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THE WISE SLOTH’SNOTES ON WRITING FILM SCRIPTS USING A FORMULA PLOT TEMPLATE - Rough Draft -Last updated 10/24/2016By Travis HaanTABLE OF CONTENTSIntroductionThe plotting process revolves around the hero attempting to fulfill a needReverse engineer the goal, stakes and outcome from the story’s purposeReverse engineer the hero and antagonist from each otherThe 12 steps of accomplishing a goal Reverse engineer the conditions from the 5 Act structurePartitioning storylines into beat chainsBeat typesVariable typesReverse engineering variablesBeat outline #1Beat outline #2Beat outline #3Instructions to use the blank beat templateBlank beat templateDEFINITIONSActBeatBeat chainStorylineHeroAntagonistNeedIncentiveStakeConditionAct goalBeat chain goalThresholdJump beatLanding beatThe 12 steps of accomplishing a goalINTRODUCTIONThis book teaches how to plot a 90-120 page film script with 5 Acts, 40 beats, and 3 storylines that revolves around a hero attempting to accomplish a series of goals leading up to him achieving or failing to fulfill his highest priority need in life. Every detail in the story is methodically reverse engineered from the hero’s need. This guide explains multiple options for organizing and defining every variable. To give you an idea of the kind of plots it generates, this is a summary of the most basic plot outline: Act 1A-storySuggested number of beats: 7Suggested beats: 1-3, 7-10The A-story in Act 1 introduces the hero, his ultimate external goal, a problem that stands between him and his goal. He attempts to achieve his goal but either fails at the end of the Act or accepts an opportunity to progress towards his goal. Either way, he crosses a threshold he can’t return from. B-storySuggested number of beats: 3-4Suggested beats: 4-7The B-story in Act 1 introduces the hero’s ultimate internal-oriented goal, conditions and the stakes. You can foreshadow future conditions and complications in Act 1 or wait to introduce them in Act 2. C-storySuggested number of beats: 1Suggested beats: 7-8The C-story in Act 1 introduces the hero’s third goal, stakes and possibly foreshadow its conditions and complications. Since crossing the threshold in Beat 10 creates the problem, he won’t be able to create a plan until Act 2. Any additional storylines should also be introduced in Act 1. The C-story can impact the hero’s quest when it’s introduced, but it doesn’t have to. Act 2A-story Suggested number of beats: 7Suggested beats: 11-13, 17-20 Act 2 reboots the hero’s problem solving steps in the A-storyline, because after crossing the threshold in Beat 10, there is a new problem standing between him and his ultimate goal. So he must have experiences that walk him through the process of defining the problem, the conditions of success and the stakes. Then he must create a plan and enact it. He will complete the plan in Beat 20, but he will learn in Beat 21 that his success has backfired, creating a new condition he will spend Act 3 attempting to fulfill. B-story Suggested number of beats: 3-5Suggested beats: 14-19When the B-story is appears in Act 2, it will collide with the A-storyline, usually because the hero uses one of his signature flaws to solve a problem. The B-story will conflict with the A-story. In Act 2, the hero can either be aware or unaware of the fact that completing the B-storyline goal is a condition of completing his A-storyline goal, but it usually creates more tension if the character is aware of the fact. The B-storyline goal, condition/s, stakes and primary obstacle must be stated by the end of Act 2. If the condition of the A-story and B-story goal require the hero to complete the same task, such as in “Avatar,” where Jake Sully must infiltrate the Na’vi in order to fulfill his commitment to both his military boss and his scientific/humanitarian boss, then the hero can spend Act 2 on one quest in which every beat is technically both A and B-story. C-storySuggested number of beats: 1Suggested beats: 15-17In Act 2, the C-story reveals how crossing the threshold in Beat 10 created a problem with a condition the hero must fulfill in order to complete the C-storyline. The hero can also create a plan and enact it, but he shouldn’t fulfill the goal until the latter half of Act 5. Act 3A-story Suggested number of beats: 7Suggested beats: 20-27Act 3 begins with the hero finding out his success at the end of Act 2 didn’t fulfill the condition/s of his ultimate goal. Instead, it resulted in a worst-case setback in the A-storyline, B-storyline or both. Now the hero must create a new plan to meet the new condition of the new complication. It’s usually the most dramatic if the hero fails every step of the way, forcing him to adapt and try again until he fails completely at the end of Act 3. However, if it makes sense for the story, he can win a few rounds.The hero’s false victory at the end of Act 2 can create a worst-case setback in the hero’s quest to accomplish his A-story goal without affecting the B-story in any other way than, it would be futile or impossible to complete the A-storyline goal without fulfilling the condition of his B-storyline goal first. If this is the case, you can devote all 7 beats in Act 3 to the A-story. B-story Suggested number of beats: 0-7Suggested beats: 21-27 or 24-27The hero’s false victory at the end of Act 2 can create a worst-case setback in the hero’s quest to accomplish his B-story goal without affecting the A-story in any other way other than the hero can’t fulfill the major condition of his A-storyline goal without fulfilling the condition of his B-storyline goal. If this is the case, you can devote all 7 beats in Act 3 to the B-story. You can devote some of the beats in Act 3 to the A-story and the B-story, but at the end of Act 3, the hero will can fail to complete at least whichever quest takes up the most beats in Act 3. You can also have the A and B story collide in a way that causes him to fail one or both of his quests. C-story (0-1 Beats)Suggested number of beats: 2Suggested beats: 2-23, 29The hero will continue enacting his C-storyline plan in Act 3 and fail. This storyline still doesn’t have to be impacted by, or have an impact on, the A or B storylines. Act 3 FinaleA-story Suggested number of beats: 0-3Suggested beats: 28-30 or 28, 30If the hero failure at the end of Act 3, the repercussions of his failure will put him in a worst-case scenario. All of his options will be eliminated, and he is tempted to give up. However, he restates the stakes of failure and decides he must press on.If Act 4 is the last 3 beats of Act 3, the hero will make his final attempt to meet one of his storyline’s major conditions under the most dire circumstances. B-story (1-3 Beats)Suggested number of beats: 0-3Suggested beats: 28-30 or 29The hero uses a lesson he’s learned in the B-storyline to solve the A-storyline obstacle in front of him. Since the B-storyline is an internal conflict, completing the B-story quest means he fixes an internal flaw, creating a new virtue inside him. He then applies that virtue to the problem in front of him and overcomes it. C-story Suggested number of beats: 0-1Suggested beats: 29-30The C-story doesn’t need to appear in Act 4 since there’s so little time to cram it in. However, you can have the hero apply a lesson he’s learned or resource he’s gained in the C-story quest to fulfill the condition of the A or B storyline. Act 4A-story Suggested number of beats: 5-7Suggested beats: 31-37If the major condition of the B-storyline was resolved in Act 4, then all 7 Beats in Act 5 will be A-storyline. In the last beat of Act 5 the hero will fulfill the major condition of the A-storyline, neutralizing the antagonistic force that has a conflict of interest with him achieving his ultimate goal. B-story Suggested number of beats: 0-2Suggested beats: 31, 34-36If the major B-storyline condition hasn’t been met yet, then the hero can use a lesson or resource gained from the B storyline to fix his internal flaw and turn it into a new virtue when he is “dug in” halfway through Act 5. C-story Suggested number of beats: 0-2Suggested beats: 31-32, 38The hero will attempt to solve the C-story one last time. The audience can see the hero succeed or find out in Act 6 that his actions fulfilled the condition of completing the C-story quest. The effects of completing the C-story quest can impact the hero’s ability to complete his A-story goal or not. Act 5A-story Suggested number of beats: 1Suggested beats: 38The hero gets the A-story prize. B-story Suggested number of beats: 1Suggested beats: 39The hero gets the B-story prize. C-story Suggested number of beats: 1Suggested beats: 40The hero gets the C-story prize. THE PLOTTING PROCESS REVOLVES AROUND THE HERO ATTEMPTING TO FULFILL A NEEDThe hardest part about writing a 90 page story isn’t coming up with enough ideas. It’s narrowing down your ideas to the most effective ones. “HYPERLINK ""Sharknado,” and “Attack on Titan” prove it’s possible to make a profitable movie by throwing random ideas all over your script as long as your overall plot makes almost the bare minimum amount of logical sense. However, if you ever hope to write a script as solid as “The Shawshank Redemption,” or as complex as “Pulp Fiction,” “Memento,” or “Snatch,” you need to plan everything coherently. This sounds intimidating and time consuming, because it is. There are thousands of variables in a story, which means you would have to ask yourself thousands of questions to figure out how to bring them all together, but you were going to have to ask yourself thousands of questions anyway. It’s more difficult and time consuming to plot a script if you start with 1000 ideas and try to weave them together, than if you start with one idea and extrapolate the rest from it. When sitting down to write a story, it’s tempting to begin by creating your hero first, but that’s putting the cart before the horse. It’s more efficient to start by asking yourself what need the hero is trying to fulfill, and then reverse engineer everything else, including your hero, to cater to it. The hero may be the star of the movie to the audience, but to the author, during the writing process, the need the hero is trying to fulfill is the star, and the hero is just another dependent variable. Until you’re ready to define your hero, visualize him as a blank-faced man named, Homo Economicus.