THE BLOG

There’s an extremely important writing technique that is well-known in Hollywood, called “storybreaking”. Yet when I did a Twitter search for “film storybreaking” and “tv storybreaking”, here’s what came up: No tweets found! Yet this is a technique that is widely talked about and used in Hollywood. Here’s the definition of storybreaking on screenwriting.io: Breaking story basically means figuring out the screenplay’s blueprint — … Read More

@Sylent_steel asks: @VikRubenfeld hey Vik! I love my protagonists. How do i know if i did enough for readers to feel the same way? — R Cox (@Sylent_steel) April 30, 2015 I replied: @Sylent_steel That is a giant subject! I'll post with a few thoughts on it. :0 — Vik Rubenfeld (@VikRubenfeld) April 30, 2015 As I tweeted to @Sylent_steel, … Read More

Eric asks: @VikRubenfeld how can I use the Three Act Structure to the best of my ability? — Eric (@DeSantis_Eric) April 27, 2015 This is an excellent question, and surprisingly important. Here’s how it was described recently by the writers of the classic comedy, AIRPLANE. Jerry Zucker (director/co-writer): We’d never heard of Zero Hour! before then, and at first we … Read More

@TeresaSantoski asks: @VikRubenfeld I have one. 🙂 How do you make the ending satisfying for the viewer/reader without it becoming unrealistic? Thank you! — Teresa Santoski (@TeresaSantoski) January 28, 2015 This is such a good question that I’m answering it in three separate blog posts. I talked about the first item—it must be believable—in this previous post. I talked about how to make … Read More

@TeresaSantoski asks: @VikRubenfeld I have one. 🙂 How do you make the ending satisfying for the viewer/reader without it becoming unrealistic? Thank you! — Teresa Santoski (@TeresaSantoski) January 28, 2015 This is such a good question that I’m answering it in three separate blog posts. There are four keys to a satisfying ending: It must be believable, i.e. accepted by the … Read More

@TeresaSantoski asks: @VikRubenfeld I have one. 🙂 How do you make the ending satisfying for the viewer/reader without it becoming unrealistic? Thank you! — Teresa Santoski (@TeresaSantoski) January 28, 2015 This is a great question. There are four keys to a satisfying ending: It must be believable, i.e. accepted by the audience as making sense.  It must be surprising It must … Read More

When talking about suspense, the first things most people think of are spine-tingling moments in action movies and thrillers. But suspense is key to the success of every kind of story—even comedies. Here’s an example from Anchorman 2: The video used to be on YouTube, but has since been removed. If you have seen the movie, or plan to see it, … Read More

@sylent_steel asks: @VikRubenfeld ah. Is the beginning off 1st Peter Jackson lotr movie considered s prologue? When movie intro'd sauron & how ring was lost? — R Cox (@Sylent_steel) January 25, 2015 I hadn’t seen the first LOTR since the film came out in 2001—but I was able to find the beginning on YouTube. Here it is: Yes, this is a … Read More

@wmdogar asks: @VikRubenfeld What're the distinguishing features of film/tv and play plots? — Waqas Masood (@wmdogar) January 10, 2015 An excellent question. Film, TV and plays are all forms of drama. The top characteristics of plot are identical to all three. (BTW, I teach how to break story for film/tv/plays/novels so as to maintain suspense and plot in all scenes.) … Read More