LESSON

What is story design? Simply put, it’s a term I use to refer to the design process that underlies the crafting of insanely great stories. Although this course is speciﬁcally aimed at the story design process for screenwriters, the principles explored here will also be of use to novelists, game designers, and other creative writers seeking to master and implement three-act structure. By popular demand, I’ve also included an appendix with speciﬁc guidelines for documentary ﬁlmmakers.

More than a simple outline, story design takes into consideration modern developments in neuroscience research, as well as tried and true methodology for crafting a great story. In this course, I draw from two decades of research into storytelling from the ancient world to modern times, and my own training as a screenwriter and producer of documentary and narrative feature ﬁlms.

Why another course on screenwriting? There are several good ones. I especially like Richard Walter’s Essentials of Screenwriting, and had the good fortune of taking several classes in-person from Richard at UCLA. I also draw on principles I learned from Hal Ackerman, and that he shares in Write Screenplays That Sell. Joseph Campbell’s Hero with a Thousand Faces, as well as Christopher Vogler’s screenwriting-specific recap in The Writer's Journey, are classics, as is Robert McKee’s Story. Blake Snyder’s Save The Cat! was the ﬁrst book on screenwriting that I picked up years ago — and Blake prompted me to deep-dive into the building blocks, or “beats,” that make stories work. I’ve been on that journey ever since and his work served as a springboard for my own pedagogy and writing practices. Blake covers many topics in his book upon which I do not touch. For that reason, I also recommend that you read it. Meanwhile, I’ve sought to go deeper into the fabric, or DNA, of stories, and to understand why certain beats work—and how, as opposed to what specific elements writers need to execute. My hope is that this course complements other explorations into what it takes to make a good story, by helping writers understand the principles at work beneath the surface of storytelling, so that they can conquer the blank page and do justice to whatever inspired them to write in the ﬁrst place.

I wrote this course in response to requests from students in my university courses and workshops held from Los Angeles to Paris. They all wanted a portable, simple entry-point into my teachings on story. My goal is to provide a manageable and empowering twenty-step approach to writing an emotionally impactful and marketable dramatic narrative. Day by day, I’ll introduce you to basic principles of story design—the very principles I use in my own writing—and guide you through exercises, outlining and drafting until you have a complete draft of your ﬁrst project.

A word of warning is in order. If you’re looking for a magic formula for success, you won’t ﬁnd it here. Designing a great story takes commitment. The crafting of great stories deﬁes convention, and insanely great stories require brute force and countless hours of tedious, invisible work. The best writers outline, draft, write, and rewrite until their labor bears fruit. Master the design process—put in the work it takes to fall nothing short of excellence—and you’ll distinguish yourself from the countless aspiring screenwriters and novelists shopping scripts or manuscripts.

Stories have been a huge part of my life for as long as I can remember. I spent my early childhood in the company of Bilbo, Gandalf, Strider, Frodo, and other inspiring characters, who came to life in nightly readings by my father. Between that and visiting ancient castles scattered across Europe, it’s no surprise I specialized in medieval literature for my Ph.D. at Princeton University. What later drove me, I think, towards creative writing and ﬁlmmaking was not some distaste for the stories of old. On the contrary, they fascinated me and still do. Rather, it was the desire to contribute narratives for our time, and pass on stories to future generations of readers and viewers. As someone once asked me: “If you have the chance to create something of beauty and to send it out into the world to help inform and shape culture, why wouldn’t you?”

Before you begin working your way through this course, pause and think about that question. I challenge you to embark upon your quest not in search of fame or fortune, but in the search of something beautiful and crafted with excellence. Stories have the power to change the world. Research has shown that we remember them twenty-two times more than facts. And at their best, stories spark the imagination to transcend time and place, defying the limits of our mortality. They deserve our respect. Medieval writers saw it as a solemn mandate to weave a tapestry of traditions and culture to pass on to future generations. Without our stories, you see, we don’t really know who we are. A civilization that forgets how to tell its story crumbles and dies.

Deep down inside, I believe we all sense the power of story. From the tales we heard as children, to the narratives constructed by brands and the media today, or the anticipation many of us feel at the release of the next blockbuster movie, we can’t help but be impacted by stories. As the research of Paul Zak, Uri Hasson and others has shown, stories impact our brain activity and can even change the chemical balance in our bodies. We are, quite literally, “hardwired for story.”

Over the years, meetings with Paul Muldoon and Robert Fagles, begun at Princeton, encouraged me to embrace my creative side and let it soar. Richard Walter and Brian Price signiﬁcantly enriched the time I spent studying at UCLA and left with me with questions I ponder still. I’m grateful to my peers in the NEXUS community, for encouraging me to explore the social impact of ﬁlm over the past few years and lead conversations from the White House to the United Nations; to the TEDx community for providing me with avenues to talk about such matters publicly; to friends from Summit Series, who taught me not to put off until tomorrow what I can accomplish today; and of course to my colleagues and students at Baylor. Other mentors, friends and family have guided me and I owe to all of them a world of thanks. You know who you are.

This course is for Ronan, my little hero and ﬁghter, capable of surmounting the greatest of odds, and for Declan, the greatest Jedi-in-training the world may ever know.

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