“Homo economicus, (aka economic man), is the concept in many economic theories portraying humans as consistently rational and narrowly self-interested agents who usually pursue their subjectively-defined ends optimally.”A psychologist could tell you why all the 250 highest ranking movies on IMBD are about a consistently rational and narrowly self-interested hero who accomplishes a goal to attain an incentive that satisfies a need. It’s because every member of the paying audience is a rational, sentient human being whose understanding of reality is based on the human experience. When a story revolves around a hero who thinks and acts like a rational, sentient being, and whose actions follow the same cause/effect pattern that happens in reality, then the audience will instinctively understand the narrative structure. The more similar the hero’s thoughts and actions are to the audience’s, the more they can relate to him as if he were a real person, see themselves in him or live vicariously through him.Luckily, you don’t need a degree in psychology to write a realistic hero, because human behavior follows a predictable pattern that revolves around attempting to satisfy unfilled needs:When your mind or body is lacking something it needs, it triggers a response in your nervous system that makes you conscious of the need you’re lacking. Your brain recalls/deduces the consequences/results of satisfying the need vs. not satisfying it. The desirability of fulfilling the need, and the undesirability of not fulfilling the need, triggers the desire/hunger/want/frustration/anxiety/internal tension to fill it. The want triggers your brain to identify a source where you can get the thing that satisfies your need. Finding the source triggers your brain to search its memory for behaviors that have worked in the past to get the desired outcome and calculate each option’s chances of success. If your brain doesn’t find a pattern of behavior that has achieved the desired outcome before, it will analyze the problem logically and deduce the behavior it expects to be the most productive towards achieving the goal, according to its unique understanding of reality.Your brain will calculate how much it expects the behavior to cost, how much need the behavior will satisfy, how likely the behavior is to achieve the desired outcome and whether or not the cost/benefit analysis adds up.If the cost/benefit analysis of performing the behavior adds up, that will trigger a state of internal tension that pushes or pulls you towards the goal. If the cost/benefit analysis of performing the behavior doesn’t add up, that will trigger a state of internal tension that pushes or pulls you away from the goal. If your brain is pushing/pulling you towards the goal, the physiological tension will drive you conscious mind to make a decision to enact the behavior.As your body executes the behavior, and after the fact, your brain will measure how productive your behavior is at achieving the desired outcome, and it will compare that to how productive it expected your behavior to be. The more the productivity level meets and exceeds your brain’s expectations, the more you experience a state of physiological and psychological arousal, which pushes/pulls you to your goal. On a conscious level, this drive is experienced as hope/belief/confidence that you can achieve your goal. As long as your actions are productive and meet the cost/benefit analysis, you will continue to enact behaviors your brain calculates to be the most productive at achieving the goal. If less your behavior’s productivity level meets the expected level of productivity, the more it will create a state of physiological and psychological tension.On a conscious level, this tension is experienced as fear, frustration, anxiety, hopelessness and anger. The more your actions are unproductive and don’t meet the cost/benefit analysis, your brain will rationalize losing hope to the point of giving up. You either give up or keep seeking the need until you satisfy it. These are the fundamental steps of the hero’s journey, because they’re the fundamental steps of the human journey. Later in this guide I simplify these 18 steps into 12 and explain how to make a full length script by repeating 4 cycles of the 12 step process, but before you can plot anything, you must know the hero’s need. If you want your hero to be truly realistic, you should give him one of the needs that real people, specifically, your target audience, has. Psychologists have many theories on how to define and organize motivational needs. For the sake of fictional character creation, you can divide them into 3 categories: Biological, Social and Personal.BiologicalYour body has physical needs it must fill to survive. They may seem normal to the point of being blasé, but these needs are universal, and many profitable movies have been made about heroes who accomplish a goal because they’re trying to fill their biological needs, such as: FoodIn “The Donner Party,” “Ravenous,” and “Alive” the heroes eat humans to survive a brutally desolate wilderness. In “Harold and Kumar Go to White Castle,” the heroes go on a crazy adventure in pursuit of hamburgers. WaterIn “The Ballad of Cable Hogue,” the hero finds a water well in the Arizona desert that saves his life and then opens a watering hole business and tries to manage it. In “The Water Boy,” the hero devotes his life to dispensing water because he believes his father died of dehydration. OxygenIn “Air,” the hero must survive in an underground complex that protects him from toxic air on the earth’s surface. In “Bubble Boy,” the hero lives in a plastic bubble because he believes he has a weak immune system and unfiltered air will kill him. ShelterIn “The Money Trap,” the hero wants to repair the house he sunk his life savings into. In “Poltergeist” and “House,” the hero puts up with ghosts because he put all his money into a haunted house. In “Warrior,” the hero enters a mixed martial arts contest because he can’t afford his mortgage on a teacher’s salary. Elimination of wasteI don’t know of any movie where the hero’s end goal is to use the bathroom, but the need can be used to motivate or characters on minor quests or complicate their quests. Regulation of body temperatureIn “The Day After Tomorrow,” and every snow-themed movie, the hero tries to survive the cold. In “The Core,” “Sunshine,” and every asteroid movie, the hero attempts to save himself and others from melting. Immediate survivalEvery apocalypse and horror movie is based on the need to survive. So are most action and crime movies. In “Alive,” “The Revenant,” “Life of Pi” and “Castaway,” the heroes must fulfill all their biological needs to survive. Long term safetyIn “The Shawshank Redemption” the hero wants to get out of prison because he knows he won’t survive there forever. In “Interstellar” the hero travels to other planets in an attempt to not starve on planet Earth. In “An Officer and a Gentleman,” the hero joins the military because he has nowhere else to go and no way to make a living. SexEvery love story is basically about sex. “American Pie,” and “Fifty Shades of Grey” revolve around fulfilling the need for sex. RecoveryIn “Dallas Buyers Club,” “Philadelphia,” “Escape From New York,” the hero attempts to recover from something poisoning his body. MoneyIn a modern, capitalist society, everything you need to survive and thrive is obtained with money. So the pursuit of money directly equates to being able to fulfill all your biological needs. In a movie where the hero’s goal is to make money, you almost don’t even need to explain why, but it helps if you do. Emotional gratificationHuman beings need to feel alive. This drives us to seek out incentives that make us feel each of our emotions. In “ HYPERLINK "" Beetlejuice,” Delia Deetz is motivated to seek out sadness triggers. In “Point Break,” all the characters are motivated to seek out excitement triggers. In “The Notebook,” the hero is motivated to seek out romance triggers. In “ HYPERLINK "" Nightcrawler,” the antihero is motivated to seek out horror triggers. In “God Bless America,” the hero is motivated to seek out anger triggers. In “Hector and the Search for Happiness” and “Office Space,” the hero is motivated to seek out tranquility triggers. In “Man on the Moon,” the hero is motivated to seek out humor triggers. Relieve the fight or flight reactionIf your life is threatened, or you’re placed in an extremely stressful situation, your body will motivate you to get to safety. Almost every horror and action movie revolves around a hero trying to survive. Relieve stressThe hero’s goal in “Network,” “Brazil,” and “Falling Down” is motivated by the instinctual need to relieve/escape anxiety/stress. The human spiritThere is