Go Into The Story Resource: An Argument Against Screenplay Formulas
“We end up with a ceaseless cesspool of formulaic crap carving its way into and ultimately out of Hollywood movie and TV development…
“We end up with a ceaseless cesspool of formulaic crap carving its way into and ultimately out of Hollywood movie and TV development circles.”
On May 16, 2023, Go Into The Story turned 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 was recently 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 — to date — over 100 archive topics, there is a LOT of content here. Hopefully, these posts this month 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: There are four people without whom this website would never come into existence. The first is me. The second is my son Luke who gave me this advice about writing: “Go into the story and find the animals.”
The two other people? My mother. When I was a sophomore in high school, she hectored me until I finally relented to take a typewriting class. I ended up doing that for an entire school year. The teacher was Mr. Palomino. I was one of about three guys in a class with about twenty-five girls, so that was pretty sweet (I doubt Mom was thinking about that factor), but here’s the deal…
I learned to type. Really well. And REALLY fast. They would test us each Friday for speed and accuracy. By the end of the school year, I was hitting over 100 words per minute. And we’re talking the old IBM Selectric.
I got so good at typing, it actually helped pay my way through college. My last two years, I lived across the street from some fraternities off Rugby Road in Charlottesville. Word got around and pretty soon, I was typing one student’s paper per day at a whopping 50 cents per page! On my Royal manual typewriter.
Cut to today. I’m still a typing fiend. Plus, I think fast, so blogging is really quite natural for me.
So if you appreciate Go Into The Story at all, you can raise a glass to my mother and Mr. Palomino — may they both rest in peace — for helping me discover typing, lo those many years ago.
Today’s Go Into The Story resource: An Argument Against Screenplay Formulas.
In 2014, I posted a 5-part series arguing that screenplay formulas including all of those paradigms posited by various screenwriting ‘gurus’ are detrimental on many levels. Here are links to those posts:
An Argument Against Screenplay Formulas (Part 1): They are selling you a lie
An Argument Against Screenplay Formulas (Part 2): Formulas lead to formulaic writing
An Argument Against Screenplay Formulas (Part 3): They diminish the craft of screenwriting
An Argument Against Screenplay Formulas (Part 4): They make the job of a screenwriter more difficult
You can read more background on that 2014 series here.
Every story is different. Ever writer is different. If you have studied some screenwriting guru and used what they promote to achieve success in Hollywood or elsewhere, good for you. Go with God! But if you are receiving critiques that specifically take aim at the formulaic, flat and uninspired nature of your writing, or you have read so many of these how-to books that you have been left dazed and confused, baffled by their conflicting language systems, theories and structural paradigms, not knowing what to do and how to approach the craft, I would recommend jettisoning all that stuff, and get to know your story’s characters. Immerse yourself in their world and their lives. Find your story’s structure through your process of engaging them.
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.