Baboulene - The Story Book - a writers guide to story development, principles, problem resolution and marketing

The Story Book

David Baboulene

Ebook version
published by: DreamEngine Media Ltd.

All rights reserved.

Copyright David Baboulene 2011

The right of David Baboulene to be identified as the author of this work has been asserted in ordance with sections 77 and 78 of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.

No part of this book may be reproduced by any means, nor transmitted, nor translated into a machine language, without the written permission of the publisher.

Extracts from The Inimitable Jeeves by kind permission of The Estate of P.G. Wodehouse.

Extract from Minority Report by Philip K. Dick by kind permission of The Estate of Philip K. Dick.

Extracts from Back to the Future by kind permission of Universal.

Email: publishing@dreamengine.co.uk

www.dreamengine.co.uk

ISBN: 978-0-9557089-3-0

Writing, like driving a car and making love, is one of those activities which every Englishman thinks he can do well without instruction. The results are of course usually abominable.

Tom Margerison (1923 )

To Katy, from the worlds best driver...

Contents

1.1 Model 1 Freud
1.2 Model 2 Maslow
1.3 Get real, please
1.4 Some quotes

2.1 The structured narrative
2.2 Character development
2.3 The underlying story (subtext)
2.4 The roots of story summary

3.1. What is an event?
3.2 Lots of examples from all types of story
3.3 When is a key question not a key question?
3.4 Resolution
3.5 Turning points
3.6 The major turning points
3.7 Scenes
3.8 Beats
3.9 Some structural myths
3.10 Structure and non-classical form
3.11 Practical exercise the story baseline

4.2 Mechanisms for the delivery of knowledge gaps
4.3 Knowledge gaps any other business
4.4 Postscript

5.1 On raising emotion
5.2 Plot-driven or character-driven?

6.1 Conflict triangulation
6.2 Levels of conflict
6.3 Practical application
6.4 The antagonist

7 Dialogue

7.1 Ordinary People
7.2 Character growth and learning
7.3 Some notes on plot and character
7.4 Stereotypes and Archetypes
7.5 Creative constraints
7.6 Genre and theme
7.7 Plot and character summary

THE STORY DEVELOPMENT PROCESS

8 The seeds of a story

9 Sequences

9.1 Towards a step outline
9.2 Planning scenes
9.3 Scene dynamics

10 The step outline

10.1 Writing by writing
10.2 What information goes into a step?
10.3 The story pitch and treatment
11 Writing the first full draft

STORY ANALYSIS AND PROBLEM RESOLUTION

12 Story analysis

12.1 Common story problems
13 Structural analysis
13.2 Scene analysis
13.3 Planning a scene

THE WRITERS DAY, THE SALESMANS HAT

14 The commercial world

14.1 Packaging your material
14.2 Handling rejection
14.3 Resources and support
14.4 Useful links

IN CONVERSATION

15 Introduction to the conversations

15.1 In conversation with Bob Gale
15.2 In Conversation with Lee Child
15.3 In conversation with John Sullivan
15.4 In conversation with Mark Williams
15.5 In conversation with Willy Russell
15.6 In conversation with Stewart Ferris

FADE TO BLACK

16 Postscript

17 Further Reading ...

About the Author

Acknowledgments

This book has been drawn from my own experience as an author, scriptwriter, and story consultant, and my academic study of stories down the ages. However, from the outset, I was determined that this would be a book that was useful to aspiring writers living and breathing in the real world, so a healthy dose of reality was required. I set about discussing story theory with individuals who have found success through stories, and as you can see from the list of luminaries below, I got very lucky.

So I would like to thank as warmly as an acknowledgements page allows, the following people for their contributions:

My thanks go to these fine gentlemen for providing me with some fascinating days and wonderful insights.

Introduction What lies between a writer and success?

Writing is like mining for gold hidden in the hillsides of your mind. The young writer, realising he has brilliant story ideas within him, goes to the publisher and points at the hillsides, shouting, Theres gold in them thar hills! Give me money and I will return you pots of gold!

The publisher wants gold, but hes heard it all before from thousands of prospectors. They never have the gold they claim. They rarely have any gold at all. He doesnt even lift his eyes.

But this writer is determined to prove himself. He buys some tools, goes to the hills and spends two years away from his family. He toils and he sweats and he makes his fingers bleed digging out nuggets. Over time, he becomes swift in locating them; perceptive in sorting them; discerning in choosing them. He begins to discard those of low quality and keep only the best. He collects them carefully in a bucket until he has an impressive and weighty haul.

The writer returns to the publisher and with wild hair and torn clothes he proclaims, You have to acknowledge me now! I have spent years digging nuggets out of the hills for you. Look at this gold, gold, GOLD, I tell you!

The publisher unblinkingly indicates to either side of the writer, who realises he is in a line of a thousand other weather-beaten obsessives, who have similar weighty buckets and are shouting the same imploring mantra at the man who must decide.

Put yourself in the position of the publisher. He knows that the hit rate is low; checking every mud-filled bucket is simply not an option, but he must deal with these prospectors every day, and it is his business to find what little gold there might be. So answer this question: which writer should he choose from this line of thousands? They all have talent. They have all made sacrifices, gained skills, shown commitment and worked hard. But which bucket-full of supposedly precious stones really holds a fortune? How can he know? What would you do? Think about it, and well come to the answer in a minute.

Let me get to the point. There are four clear steps to getting success:

Unfortunately, most writers, in their rush to get feedback and to announce their talent to those who they feel need to know, rather tend to skip over step 1. Instead of creating a story of unrivalled excellence and telling it brilliantly, they do half that job at best, and then go on to number 2, hawking their work around the market looking for interest and collecting rejections. The questions Im most commonly asked when I deliver my seminars are all to do with steps 2 and 3: Can you help me find a producer? How do I get a publishing deal? Tell me the secret of success!