an innate drive within the human psyche to achieve, grow, overcome, master, conquer, improve ourselves regardless of whether or life is in danger. This is a common theme in sci-fi movies, particularly Star Trek. Social (Product of nature)Thousands of years of humans evolving in tribes has ingrained instinctual social goals into our DNA that drive us to interact with society in ways that worked for our ancestors. Through generations of classical conditioning, we’ve evolved the “need” to: Be accepted by our community/tribe/neighborsBeing popular in high school seems so important to us that we feel like we’d die if nobody liked us, because for most of human history, that’s exactly what would happen. This motivates us to give into peer pressure, try to impress people we don’t like and proactively manage our social status. Most teen movies revolve around the need to acquire and maintain social status, notably “Mean Girls,” and “Easy A.” Be accepted by our friends/coworkers/acquaintancesYou’re hardwired to want be accepted by humans in general, but you develop a special bond with the people you interact with most. You develop a shared history, which makes them part of your life, which makes them a part of your memory, which makes them a part of your perception of reality. Losing them would be losing a facet of your reality. Plus, you also establish social contracts with each other, where they become conditional allies in the fight for survival and growth. The more useful of a friend they are, the more you’ll value them. Buddy movies like “The Night Before,” “The Wood,” and even “The Goonies” revolve around the hero’s need to preserve his close friendships. Be accepted by our familyWe have a special need to be accepted by our family. We will push ourselves beyond our limits to win our parents’ approval, and if we don’t get it, we’ll be motivated to act out dysfunctional behavior in an attempt to cope with the loss of our family’s approval. Every family movie revolves around the need to bond with blood, notably, “Finding Nemo,” “Elf,” and “We Need to Talk About Kevin.”Be accepted by our loverThere’s are entire branches of psychology dedicated to the study of romantic relationships. We pick our lovers for a lot of reasons, but ultimately it boils down to the fact that they fulfill our needs better than the competition. That’s why humans, and the heroes in every love story, are driven to love. Be accepted by our alphaFor all of human history, everyone has looked up to their parents and the alpha member of their tribe. Whatever personal goals we chose, we looked up to the people who mastered that goal. We practically worship authority, because our chances of success are the best if we mimic the masters. So our brains reward us with intoxicating hormones when we get their approval. This conditions and drives us to emulate them. This is profoundly important. Everyone has a hero who we pick because they’re the most alpha version of the person we want to be. So if you can state exactly who your hero’s hero is, then you can explain all his behavior. Winning his master’s approval is the hero’s driving need in “Blood Sport,” and “October Sky.” DominateClimbing the social ladder is a general need, but throughout most of human history, there was one behavior that helped move you up the pecking order more than any other: the behavior of dominating your competition through tests of strength, skill and wisdom. This instinct is ingrained in some people so strongly they refuse to play sports just for fun.Movies with heroes who are driven by their need to dominate include, “Alexander” and “Scarface.” SubmitThere can only be one alpha at a time in a tribe. Everyone tries to dominate others, and everybody wins some, but eventually 99% of the population will ensure their survival by bowing down to, bending the knee to, and serving whoever is more alpha than them. There’s safety and opportunity in serving the alphas. So our brains have been conditioned to reward us with feelings of security and pride when we submit to a higher authority. The need to submit drives the heroes in “Fifty Shades of Grey,” “The Passion of the Christ” and “Jarhead” to endure Hell to submit to a higher power and feast on its benefits. Achieve autonomyMost of human history, most humans have been slaves. Despite any benefits that may come with being a slave, it limits your potential, it conflicts with the human spirit, and it usually sucks more than it doesn’t. Humanity has been struggling to achieve its independence so long, the struggle has been bred into us. As we’re worshiping and trying to emulate our parents, we’re disobeying them and rebelling against things they stand for. In all walks of life, we need a certain amount of autonomy. The need for autonomy drives the heroes in “One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest,” “Orange County,” and “PCU.”Satisfy social curiosityCenturies of growing up in the wilderness has taught us to fear what’s in the shadows. At the same time we have to find out, and we have to know what’s over the horizon because we hope it fulfills out needs more. Growing up in tribes, we needed to know everyone and their business because every person was a potential threat and opportunity. So we evolved the need to metaphorically sniff everyone’s butt.The need to satisfy social curiosity drives the hero in “The Burbs” and “Rear Window.”Protect your paesano“Paesano” is an Italian term. It basically means you value your family the most, your friends second, city-mates third, countrymen fourth, and everyone else last. Everyone can understand the concept, because it’s baked into us. We tend to perceive the human race as telescopic series of teams that divides people into insiders and outsiders whose importance is relative to their proximity to us. This is the motive for every war that has ever been fought and every movie that has been made about them. Social (Product of nurture)A goal can be a need even if it’s not vital. As long as you’ve been formally or informally taught something is important, you’ll experience a psychological need to fulfill it, such as the need to:Be successful by society’s standards/win civilizationToddlers learn everything they know about life by mimicking adults. We grow up assuming what adults are thinking/doing is how life works. The more people you see striving for the same goal, the more it confirms the goal is important. If enough people believe in the same definition of success, it will become mainstream. You will likely grow up with a life-goal to fulfill the conditions of success as defined by the culture you were raised in. The need to be successful drives the hero in “Things Fall Apart,” and “The Wolf of Wall Street.”Honor your culture’s rulesYour culture has written and unwritten rules for behavior. Most of them are either written down in your culture’s holy texts and law books. If you never leave your culture, and spend your whole life surrounded by the same rules, they can become so familiar you accept them on par with the law of gravity. If you believe in your culture’s rules, then following/believing/serving/enforcing them is a need. Even if you hate the rules, you still have to follow them, because the rules are enforced by the members of your culture who drank the Kool-Aid. If you’re forced to follow a rule, then following the rule becomes a need that you’ll go to backbreaking lengths to satisfy. The need to follow culturally relative rules drive the heroes in “The 47 Ronin” and “Memoirs of a Geisha.” Honor your culture’s folkways/norms/moresCulture contains beliefs, traditions, customs, idiosyncrasies and arts that have nothing to do with rules. They’re just local ways of doing things. If your hero is raised to behave/react a certain way because it’s his culture, then reenacting his cultural ticks is a legitimate psychological need. The need to follow cultural norms drives the heroes in “The God’s Must be Crazy,” and “Fiddler on the Roof.” Fulfill civil obligations/social contractsThere are responsibilities you have to fulfill to live in society. Go to work. Mow the lawn. Pay your taxes. Obey your boss. Cooperate with the police. Fulfill the terms of contracts. Pay your debts. Honor your word. Be polite. Reciprocate favors. Pay it forward.None of these behaviors apply to a castaway stranded alone on a desert island. These aren’t needs in nature, but if you live in civilization, you have to follow the best practices of interacting with people and learn/master the ropes of the local socioeconomic system. If you don’t pay the cost of living in civilization and honor your social contracts, the system will turn on you. So fulfilling civil obligations can be a motivating need to those who have them. The need to fulfill a civic duty drives the heroes in “12 Angry Men” and any movie where someone owes money to the mob. Achieve social justiceOur DNA compels us to value and love other people. It’s just a matter of how many you do. The human spirit compels us to overcome and conquer. The need for autonomy and self-expression compel us to change whatever restricts us. When a character has all of these needs, he’s motivated to rectify society’s flaws. To an empathetic enough person, the need to eliminate injustice is a strong as the need to eliminate a hungry bear charging at your family. The need for social justice drives the heroes in “Milk” and “All the King’s Men.” Personal (Product of nature)Personal needs are one that stem from the innate drives unique to you. Some of these needs are rooted in biology, but I include them here because some biological