Screenwriting Fundamentals

SevenStory—Step Outline

On countless occasions, I’ve had people tell me they have a terrific story, could they either tell it to me or could they send me what they have written. Unfortunately, nine times out of ten, what they have is the background of a story not an actual story. Something that might have a story embedded somewhere within the generalities of what they think is a story. Another very frequent understanding of what people think is a story is, in fact, an incident. An incident that could perhaps be the germ of a story, but not a story by itself. The background, an incident—those are kernels of possibilities and frequently, yes, they are how a story suggests itself in your imagination and provides a reason to go further and possibly ...