Go Into The Story Resource: A Screenwriter’s Guide to Aristotle’s “Poetics”

You know you should read it. This 44-part series takes you through all of “Poetics” and offers analysis from a screenwriter’s perspective.

On May 16, 2023, Go Into The Story turns 15 years old — you can read the very first blog post here. I led with this paragraph:

Welcome to Go Into The Story! Right now, it’s nothing but a humble, threadbare blog, but I hope it will evolve into an active resource for aspiring screenwriters, as well as a community for anyone interested in storytelling and the creative life.

And evolve it did! To the point where it has been named “Best of the Best” Scriptwriting Website in the 20th Annual Writer’s Digest Best Websites for Writers list.

To celebrate 15 years of blogging about screenwriting, writing, Hollywood, movies, TV, and the creative life, each day in May, I’m going to feature a piece of Go Into The Story trivia, plus a writing resource you can find in the site’s archives. This is not an exercise in self-congratulations so much as I figured readers could use some tips about how to best use the site. With over 100 archive topics, there is a LOT of content here. Hopefully, these posts for the next 31 days will clue in more recent followers and remind long-time readers about resources you can use to facilitate deepening your understanding of the writing craft.

Today’s trivia: Go Into The Story averages over 2,000,000 unique visits per year and 3,500,000 page views per year.

Let’s face it: Blogs aren’t sexy. They’re not a trendy new thing, indeed, they may feel rather outdated. However, I think they still serve a purpose. Whether it’s hosting long-form interviews with writers and filmmakers, aggregating tweetstorms written by pro screenwriters, or engaging in week-long deep analysis of movies and movie scripts, a blog like Go Into The Story provides a unique set of resources for writers around the world — for free!

Today’s Go Into The Story resource: A Screenwriter’s Guide to Aristotle’s “Poetics”.

“Poetics” by Aristotle is considered by many to be the most important text related to writing in history. I figured why not host a weekly series where we go through the book chapter by chapter. In 2013, I did precisely that and with a particular eye looking at the content through a screenwriter’s perspective.

Introduction: The Nature and Purpose of the Arts
Part 1: Structure and Imitation
Part 2: Moral Character, Types, Tragedy and Comedy
Part 3: Medium, Objects, Manner
Part 4: Poetry and the Development of Tragedy
Part 5: Comedy and Epic Poetry
Part 6(A): The 6 Parts of Tragedy
Part 6(B): Character and Thought
Part 6(C): The 6 Parts of Tragedy, Part 2
Part 6(D): Plot First, Character Second
Part 6(E): Thought Third
Part 6(F): Diction Fourth, Song Fifth
Part 6(G): Spectacle Sixth
Part 7(A): Beginning, Middle, End
Part 7(B): Beauty, Magnitude, and Order
Part 7(C): Story Length and Change of Fortune
Part 8: Unity
Part 9(A): Poet and Historian
Part 9(B): Possibility, Probability and Necessity
Part 9(C): Episodic
Part 9(D): Surprise, Cause and Effect
Part 10: Simple and Complex Plots
Part 11: Reversal, Recognition and Suffering
Part 12: Prologue, Episode, Exode and Chorus
Part 13(A): A Perfect Tragedy
Part 13(B): A Well-Constructed Plot
Part 14(A): Fear and Pity
Part 14(B): The Conditions of a Tragedy
Part 15(A): Four Qualities of a Tragic Hero
Part 15(B): The Unraveling of the Plot
Part 15(C): The Example of Good Portrait Painters
Part 16: Recognition
Part 17: Plot and Episode
Part 18(A): Complication and Denouement
Part 18(B): Four Kinds of Tragedy
Part 18(C): Multiplicity of Plots
Part 18(D): Chorus
Part 19: Thought and Diction
Parts 20+21: Language and Words
Part 22: Word Choice
Part 23: Unity of Action
Part 24: Tragedy and Epic Poem
Part 25: Impossible and Improbable
Part 26: Tragedy vs. Epic Poems

Each post contains excerpts from “Poetics” so that by the end of the series, you will have read the entire thing. Plus, there’s not only my musings about Artistotle’s ideas, an amazing thing happened during this weekly adventure: A group of Aristotelian experts joined in the discussion and you can check that out in each of the individual posts comment archives. I learned SO MUCH doing this series and you can, too.

Resource Tip: Read one installment of the “Poetics” series a day. That means in a month-and-a-half, you will have read one of the most seminal reflections on narrative AND learned a whole lot more.

If you are SERIOUS about being a writer and understanding Story, you KNOW you have to read “Poetics”. This series breaks it down into bite-sized pieces and makes it relevant to contemporary screenwriter interests.

Finally, each day this month, I want to take the opportunity to thank you for supporting Go Into The Story. I’d love to hear from you in RESPONSES. When did you start following the blog? What are your favorite features? And as always, if you have any suggestions, feel free to suggest away.