Justin Whiting - Fundamentals of Storytelling for Films, Novels and Stage: Step By Step Guide on How To Write an Amazing Story

Fundamentals of Storytelling

For Films, Novels and Stage

Step By Step Guide on How To Write an Amazing Story

By Justin Whiting

Fundamentals of Storytelling: For Films, Novels and Stage. Step By Step Guide on How To Write an Amazing Story

by Justin Whiting

2020 Justin Whiting

All rights reserved. This book or parts thereof may not be reproduced in any form, stored in any retrieval system, or transmitted in any form by any meanselectronic, mechanical, photocopy, recording, or otherwisewithout prior written permission of the publisher, except as provided by United States of America copyright law.

Cover by Justin Whiting. Cover photos courtesy of Unsplash.com

Co-Authored by Catalina Camargo

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Introduction 1

STARTING OFF 3

Concept

Premise

Theme

CHARACTERS 8

Character Arc

The Arcs Purpose

Facing Risks, Gaining Qualities

Protagonist

Antagonist

Hero/Villain Combination

Antihero

Anti-villain

CONFLICT 26

Internal Conflict

External Conflict

Conflict Doesn't Have To Be Complicated

SETTING 32

Limiting The Scope

Building Before Writing

How To Write Your Setting

STORY STRUCTURE 38

Act 1

Set Up/Introduction

Inciting Incident

Lock In

Act 2

Rising Action

Midpoint

Plot Point 2

Act 3

Pre-Climax

Climax

Denouement

Subplots

WRITING 54

Finding Your Voice

Elements of Your Voice

Point Of View

Show, Don't Tell

Pacing

Traps To Avoid

Foreshadowing

EDITING 66

Peer Feedback

Editing Process

Last Steps

FINAL THOUGHTS 70

INTRODUCTION

G reat films, novels and plays all have one main thing in common - the fundamentals of storytelling. Whether it is a centuries-old classic novel, or a blockbuster movie playing at the local cineplex, they follow the same structure and use the same story elements. This book will give you an in-depth guide into each of the elements and teach you how to use them. Once you have the individual elements mastered, you will learn how to structure your story in a traditional story structure.

Completing a novel, screenplay or play is an arduous task and it can be overwhelming. Many writers struggle and often fail. This does not mean the author is a bad writer or the story isnt good enough. This means that the story is lacking a proper structure and planning.

Have you ever found yourself struggling with figuring out what your character should do next, or not knowing how your character should react? Have you ever written pages and pages that dont progress your plot or develop your characters? If so then most probably you were lacking structure for your story.

New writers often come up with the basic idea of a story and want to start writing immediately. Maybe they came up with an idea where a team of thieves join together to steal a famous painting. They get excited about a few fun moments and decide to start writing, but they quickly run into trouble. They dont have all the elements to create a full story, and often these writers never make it past a few pages. These are the same writers that find phrases like structure, form, and plot a waste of time. Building a structure before you start writing will give you a path to follow and will help you along every step of the writers journey.

Understanding and using structural patterns when creating your story liberates you from falling into poor writing traps and keep you and your characters on track. Moreover, when you start to structure your story, you also can see more clearly what is the best way to tell it and how to transform it into a compelling and exciting story that will entertain your audience and keep them turning the pages.

Besides structure, you also need dynamic characters, a unique setting, and a captivating voice to tell your story. All of those things are equally important when looking for success. Characters are the very soul of your story, and they need to feel as real as possible inside a setting that challenges them to move forward and create the story you want. The voice you use to tell your story is the one that is going to define how all those activities will be perceived by your audience.

It might seem a little tricky, but dont worry. By the end of this book, you will have mastered the fundamentals of storytelling and will be able to put them into action to keep your audience on the edge of their seat. Along the way, you will establish the purpose of your story as well as find your voice as a writer.

The journey to a complete story is not always easy, but with the fundamentals from this book, you will be set up for success.

STARTING OFF

E very story starts with a basic idea and grows from there, like a tree starting with a seed. This section will go through the initial steps to create your story; the concept, the premise and the theme.

Concept

B efore you start writing , you need to have an idea of what you are going to write about. First thing you need to come up with the concept for your story. This is the basic idea of what will happen. For example, the concept of Titanic is a story of two people falling in love on the ship. Summarize whatever ideas you have in one quick blurb, and write that down.

Before you start getting into any details of your story, it is important to think about your genre and your audience. Who are you writing the story for? If you are writing a book for children, then you have to think about what they expect and what they will understand. It is the same for picking your genre, if you are writing a romantic story then there are certain expectations from an audience of a romance story. If your genre is not what you often read and your audience is a different demographic than you, try reading a few of the best selling books in that genre to get a feel for what is expected.

Now it is time to think a little deeper about the story you want to tell.