urges have a unique application to each individual:Physiology-based mental and behavioral disordersIf you have Down syndrome, autism, epilepsy, psychopathy, or any other condition in your brain that causes you to think/behave a certain way, then you have an often inescapable need to behave that way. Temperament/Personality typeAs professional psychologists have tried to change patients’ thoughts and behavior over the past 150+ years, their studies have shown that some aspects of our character are more changeable than others. Some are basically set and impossible to change. Furthermore, those immutable characteristics often come in sets, and everyone in society falls into some combination of these character traits. If your personality type is introverted, sensitive and logical, you have a motivating need to think and act that way. Humanity hasn’t perfected its understanding of temperaments and personality types, but almost any personality type chart will suffice for creating a fictional character. If you endow your characters with The Big 5 personality traits or the Meyers Briggs test’s 16 personality types, people will identify with them. The need to grow/improve/overcome/achieve self-actualizationThe human spirit compels us to overcome life’s adversities and improve the world. We each have our own personal flame that compels us to become who we are, to flesh out our identity and discover our passions. It’s in our nature to become/express ourselves to fullest extent possible. It’s so ingrained that cults have to resort to severe psychological trauma and constant upkeep conditioning to break recruits’ will to own their individuality. The need to be/improve yourself is as real as the need for love. Personal (Product of nurture)The search for meaningIf you want to write a story that cuts to the heart of the human condition, then write a story about man’s need to find meaning/purpose in life. When the movie based on Viktor Frankl’s book, “Man’s Search For Meaning,” is released in 2017, it will win an Oscar even if the film is poorly executed. Viktor Frankl was a psychiatrist and a prisoner at Auschwitz. He observed that humans could survive the most brutal circumstances, or they could have everything they need to survive, but the more they truly believe their life is meaningless, they’ll waste away and die. We’re compelled to assign meaning to life. People have devoted their lives to religions they didn’t believe in because it satisfied their need for meaning. Every person has the same need. The hero in your story can too if you need him too. Classical conditioning/force of habitEveryone has a unique set of experiences in their memory bank. We only know how to do what we’ve experienced. After doing something enough times, it becomes second nature or force of habit. If your hero has been conditioned by people or his subjective experiences to repeat a behavior pattern, then enacting the pattern is a psychological need. Beliefs/IndoctrinationEveryone has their own collection of beliefs, and they’re usually not very articulate or organized. Whatever your hero believes, regardless of why, becomes a rule he must follow. Psychological-based mental and behavioral disordersNot all mental and behavioral disorders are caused by biology. Many are caused by traumatic and toxic experiences. Even if the problem is all in your head, if you believe all germs will kill you, like the hero in “The Aviator” or “Matchstick Men,” the need for obsessive compulsive cleanliness is real to you. Logic processesThere’s a skill to thinking and problem solving that most people aren’t very good at. Everybody has their own unique style. You can think logically or emotionally, visually or concretely, regularly or rarely. You can use refined, effective thinking habits like Sherlock Holmes or logical fallacies like “Brian Fantana.” It isn’t required that you define any of your hero’s thought processes. He can just act like a normal, rational person with a personality quirk or two. But if you need to motivate his actions, you can do it by saying, “This is how he thinks.” Self-image/self-esteem/self-worthEveryone has an idea of who, what and how valuable they are. Society tells us how valuable it thinks we are, and we tend to believe it. If you mature enough to break free of that trap, you’re still compelled to assign a value to yourself. You can do that by coming up with an inspirational philosophy on life or by measuring yourself against your expectations for yourself. Struggling to maintain/improve your self-image has motivated people to climb to the top of the world and run into gun fights. Love, hate, hope and fearYou can justify your hero doing anything, including killing 50 people over a pet, like in “John Wick” and “Keanu” as long as you say, “The hero had an experience that caused him to love, hate, hope for or fear something.” REVERSE ENGINEER THE NEED AND INCENTIVE FROM THE PURPOSE OF THE STORYEvery story is about a hero attempting to accomplish a goal that yields the incentive that will satisfy his need. If your hero were a hungry lab rat in a maze built by psychologists, his need would be hunger. His goal would be to press the lever that gives him a food pellet, and the pellet would be his incentive. Deducing the incentive from the need can be straightforward, because the very nature of the need practically dictates the answer. If the hero is thirsty, the incentive is water. If the hero is love-starved, the incentive is a lover. If the hero is in danger, the incentive is safety. You should brainstorm as many incentives as you can to make sure you find the best one your mind has to offer. When you’re brainstorm, you need to keep in mind that every detail in your story will extrapolate from these. So it’s of the utmost importance that the need and incentive cater to the purpose of the story. Ultimately, all stories serve one of two purposes: Elicit emotionConvey informationBelow is a list of purposes your story can serve, including examples of popular movies and the needs and incentives they used to achieve their respective purposes: Elicit emotions:The purpose of your story doesn’t have to be profound. Movie studios know the films they’re making are consumer products, and their target audience is bored, overworked suburbanites who don’t have the time, money or freedom to experience life to its fullest; so they live vicariously through their television sets. Sure, some viewers are looking for answers to life’s deepest questions, but most people are just trying to feel alive in between the relentless chores and stresses of modern life. Any entrepreneur will tell you, in order to be successful in business, you have to find a need and fill it. People need to feel emotions. So the purpose of your script can be to elicit an emotion from your audience. If you decide that’s your story’s purpose, you need pick a goal that caters to the desired emotion. Elicit excitementMost of the movies that have grossed more than $1 billion didn’t have much to say about life. The one that did, “Avatar,” did so in the most exciting way possible. The one love story, “Titanic,” had more action sequences than love scenes. If you want to write an exciting story, then you need to know what causes humans to feel excited. The sensation of excitement is caused by the release of adrenaline in the human brain. Adrenaline is released when something triggers the fight or flight response in the sympathetic nervous system. The fight or flight response is, “a physiological reaction that occurs in response to a perceived harmful event, attack, or threat to survival.”So if you want your story to trigger the release of adrenaline, your hero’s goal should revolve around a threat to survival. This is why the most common goal in summer blockbusters is to save the world. Your hero doesn’t have to save anyone but himself. The threat just has to be interesting. So, to pick your hero’s goal, ask yourself, “What the most exciting goal a hero can have?” In “The Dark Knight” the hero’s need is to protect people, and his goal is to stop an anarchist serial killer. The incentive is the antagonist’s absence, and the stakes are peace vs. death. In “Lord of the Rings” the hero’s need is survival, and his goal is to stop an evil wizard from overrunning the world with orcs. The incentive is the antagonist’s absence, and the stakes are peace vs. death. In “Star Wars” the hero’s need is security, and his goal is to stop an evil galactic empire from oppressing the galaxy. The incentive is a rebel-controlled government, and the stakes are peace vs. death. In “Indiana Jones” the hero’s need is “fortune and glory,” and his goal is to find a priceless treasure. The incentive is the Ark of the Covenant, and the stakes are fortune/glory vs. Nazi domination. Elicit fearFear is also a product of the fight or flight response. It’s also triggered by a threat to survival, and it can be divided into two types: terror and horror. “Terror is usually described as the feeling of dread and anticipation that precedes the horrifying experience. By contrast, horror is the feeling of revulsion that usually occurs after something frightening is seen, heard, or otherwise experienced. It is the feeling one gets after coming to an awful realization or experiencing a deeply unpleasant occurrence. In other words, horror is more related to being shocked or scared, while terror is more related to being anxious or fearful. Horror has also been defined as a combination of terror and revulsion, but it can be triggered by the anticipation of a threat in the future.” Depending on