Todd Klick - Something Startling Happens: The 120 Story Beats Every Writer Needs to Know

Whether you're writing a comedy or a drama, a feature or a pilot, Klick's book is an invaluable resource, a hand-holding guide to infusing every moment of your story with something so important it's almost always overlooked or misused: the element of surprise.

Chad Gervich, writer/producer: After Lately,
Cupcake Wars, Wipeout; author: Small Screen, Big
Picture: A Writer's Guide to the TV Business

A minute-by-minute, beat-by-beat way at looking at story and structure. If you've ever heard that writing a screenplay is like putting together a puzzle, here are all the pieces you need. Klick's use of using examples from dozens of films creates a fantastic guide to improving your script.

Matthew Terry, filmmaker/screenwriter/teacher,
columnist for HollywoodLitSales.com

In Something Startling Happens, Todd Klick demystifies how to approach the scriptwriting process and takes you on a beautiful journey into the thought process behind the moments that make a feature great. Since Todd is coming from the screenwriter/executive perspective, he did the work of analysis and you get to reap the rewards of what he found. He will give you tons of aha! thoughts and will help you to look at and interpret story in a way that will give you answers on how to best write your script.

Jen Grisanti, author of Story Line: Finding Gold
In Your Life Story, writing instructor for Writers on the
Verge with NBC, blogger for The Huffington Post

When I sit down with screenwriting students, one of the most useful exercises is to beat' out the story with them. Todd Klick's Something Startling Happens is a catalyst for developing compelling and engaging screenplays. It is a new and unique tool in the storytelling process.

Rob Goald, UNLV Film Dept.

Having sold over 100 scripts and written for virtually every network and studio, I learned early on how vital structure was to crafting a successful script. I tell the writers I mentor to study movies and break down their structure Todd Klick has done this for them, minute by minute, via numerous hit films over a variety of genres. This book can be an invaluable tool in building a professional career.

Marc Scott Zicree, writer: The Twilight Zone
Companion, Star Trek: The Next Generation, Deep
Space Nine, Babylon 5

Finally, a refreshing new approach to an old art. Todd Klick has not only written the consummate go-to guide for writing better screenplays, but his book also unveils the timeless page-by-page structure that pro screenwriters instinctively, if not secretly, use. This book will help propel your scripts old and new to professional heights.

Kevin Bernhardt, screenwriter: The Peaceful Warrior,
Elephant White

A dazzling new nuts-a-bolts story guide that reveals the extremely important in betweens' left out in other screenwriting books. The perfect companion to Blake Snyder's Save The Cat!.

John Philip Dayton, executive producer, producer,
director, writer: The Waltons, Eight Is Enough, The
New Adventures of Wonder Woman, Matlock

Published by Michael Wiese Productions

12400 Ventura Blvd. #1111

Studio City, CA 91604

tel. 818.379.8799

fax 818.986.3408

www.mwp.com

Cover design: Johnny Ink www.johnnyink.com

Book design: Gina Mansfield Design

Printed by McNaughton & Gunn, Inc., Saline, Michigan
Manufactured in the United States of America

2011 by Todd Klick

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced
in any form or by any means without permission in writing
from the publisher, except for the inclusion of brief quotations
in a review.

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Klick, Todd, 1976

Something startling happens : the 120 story beats every writer
needs to know : a minute-by-minute guide for all screen-writers,
directors, producers, actors, editors, graphic novelists,
development execs, and cinematic novelists / Todd Klick.
p. cm.

Includes filmography.

ISBN 978-1-61593-059-3

1. Motion picture authorship--Handbooks, manuals, etc. I.
Title.

PN1996.K62 2011
808'.066791--dc22

2011017648

The author acknowledges the copyright owners of the following motion pictures from which references and single frames have been used in this book for purposes of commentary, criticism and scholarship under the Fair Use Doctrine.

About A Boy 2002 Universal, All Rights Reserved.

Alien 1979 Twentieth Century-Fox, All Rights Reserved.

All The President's Men 1976 Warner Bros., All Rights Reserved.

Amlie 2001 ZOE, All Rights Reserved.

Being John Malkovich 1999 Universal, All Rights Reserved.

Braveheart 1992 Paramount, All Rights Reserved.

Casablanca 1942 Warner Bros., All Rights Reserved.

Die Hard 1988 Twentieth Century-Fox, All Rights Reserved.

Erin Brockovich 2000 Universal, All Rights Reserved.

Fight Club 1999 Twentieth Century-Fox, All Rights Reserved.

Forrest Gump 1994 Paramount, All Rights Reserved.

The Game 1997 PolyGram, All Rights Reserved.

The Godfather 1992 Paramount, All Rights Reserved.

Ghost 1990 Paramount, All Rights Reserved.

Halloween 1978 Compass International, All Rights Reserved.

Hannah and Her Sisters 1986 Orion, All Rights Reserved.

Jaws 1975 Universal, All Rights Reserved.

Juno 2007 Fox Searchlight, All Rights Reserved.

Kill Bill 2003 Miramax, All Rights Reserved.

Knocked Up 2007 Universal, All Rights Reserved.

Little Miss Sunshine 2006 Fox Searchlight, All Rights Reserved.

Match Point 2005 DreamWorks, All Rights Reserved.

The Matrix 1999 Warner Bros., All Rights Reserved.

Notting Hill 1999 Universal, All Rights Reserved.

Pulp Fiction 1994 Miramax, All Rights Reserved.

Raiders of the Lost Ark 1981 Paramount, All Rights Reserved.

Rashomon 1950 RKO Radio, All Rights Reserved.

Scream 1996 Dimension, All Rights Reserved.

The Sixth Sense 1999 Hollywood, All Rights Reserved.

Sneakers 1993 Universal, All Rights Reserved.

Speed 1994 Twentieth Century-Fox, All Rights Reserved.

Spider-Man 2002 Columbia, All Rights Reserved.

Stand By Me 1986 Columbia, All Rights Reserved.

Star Wars 1977 Twentieth Century-Fox, All Rights Reserved.

Thelma & Louise 1991 MGM, All Rights Reserved.

Titanic 1997 Paramount, All Rights Reserved.

Tootsie 1982 Columbia, All Rights Reserved.

Top Gun 1986 Paramount, All Rights Reserved.

Total Recall 1990 TriStar, All Rights Reserved.

True Romance 1993 Warner Bros., All Rights Reserved.

Unbreakable 2000 Touchstone, All Rights Reserved.

Up In The Air 2009 Paramount, All Rights Reserved.

Wall Street 1987 Twentieth Century-Fox, All Rights Reserved.