Dantuma, you make a good point: After we read a script or watch a movie or TV episode, we can…

Dantuma, you make a good point: After we read a script or watch a movie or TV episode, we can retroactively reflect on the flow of the narrative and go, "Ah, I see how that plot point led to this, and this plot point led to that." Frankly, I think that type of script and movie analysis is a hugely beneficial way to learn the craft of screenwriting, which is why I run so many series featuring story analysis.

My concern, after having read quite literally thousands of screenplays, is that there is a kind of surface level understanding of screenwriting deriving from all the books and general discussion in the online screenwriting universe which in effect reduces - as I noted in previous comments - structure to plot. Simplify writing a script to hitting this beat happening on this page... that beat happening on that page... and so on.

As opposed to character driven screenwriting and storytelling. By immersing ourselves in the lives of our characters, I believe we not only enable ourselves to discover and write complex, compelling, and distinctive individuals to spark to life in our pages, we also will uncover the flow (read: structure) of the narrative.

I get it. Characters are messy... can be confusing... mysterious... it's much easier to present a formula which lays out a set of story beats and *that* somehow equals 'story structure.' But without doing due diligence in involving ourselves as writers with our story's characters, that is the path to a flat story.

So yes, the character driven approach to screenwriting is a trickier process. Frankly, it involves a kind of 'spiritual' belief that the characters not only exist, they *want* use to tell their story, so that right there is far afield from the formla approach to writing. But at the end of the day, if we want to write richly drawn characters who actors want to act... if we want to craft stories with surprising twists and turns... if we want to infuse whatever story paradigm we instintively feel reflects *this* story and *our* voice... the best way to do that, in my humble opinion, is *through* the characters. Specifically by entering into the Protagonist's psychological journey, all the rest will unfold in the story-crafting process.