which type of fear you want to elicit, ask yourself, “What’s the most terrifying threat you could be hunted by?” or “What’s the most shocking threat you could be harassed by?” In “It” the hero’s need is survival, and the goal is to stop the magical killer clown that is eating children. The incentive is the antagonist’s absence, and the stakes are survival vs. death.In “The Blair Witch Project,” the hero’s need is truth, and the goal is to find evidence. The incentive is documenting the truth, and the stakes are life vs death. In “Hostel” the hero’s need is survival, and the goal is to survive being killed by murderous tourists. The incentive is freedom, and the stakes are life vs death. Elicit laughterMany people have said that humor can’t be explained, but like anything else in the physical universe, if it happens, it happens because of a real cause/effect chain of events that can be reverse engineered. Laughter is a survival mechanism, just like the fight or flight response. It exists because the human mind is designed to think logically. The human brain is wired to find patterns in the world so it can anticipate them and react appropriately. When it is shown a pattern and then is shown an unexpected variable, it will try to figure out how the new variable relates into the old pattern. If the new variable is threatening, the brain will trigger the fight or flight response. If the unexpected variable doesn’t fit the pattern but is nonthreatening, the brain will reject it for being illogical. The physical manifestation of the mental rejection is laughter. Every joke has three parts: A subject, a predicate and a conclusion. Together they form a logical cause/effect pattern. The simplest formula for a joke is 1+2=-3. SubjectThe number 1 is the subject of the joke. You can call it the introduction or setup. Either way, it begins establishing a pattern. This is why jokes often begin, “A guy walks into a bar…” “Two rabbis were eating at a deli…” “I was eating dinner with my mother in law last night…” You introduce a situation that the audience has preconceived expectations about in preparation to deviate from the expectations. You can even begin a joke by breaking the expected pattern immediately by saying, “A horse walks into a bar…” “Two rabbis were eating in a church…” “I was having sex with my mother in law last night…”PredicateThe number 2 in the formula above is the predicate. In a sentence, the predicate says something about the subject. When you combine the subject and the predicate, you can deduce the logical outcome. So you could make a joke by saying, “A man walks into a bar (subject) and orders a beer (predicate)…” The logical expectation is that the bartender will serve him a beer (conclusion). Finishing the joke is simply a matter of finding a surprisingly ridiculous conclusion for the situation. Again, you can also create humor by using an unexpected predicate such as, “A man walks into a bar and orders a horse…” or “Two rabbis were eating at a deli, when my mother in law rides in on a horse…” ConclusionWhen you hear the subject and predicate of a joke, your subconscious brain is thinking, “When the first variable is added to the second, I can predict what the outcome will be.” Why the joke is funny depends on why the conclusion doesn’t follow the premise. The unexpected ridiculousness of the conclusion is the punch in the punch line. The conclusion can be absurd, exaggerated, under/overstated, reframed, misinterpreted or opposite of what you expected. You can also make a successful joke by having a conclusion that does follow the premise logically, but it’s unexpected because nobody has ever pointed it out to you, or you’re surprised to hear someone say it because it’s taboo, poignantly accurate, or has unexpected implications. Ideally, your whole story could be summarized as a joke, where Act 1 introduces a subject, Act 2-4 builds on the pattern in a way that leads the audience to expect a certain conclusion, and Act 5 deviates from it in an unexpected, ridiculous way. However, a lot of comedies are written with a basic adventure or love story that drives the plot, and jokes have been crammed into every scene. If that’s the route you want to take, then plot the movie like it’s an action or love story, and worry about the funny details later. If you want the story itself to be a joke, ask yourself what expectation of the audience’s you want to pull the rug out from under. In “Airplane,” the hero’s need is survival, and his goal is to land an airplane after the crew dies of food poisoning. The incentive is being on the ground, and the stakes are life vs death. In “Monty Python and the Holy Grail,” the hero’s need is to fulfill the will of God, and his goal is to find the Holy Grail. The incentive is the Holy Grail, and the stakes are God’s approval vs God’s disapproval.In “The Big Lebowski,” the hero’s need is tranquility, and his goal is to get back a rug that was stolen from him. The incentive is his rug, and the stakes are order vs chaos. Elicit loveThe instinctual need to feel loved is as strong as the instinctual need to have sex. The less we feel loved, the more of a relief it is to live vicariously through fictional characters’ love lives. A love story is just that, a reenactment of two people falling in love. This means the hero’s goal is to fall in love. The rest of the story is just details that will fall into place as you reverse engineer the circumstances. Similarly, if the purpose of your story is to elicit lust, the hero’s end goal will be to have sex, and the rest of the story explains how the hero got laid. Elicit sadnessFear is triggered when you’re afraid you’re about to lose something. The more important the thing is, the more powerful your fear is. A sad story is like a bad joke, where, instead of the conclusion being ridiculous. The conclusion involves losing something important. That’s why the following joke is sad, instead of funny: “A man walks into a bar and orders a beer… because his infant daughter just died, and there was nothing he could do to prevent it.” Sadness is triggered by losing the thing you value most. You can be sad by knowing you’ll lose something in the future, by losing it right now, or thinking about something you lost in the past. Someone just has to lose something profoundly important, but with one caveat. The loss has to be hopeless. If there’s a chance of saving the thing you lost, the correct emotional response is anger, because your brain will release adrenaline to get you off your butt and trying to save the world. The movie, “Taken” wasn’t a sad story, even though it started with the hero losing everything he valued most. It was exciting, because the hero had hope that fueled his anger. However, the movie would have been sad if he had lost his family at the end despite his best efforts. The point is, every minute in your story that you want to elicit sadness, the chances of the hero attaining the thing he wants most should be hopeless. If you want to write a sad story, ask yourself, “What’s the most poignant thing a person can lose, and what’s the most poignant way to lose it?” In “Schindler’s List,” the hero’s need is to honor life, and his goal is to save as many Jews as he can from concentration camps. The incentive is the people he saves, and the stakes are being good vs. being evil. In “Brokeback Mountain” the hero’s need is love, and his goal is to be with the man he loves. The incentive is his lover, and the stakes are happiness vs. sadness. In “Dancer in the Dark” the hero’s need is to take care of her family, and her goal is to pay for her son’s eye surgery. The incentive is her son’s sight, and the stakes are her son’s security vs. insecurity. In “Requiem for a Dream,” the hero’s need is to be successful, and his goal is to sell enough drugs to make his dreams come true. His incentive is money, and the stakes are prosperity vs. degeneracy. Elicit angerSadness is a watered down version of the flight response, and is triggered by loss. Anger is a watered down version of the fight response, and is also triggered by the threat or experience of loss. Most people don’t go to the movies because they want to feel angry, but there are markets and uses for anger-inducing content, aka, propaganda. Tabloids, reality TV shows, religious programming, social justice films, eco-conscious cartoons, and extreme right wing entertainment news segments sell their consumers content that makes them angry at celebrities, politicians and outsiders. The most poignant example is Disney’s WWII propaganda films such as “The Ducktators” and “Education for Death.” Those films inform the viewer there’s a threat to something they value, and they should be angry and take action to prevent the impending loss. The same thing happens in “Avatar,” “Fern Gully,” “Garbage Warrior” “Medicine Man,” “Hotel Rwanda,” “Crash,” “Network,” “God’s Not Dead,” “Reefer Madness,” “Fahrenheit 9/11,” and “2016: Obama’s America.” The formula for a story is perfectly suited for propaganda. A story is a dramatized enactment of a person who identifies what’s most important to him in life, loses it and tries to get it back. It walks through the steps of how he lost it and what can be done to get it back. To write your own propaganda film, you just need to pick something in the real world that’s important to you and is under threat. Have the hero walk through the steps of losing it or trying to prevent its loss, trying to neutralize the threat and experiencing the consequences of success/failure. The story can be a metaphor for what’s happening in the