Change is Happening. Apparently.
Which is what Margaux said to me yesterday as she reported that she has several meetings coming up to be potentially staffed on a show in next year's fall lineup. So just FYI, those of you interested in working with Margaux on your television or feature scripts - she'll be with the Script Department no matter what, but the Wave-inatrix predicts a waiting list for her services and soon.
Change. It's all around us. It's all those cliches - inevitable, the only thing that's for sure, and well, honestly, a bit of a bitch, isn't it? But the Universe just keeps rolling and we have to evolve with it or become irrelevant.
Used to be that screenwriting was strictly thought of as a three-act construct. Now, more and more writers choose to work with four acts. The Wave-inatrix switched over several years ago and never looked back. Most of us know that the three-act structure dictates a first act that ends at approximately page 30, and a second act that ends right around page 90 and a third act that takes your script right into the 120 page range. That's craziness.
The problem with the three-act structure is that it is archaic and outdated. Expectations in the industry have shifted toward shorter, punchier scripts in which more happens faster. Call it ADD, call it whatever you want, but times, they are a' changin', kids.
But change is good. From a writer's perspective, having a second act that lies there like a hot, 60 page prairie of pain is a challenge that frankly leaves many stories lost in the desert with no oasis in sight.
Used to be that the inciting incident arrived right around page 10. And the first act break would then be at page 30. Midpoint, page 60. Second act break, page 90. That is for those of us who really tried to keep the math straight. And actually, Wavers, as geeky as it sounds, screenwriting is nothing if it isn't elegant math.
But things are changing fast in the entertainment industry and it behooves writers to keep up with the trends and expectations that your script will be compared with.
Executives increasingly look for shorter page count. They look for the first act break to happen much earlier. And that skews the whole structure differently, doesn't it? So are you keeping up with this, are you aware that the expectations are shifting?
Thanks to the Rouge Wave, you are. So listen up kids, and don't argue with mama, because I know some of you will. Get familiar with these new expectations and implement them in your writing and in your grasp of structure.
The new page 10 is page 3
That's right - that's your inciting incident. Executives are tiring of 9 pages of set up. Go for it earlier. The earlier the better as long as your set up is still executed soundly and smoothly.
The new page 30 is page 20
Yup, move that first act break as close to page twenty as you can. I do not make this stuff up.
The new midpoint is page 50
Remember, we're shooting for roughly a 100 page script
The new page 90 is page 75
That's bumping your second act break back by 15 pages. Yep, that makes your third act short as hell. The acts are no longer divided evenly.
In fact, here's what the whole structure should look like:
Page 1 to 25 - act one
page 26 to 50 - act two (a)
page 51 to 75 - act two (b)
page 76 to 100 - act three
Now, I know that for some Wavers, this is self-evident and what they've been doing for five years. For others who are really stuck in some kind of McKee parallel universe, this sounds as crazy as the notion that the earth revolves around the sun. Get with the times, people, expectations are changing. It goes without saying that if your first act break happens on page 28 rather than page 25, you'll live. This is a guide and we don't need any OCD Wavers freaking out on a slight page number difference.
But what this guide will do for you is force you to compress your story into its most elegant, efficient essence. Any writer can tell a story in 125 pages - but it takes a good writer to whittle that down to a sexy 105 page script.
So out with the old, in with the new - try it, Wavers, and see if this new paradigm can help you take your scripts to the next level.
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12 comments:
And herein is the problem with any structure: the structure seems to dictate how a story unfolds as opposed to a non-linear approach (the Guillermo Arriaga approach), which I prefer...
Forget the damn structure, just tell the story. It's an original idea, I know, but maybe that's what's needed, especially on the big screen.
From a fiction writer's POV this makes perfect sense.
When submitting a partial and a synopsis to an agent or publisher, the professional reader EXPECTS to be blown away/riveted and/or pressing tissues to their mascara by page 3 or a rejection slip is winging its way back to the author.
In many cases by end of page one.
All power to structure.
The best way to frame your story in the most powerful and emotive way possible.
