's Story Circle is Important.

The reason Harmon's story circle is so useful is that it is a story tool, not a screenplay tool instead of trying to shoehorn a story into an arbitrary script structure you can use Harman's story circle to build a compelling story and ultimately a screenplay. some have claimed that dan Harmon's story circle is nothing more than a simplification of joseph Campbell's monomyth which was Campbell's identification of a structural pattern that existed and many ancient stories across time and culture while Harman's story circle seems like a simplified monomyth it's actually much more useful than this. while the hero's journey was a pattern found in different archetypal stories the story circle is observing a natural way that stories operate from an entire story to each act to each sequence and even each scene. 

This is where Harmon's story circle becomes extremely helpful you can apply the story circle to more than just a full screenplay you can also apply it to each act of the script an act is more than just a percentage of a screenplay or a page count just like a screenplay an act follows a character with a dramatic need heading towards a goal Harman's story circle shows that a screenplay is propelled by the characters making choices and encountering problems as they head towards a desire until they get it or not it logically follows that each act would also follow the story circle this is what makes the story circle so valuable to show how this works. 

We can now break down the silence of the lambs into four distinct parts act one, act two, part one act two, part two, and act three. 

It's more helpful to go to the essential elements of a story to build a scene act and ultimately a screenplay. however, I don't want you to misunderstand me and think that structure is the only key to telling a good story. 

Harman says "perfect structure is not synonymous with the good show this is about what audiences recognize as stories bad movies hit these structural beats all the time it's not difficult to point at some films that are well structured but fail to resonate with an audience there is a danger in believing that this is all it takes to create great story writers who rely solely on the good structure will find themselves writing formulaic conventional unimpactful stories" 

The Conclusion

A screenplay is an exploration it's about the thing you don't know to step into the abyss conventional stories are written when writers don't take that journey into the abyss and focus instead on simply hitting certain beats at exactly the right time but if you can articulate what you are struggling with if you can provide your perspective if you can make someone else look at humanity in a new way then you're on the right track to writing something genuinely great and within that space, the structure can be used.