world, or a blue-print for what could happen. As long as your call to action isn’t absurd or immoral, there’s nothing sinister about making a story that points out a valid threat and explores how it got here and how to fix it. The question you need to ask yourself to write a propaganda film is, “What’s the biggest threat to the most important thing that there’s still a chance to fix?” Elicit inspiration/motivationInspirational and motivational movies hinge on the threat of loss as well. What makes them feel good is that the hero overcomes the seemingly hopeless threat in a spectacular manner. Sad stories tell how someone lost something. Angry stories tell how someone could lose something. Inspirational stories tell how someone got something. That’s why the following joke makes you feel good, “A man walked into a bar and ordered a beer only to find out it was more expensive than he thought, and he couldn’t afford it. The bartender smiled at the man and said, ‘You look like you’ve had a rough day. I can tell you’ve been working hard and deserve a beer. So I’ll tell you what, it’s on the house. I appreciate you choosing my bar over all the others, and I’m glad to have you here.’” To make an inspirational story, pick a poignant and seemingly hopeless goal for the hero to achieve. In “Forest Gump,” the hero’s need is social acceptance, and his goal is to have a normal life despite his mental and physical handicaps. The incentive is Jenny’s love, and the stakes are companionship vs. loneliness. In “The Shawshank Redemption” the hero’s needs are survival and autonomy, and his goal is to escape prison. The incentive is freedom, and the stakes are life vs. death. In “Rocky,” the hero’s need is to prove himself, and his goal is to last 12 rounds in a boxing match with the world champion. The incentive is Adrian’s love, and the stakes are purposefulness vs. purposelessness. In “The Pursuit of Happyness,” the hero’s needs are survival and taking care of his family. His goal is to become a stock broker. The incentive is a good paying job, and the stakes are being a good father vs. being a bad father. Elicit curiosityIt’s human nature to want to understand the unknown because it makes us feel safe. Understanding the world around us makes us feel like we’re in control of our environment, instead of it controlling us. We’re especially curious to identify sources of danger, because we evolved for thousands of years listening to strange noises in the night, hoping a monster wouldn’t come out of the shadows and eat us. To make a mystery story, ask yourself, what’s is the most interesting and dangerous “unknown” a person would want to know? In “The Maltese Falcon,” the hero’s need is for truth, and his goal is to find out who killed his partner. The incentive is the culprit, and the stakes are justice vs. injustice. In “The Usual Suspects,” the hero’s need is to do his job, and his goal is to learn the identity of Keyzer Soze. The incentive is knowledge, and the stakes are justice vs. injustice. In “The Game,” the hero’s need is truth, and his goal is to find out why he’s being accosted by strangers in ways that reflect his inner flaws. The incentive is survival, and the stakes are life vs. death. Elicit awe/wonderAwe and wonder are pleasant emotions that can be triggered in humans by showing them a reason to hope that they don’t fully understand. It’s the rational response to a positive mystery. To write an awe-inspiring movie, ask yourself what the most interesting and wonderful unknown a person would want to know?In “The Never Ending Story,” the hero’s need is to honor his culture, and his goal is to find the reason his world is dying. The incentive is his home world, and the stakes are survival vs. death. In “The Matrix,” the hero’s need is for truth, and his goal is to find his place in the Matrix. The incentive is fulfilling his destiny, and the stakes are life vs. death. In “Inception,” the hero’s need is to be with his family, and his goal is to fulfill a job contract. The incentive is having his criminal record erased, and the stakes are family vs. separation. Convey information:Propaganda merges anger entertainment with conveying information, but sometimes the purpose of a story is to convey information about important topics that aren’t under threat. Listed below are some examples.Teach a functional lessonStories are perfectly suited for being used as instructional guides, since they revolve around a hero setting a goal and going through the steps of accomplishing it while avoiding the occupational hazards. You could write a story about a man who wants to build a house. So he does it, demonstrating how to accomplish every step in the process and overcoming each tasks risks. The goal and process don’t have to be so literal. You may just want to give the viewer an idea of how people climb Mount Everest, survive a plane crash in the Andes, survive on a deserted island, build a media empire, run for political office, or teach a classroom. In that case, you would write a story that revolves around the hero accomplishing the goal you want to educate the audience about. These don’t have to be concrete, external tasks. Most non-fiction how-to books are self-help. They walk you through the steps of overcoming common hazards of the human condition. You could go down the list of Amazon’s best-selling self-help books and write stories based on each of them, wherein the hero’s goal is to overcome his character flaw, and to do that, he has to go through the steps listed in the table of contents of the whatever-help book you’re looking at. Alternately, you can demonstrate the wrong way to do something for comedic effect, like in “Bad Golf My Way” or “ HYPERLINK "" Caddyshack,” or as a cautionary tale like in “Deep Water Horizon.” Teach responsibilityThe reason some behavior is considered responsible is because it has a positive long-term effect on the most important goal in life, survival. Responsible behavior is relative to the environment one is trying to survive in. The most useful skills and goals a child raised in a remote African tribe will be different than those of an African American raised in the ghettos of Detroit or the penthouses of Manhattan. Wherever you live, there are rules and best-practices for surviving and thriving in your local environment. These will change as technology, politics, business and social movements change, but some life lessons are universal, like the importance of drinking water and giving/receiving compassionate touch. Everyone needs to learn how to solve problems, manage conflict, cope with not getting everything they want, come to terms with death, etc., etc. Half the fables ever written are basically metaphors for ways people get ahead or fail at life. If you want to write a fable, you need to ask yourself, what’s the most poignant lesson people should know to succeed in life, and what is the most common way people fail, and what are the consequences of success and failure? With that information, you can write a story about a hero who goes through the steps real humans go through to succeed and/or fail at the chores of life. Teach moralityAll the rules in life don’t revolve around your own personal survival and well-being. There are other people in the world, who are equally important. From a cosmic perspective, it’s equally important that they be able to survive and flourish. The determining factor in the morality of an action is whether it helps or hinders someone from fulfilling their potential. There are best-practices for helping and not hurting people. There are flawed goals, flawed rules and flawed processes for interacting with people respectfully and productively that can be illustrated by having a hero walk through the steps of making the same mistakes and suffering the same consequences. These types of stories constitute the second half of the fables ever written. If you want to write a morality-based fable, ask yourself, what are the best/worst and most common ways people interact with each other that helps or hurts one or both of them? And what are the steps and consequences? Teach about a topicYou might have a burning passion for astronomy, WWII, the food service industry, maps, zoos, weight lifting, computers, video games, or anything else with a page on Wikipedia. You might not want to teach people how to WWII, but you want people to know about WWII. To do that, ask yourself what goal a person would have to have to lead him on a journey through the facts you want to relate. Then create the hero who would be most logically and entertainingly positioned to walk the path to the goal you’ve set. In “Rabbit Proof Fence,” the hero’s need is to be with family, and her goal is to travel across Australia to get home. The incentive is family, and the stakes are belonging vs. separation. The story allows the author to explore the culture and geography of Australia. In “Hugo,” the hero’s need is to fulfill curiosity, and his goal is to find out how/why an automaton works. The incentive is understanding, and the stakes are awe vs. impoverishment. The story allows the author to explore the life and filmography of Georges Méliès. In “Moulin Rouge,” the hero’s need is love, and the goal is to win the love of a woman. The incentive is his lover, and the stakes are love vs. loneliness. The story allows the author to explore life in the Moulin Rouge. THEMEOn one hand, the purpose of your story is to sell a product to your target audience. To that end, you need to pick a need and incentive that appeals to your market. In addition, your story also needs