Now, on with the show and thanks for the update - quite fascinating.
I have a spreadsheet where you enter the number of pages, like let's say - 105 pages - and it calculates where all the beats on the Blake Snyder beat sheet should fall. Lol. He developed his beatsheet using 110 pages as the end goal, but I realized that was changing...so now I can vary it as needed.
In the short story world, you have exactly one paragraph to wow me. One page max. If the first page isn't great and doesn't pull me in, I'm going to have a hard time going on, though I do sometimes. What's really sad is when we pass a story up to the editors and they say - it really started to cook halfway through, but we don't want to spend time editing the first half so write them a rejection letter.
It is my contention that writers who eschew structure in favor of just writing the story are writers who in some cases, actually have a freakish ability to hew to structure anyway. The beats just show up where they should be. It's innate and instinctive. I know my former writing partner was very much that way. But for many of us, having a guideline is a must. And honestly - recommended.
May I respond to rayannecarr's comment? Unless you're working very specifically in a genre--romance, gothic, whatever--a novelist is under no obligation to hit the reader with the Big Bang by page three. The very nature of extended prose fiction is to allow you to divide your attention between characters and story, and to let things build a while.
A reader opening a novel needs to get acquainted with his or her new surroundings, the people he's meeting, the tone of the "affair", so to speak.
In all my years in the business I have never heard of an agent or editor rejecting a work because by page three the author was still introducing us to character and not setting the world on fire.
In fact, editors read the entire manuscript (assuming it's come through proper channels), because they can't judge it otherwise. Sure, if the book is obviously written by an amateur they'll stop dead and send it back with a boilerplate rejection.
So in this instance shorter is better? Oh Julie!
Hi jps.
Just for clarification - I write commercial medical thrillers with specific genre expectations. Apologies for not making that clear.
Christina -
Do you feel like sharing your spreadsheet?
Many thanks,
Diane
I wouldn't mind looking over that spreadsheet either. =)
Try this automatic Blake Snyder Beatsheet calculator:
http://www.rareform.com/screenplay-editor/beats.php
The tighter your story, the faster you throw punches, the more riveting it will be. You have no time to waste in a screenplay. Every scene- every line, even- needs to be doing something. I remember a quote from some poet whose name I've forgotten- "I'm not interested in a line of poetry that doesn't have at least 2 things that surprise me." The same ideal could be applied to screenwriting.
And it's funny, I was just thinking of something along these lines today. I was remembering the first 5 minutes of Little Miss Sunshine, and how masterfully they set up the story in no time at all- the stressed out wife driving along on the highway, and "No, I'm not smoking [throws cigarette out the window]" gives us a huge insight into this character and her relationship with her husband. And then she goes to pick up her brother after he tried to kill himself. 2 scenes and we're fully invested in the story, we know what's happening, it's there. The inciting incident happens a little later but you can't wait to see what happens next. Great writing.
Thanks, rayanne. But of course if one rule applies to your genre, it certainly doesn't, for instance, apply to espionage fiction. Hence John Le Carré and Charles McCarry and Joe Kanon can take their time building character and setting (the fact that we know it's a spy novel only builds our expectations, of course), just as, in the detective field, someone like Ian Rankin, who is much more interested in character, can leave the corpses and weapons till much later in the story. This is why the work of such authors is considered literary fiction as well as genre fiction.
But that's interesting that for a medical thriller that seems to be a publisher's requirement. As I wrote before, in all my years of writing and publishing and dealing editors both great and small I've never once heard of a publisher saying, "Okay. Let's see that body by page three or you can find yourself another publisher."
And if you don't believe Julie, check out these actual quotes from Hollywood execs:
Max Roman @ Innovative: 80% of the screenplays I see are between 85 and 100 pages. If it’s a comedy, absolutely no more than 100 pages. The first act has become shorter and shorter over the last few years.
John Fox @ Dreamworks: I think the real strike zone for a comedy script should be between 95-105 pages.
Jeremy Bell @ Foursight Entertainment: If you feel you can’t really tell a story in 100-115 pages, you haven’t read enough screenplays.
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