What is the premise?
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| * Initial Error Rick thinks of himself as a dead man, just marking time. The affairs of the world are not his concern. 2. Ghost and Story World Step 1 sets the frame of your story. From Step 2 on, we will work through the structure steps in the order that they occur in atypical story. Keep in mind, however, that the number and sequence of steps may differ, depending on the unique story you wish to tell. 18 Ghost You are probably familiar with the term "backstory" Backstory is everything that has happened to the hero before the story you are telling begins. I rarely use the term "backstory" because it is too broad to be useful. The audience is not interested in everything that has happened to the hero. They are interested in the essentials. That's why the term "ghost" is much better. There are two kinds of ghosts in a story. The first and most common is an event from the past that still haunts the heroin the present. The ghost is an open wound that is often the source of the hero's psychological and moral weakness. The ghost is also a device that lets you extend the hero's organic development backward, before the start of your story. So the ghost is a major part of the story's foundation. You can also think of this first kind of ghost as the hero's internal opponent. It is the great fear that is holding him back from action. Structurally, the ghost acts as a counterdesire. The hero's desire drives him forward his ghost holds him back. Henrik Ibsen, whose plays put great emphasis on the ghost, described this structure step assailing with a corpse in the cargo." 5 Story World Like the ghost, the story world is present from the very beginning of the story. It is where your hero lives. Comprised of the arena, natural settings, weather, man-made spaces, technology, and time, the world is one of the main ways you define your hero and the other characters. These characters and their values in turn define the world (see Chapter 6, "Story World" for details. KEY POINT The story world should bean expression of your hero. It shows your hero's weaknesses, needs, desires, and obstacles. KEY POINT If your hero begins the story enslaved in someway, the story world will also be enslaving and should highlight or exacerbate your hero's great weakness. You place your hero within a story world from page 1. But many of the twenty- two steps will have a unique subworld of their own. Note that conventional wisdom in screenwriting holds that unless you are writing fantasy or science fiction, you should sketch the world of your story quickly so that you can get to the hero's desire line. Nothing could be further from the truth. No matter what kind of story you are writing, you must create a unique and detailed world. Audiences love to find themselves in a special story world. If you provide a story world, viewers won't want to leave, and they will return to it again and again. |