to be relevant to the human experience. Giving your hero a real-world need to satisfy is the first step, but that only explains what the hero does. The second is giving his quest a theme, which explains why the hero does it, and more importantly, why the audience should care. If you look up the definition and of the word, “theme,” you’ll find various answers basically saying it’s, “the underlying message, main idea, central concept or topic of a story.” If you look up examples, you’ll find various lists of commonly used themes. However, these definitions only give you a superficial understanding of the concept. I define “theme” as, a statement, message, question, theory, argument or conclusion about the human experience that makes the story relevant to the ongoing story of the audience’s lives. It’s hard to find good definitions and explanations of the term, “theme,” because there are multiple types of themes, and they can be expressed in multiple ways. Plus, stories can have multiple themes, and movies with multiple storylines, should have a unique theme for each one. So different authors may describe the theme of the same movie differently. For example, listed below are possible ways different people might describe the theme to “Death to Smoochy,” DeathRevengeHypocrisyMan VS. ManFriends become enemies. Enemies become friends.What would happen if a morally corrupt host of a morally pure children’s show, loses his job and tries to kill his replacement?Dark, satirical commentary on the hypocrisy of how adults tell children to act and how they themselves actually actRaunchy scandals in innocent placesHow far will people go to stay on top?How depraved will people act to get what they want?Fame corruptsThe danger of vanity and the virtue of modestyGood vs EvilGood and evil are never mutually exclusiveI don’t know how the author picked or defined the theme of “Death to Smoochy,” but any route could have led to him writing the same script. You don’t have to adhere to any one formula for defining or creating themes. Find the method you find the most enjoyable and useful, or better yet, use all of them so you can see your theme from different angles. Since stories have multiple layers that each serve unique purposes, they each need a separate, yet related theme. The way I see it, every story needs at least the 4 themes listed below:Meta themeThe meta theme states what aspect of life the story is about. There are at least 5 types of meta themes, each with their own list of subcategories:Twist of lifeState of lifePast livesSlice of lifeHow to live life External themeThis is the theme of the A-storyline, which is the hero’s quest to accomplish an external goal. Internal themeThis is the theme of the B-storyline, which is the hero’s quest to accomplish an internal goal. Supporting themeThis is the theme of the C-storyline, which is either the hero’s quest to satisfy the third most important need in his life, or another character’s quest to satisfy the first most important need in their life. UNIVERSE AND GENRE VARIABLESEstablishing the purpose of the story effectively determines its genre. However, you need to be absolutely clear about which genre you’re aiming for just to be sure your variables cater to it. UniverseTime periodToneMusicHero’s identityHero’s attributesSkillsAntagonistGoalConditions THE HERO’S PROFILE: PHASE 1REVERSE ENGINEER THE GOALREVERSE ENGINEER THE ANTAGONISTREVERSE ENGINEER THE STAKESThe hero’s reasons for picking his need are expressed as his hopes and fears. Those hopes and fears are the stakes of success and failure. They’re what make satisfying the need important. So you need to begin thinking about the stakes at the beginning of the plotting process. For example, if the hero’s goal is to save his infant daughter, audiences will automatically sympathize with the hero and be afraid if it seems there’s no hope of saving her. But they would be more invested in the father’s story if he wants to save her life because her mother already passed away from the same disease, and the daughter is the only connection the father has left to his wife, who he was epically in love with. The father is already semi-suicidal, and he feels that if he loses his daughter he won’t have anything left to hold onto life for. By having these two layers of stakes, the outcome of the story becomes far more important, which will make everything that happens in the story more important to the audience. Plus, when the plot has clearly defined stakes, which are clearly stated in the movie, the audience can easily understand and follow the plot. REVERSE ENGINEER THE ENDINGMovies don’t have to end with the hero completing his goal or fulfilling his need. Listed below are other ways your story could end:The hero succeeds at achieving a positive goal and receives a positive incentive.The hero succeeds at achieving a positive goal and receives a negative incentive.The hero fails to achieve a positive goal and receives a positive incentive.The hero fails to achieve a positive goal and receives a negative incentive. The hero starts with a negative goal but changes his goal to a positive one.The hero starts with a positive goal but changes his goal to a negative one.The hero succeeds at a achieving a negative goal and receives a positive incentive. The hero succeeds at a achieving a negative goal and receives a negative incentive. The hero fails to achieve a negative goal and receives a positive incentive. The hero fails to achieve a negative goal and receives a negative incentive. THE 12 STEPS OF ACCOMPLISHING A GOALOnce you’ve defined your hero’s need, the rest of the plotting process is just stating the steps he takes to get from Point A to Point B. In order for his thoughts and actions to appear human, you must show the following 12 events in this order:State the hero’s need. In order for a hero’s actions to be logical, they must be done in pursuit of obtaining an incentive that will satisfy an unfulfilled need. So the first step is to state or illustrate the hero’s need. State the stakes of completing/failing to fulfill the need. If a hero has a goal but no reason to accomplish the goal, then his actions will only be half-logical. The more clearly the audience understands the hero’s motive, the more reason they have to care if he accomplishes his goal. The less they understand his motive, the more distracted they’ll be trying to figure out why the hero is doing anything. The more poignant the hero’s motive, the more poignant the story will be to the audience. The less poignant the hero’s motive, the less reason the audience will have to finish watching or reading the hero’s story. The reason the hero wants to accomplish his goal is because there are stakes at risk. If he succeeds, something good will happen. If he fails, something bad will happen. Since there are foreseeable good and bad consequences, the hero could literally write down the cost/benefit analysis of trying to accomplish his goal and come to the logical conclusion that he must take action. It could be patronizing to the audience to have the hero spell out his motives so explicitly, but the audience does need to know the consequences of both success and failure to fully understand the hero’s behavior. When brainstorming the stakes in your story, bear in mind that the stakes will define the hero’s character. Whether the author intends it or not, the fact that the hero cares about the stakes, says something about his internal character. If you use the most exciting stakes you can brainstorm, it will make the hero seem like an exciting person. The more you personalize the stakes to the hero, the more depth the hero’s character, and his relationship to the story, will have. State the condition of fulfilling the need. The fact that the hero has an unfulfilled need, implies that he must do something to satisfy it. If he didn’t have to do anything, then that would imply it’s already satisfied, unimportant or absurd. The thing the hero must do to get the incentive is the condition (aka, goal). One condition/goal can have multiple conditions. The hero can learn all the conditions at the beginning of the story or along the way. If/when the hero doesn’t know his goal’s conditions, his immediate goal can be to learn them. State the hero’s decision to fulfill the conditions. If the audience doesn’t witness the hero consciously decide to engage in his quest, then his behavior will appear random. When the hero chooses to commit to accomplishing a goal, he takes ownership of his quest. Plus, when he states what he’s about to do and why, the audience can follow the story. State the hero’s plan to achieve his ultimate goal. After the hero has stated his goal and the condition to complete it, but before he takes action, he must decide what action to take. He must have a plan. The more clearly the plan is stated, the easier it is to follow the story. Children’s stories state the hero’s plan almost every step of the way so children don’t get confused, but adults find this patronizing . They can easily follow the plot if the hero’s plans are implied. The hero should state his plan for his major goals, but the audience doesn’t always have to know what the hero intends to do before he does it, especially when he’s completing minor goals. If the plan isn’t stated, as long as his behavior is within his character, the audience will accept the hero’s unexplained behavior as natural. The hero enacts his plan to meet the condition. Once the hero knows what he wants to do, the next step is to do it. If he does anything between the time he formulates his plan and acts on it, he’s wandering around aimlessly. He might have an interesting adventure, but the story won’t move forward until he gets back to his plan, and a tightly written story is always moving forward. The hero encounters an obstacle or complication.Technically, it would make a logical, coherent story if the hero decides to do something, does it and succeeds. Psychologically, though, that’s not very interesting. An enthralling story needs tension, and tension comes from the fear the hero won’t succeed. So, the hero must encounter something at odds with him achieving his goal. Since a hero is measured by the quality of his opponents, the hero should encounter poignant ones that are tailored to reflect and draw out his character. Whatever stands between the hero and his goal must have a logical reason to be there. Surprises are great, but the less relevant they are to the story, the more absurd your story will be. The obstacle must have a conflict of interest with the hero achieving his goal. If the problem is a person, they will have a reason why they would benefit from the hero failing and lose something they value if the hero succeeds. If the obstacle is inanimate, then its existence is the worst-case scenario God or the universe could put in front of the hero to prevent him from achieving his goal. It helps to imagine that “God” is the antagonist, and God has a conflict of interest with the hero achieving his goal. So God keeps putting worst-case scenario obstacles and complications in the hero’s path. The hero reacts and adapts to the obstacle or complicationThe obstacle will require the hero to perform an action to neutralize it. The hero can use one of his signature moves and neutralize minor opponents directly and immediately, but his major goals will need more eloquent problems and solutions. The hero fulfills the condition of the need.Ultimately, the hero will either succeed or fail to fulfill the condition/s of his ultimate need. The only question is how many conditional steps he has to accomplish along the way. The hero attains the incentive.The act of the hero accomplishing his goal is the catalyst of a cause/effect reaction that manifests the incentive that will satisfy his need. In other words, he gets the prize. The repercussion The premise of the whole story is that something good would happen if the hero satisfies his need, and something bad would happen if he didn’t. Whenever a hero accomplishes a minor goal, the repercussions of that accomplishment will determine what he does next. In the second to last scene of the movie, the audience sees the repercussions of the hero fulfilling his ultimate need. The sunsetAfter the hero fulfills his need and experiences the repercussions, the story still begs the question, what does the future hold for the hero? What’s the hero’s next goal? The beginning of each beat is the sunset of the previous beat, and the last scene is the final sunset of the story. Technically, a story doesn’t have to include steps 10-12 at the end of the story, but the whole story has been a stick and carrot leading up to this point. The author practically promised it, and the audience will be insulted and let down if they don’t get what they expected. You’re really not being clever by ending a story abruptly. REVERSE ENGINEER THE CONDITIONS FROM THE 5 ACT STRUCTUREIf the hero only goes through one cycle of the 12 steps, the movie will either be very slow or very short. Since your hero needs to do something for 90+ plus minutes, the only way to fill that time is to have the hero accomplish multiple goals in succession. Since every goal must be related to the hero’s highest priority need, each goal must be a conditional requirement of the final condition. How many conditions the hero should fulfill, and how long they should take, depend on how long you want your movie to be. Your audience wants to watch a 90-120 movie with a major story arc every 19-24 minutes (the average length of a TV sitcom). You can meet these criteria if the hero completes 4 successive cycles of 12 steps, which means he accomplishes 4 major goals. The four major goals divide the story into 5 Acts. So each Act constitutes everything the hero does between identifying and completing a condition of obtaining the incentive that will satisfy his highest need. Think of your hero like a hungry lab rat in a maze. There are four obstacles between him and the foot pellet he seeks. Ask yourself, what 3, progressively difficult obstacles or steps would most logically stand between your hero and the fourth, and final, lever he has to press to get his metaphorical food pellet? Listed below are options for the order the hero can fulfill the conditions: Act 1Accept the questAttempt Condition 1 of Final ConditionFulfill Condition 1 of Final ConditionAttempt Condition 1 of Condition 2Attempt Condition 1 of condition 3Final conditionAct 2Fulfill Condition 1 of Final ConditionAttempt Condition 2 of Final conditionFulfill Condition 2 of Final ConditionAttempt Condition 1 of Condition 2Fulfill Condition 1 of Condition 2Attempt Condition 1 of condition 3Attempt Final ConditionAct 3Fulfill Condition 2 of Final ConditionFulfill Condition 3 of Final ConditionAttempt Final ConditionAct 4Fulfill Final ConditionListed below are examples of common major conditions:Accepting the questStories don’t always begin with the hero completing the first known condition of his quest. Often, the first Act is a prequel to the real story that explains how the hero begins his quest. If the quest was forced on the hero, then there isn’t a minor condition he must fulfill to accept the quest. An opportunity opens the hero’s pathIn “Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory,” the hero wins a ticket allows him to pursue his need, but in order to get the ticket, he has to buy one. An external cataclysm closes the hero’s pathIn “Back to the Future,” the hero is forced to travel back in time to escape being shot by terrorists. In “The Wizard of Oz,” the hero is carried to a new world by a tornado. In these cases, Act 1 shows a day in the life of the hero attempting to fulfill the conditions of their normal daily life. The hero’s flaw closes the hero’s pathIn “Chicago,” the hero is sent to jail for murdering her husband. In “Rain Man,” the impetuous hero kidnaps his brother out of jealousy and anger. The antagonist closes the hero’s pathIn “Gladiator,” the hero is forced into slavery by his new boss because he tried to uphold the wishes of his former boss. In “Braveheart,” the hero’s lover is killed by an occupying army. The hero is assigned a questIn “The 7th Son” and “The Magician’s Apprentice,” the hero is recruited by a wizard to be his apprentice. In most cop movies, the hero is assigned a case by his superior officer. Condition 1Define the incentiveIn Attempt to attain the incentiveIn “Define the planIn “Back to the Future,” the hero must figure out a way to go back in time, but first he must find Doc Brown to help him fix his time machine.Define the final conditionIn “The Wizard of Oz,” Act 2 ends with the hero learning the solution to her problems is to find the wizard in the Emerald City, but first she must meet a witch who can tell her the final condition that will yield the incentive. Attain a skillIn “Balls of Fury,” after being recruited for a ping pong tournament, the hero must train with a ping pong master. Attain a resourceIn “Sucker Punch” every condition is to collect an object that will help the hero and her friends escape from a mental institute. In “Legend,” after the hero’s world turns to darkness, a group of magical characters equip him with weapons and armor to fight Satan’s son. Attain informationIn “Sherlock Holmes,” most of the hero’s goals are to find information.Attain an allyIn “The Magnificent 7,” the hero recruits a team of gunslingers to battle a greedy landlord. In-processingIn “Titanic” and “Avatar,” the hero receives an opportunity to pursue his need at the beginning of Act 1, and the rest of the Act follows him in-processing into a new world. In order to complete in-processing they must be accepted by the people in the new world. Defeat the first main opponentIn “Punisher: War Zone,” the hero’s first goal is to kill everyone in his nemesis’s weakest stronghold. Attempt to defeat the antagonistIn “Edge of Tomorrow,” the hero’s first goal is to storm the beach of Verdun, believing it is the final assault on his alien enemy. SurviveIn “Hush,” after the hero realizes a killer is outside her house, her first goal is to prevent him from entering. EscapeIn “Tango and Cash,” after being arrested for crimes they didn’t commit, the heroes must escape prison. Condition 2Define the planIn “Ocean’s 11,” after assembling a team of criminals, the hero’s second goal is to plot a heist. Define the opponentIn “Attain an allyAttain a skillIn “Kick Boxer,” after convincing a kickboxing guru to train him, the hero trains in kick boxing. Attain a resourceAttain the incentiveIn “Stardust,” after kidnapping and losing a fallen star that the hero intends to give to his girlfriend, he attempts to regain the incentive he lost. Attain informationIn “Guardians of the Galaxy,” after escaping prison, the hero’s next goal is to find someone who can provide him information about the artifact in his possession. Complete a task for someone elsePrepareIn “The Magnificent 7,” after assembling a team, the hero’s second goal is to lay a trap for the approaching antagonist and his army by training townspeople to fight and rigging their town with booby traps. Cross the second thresholdIn “The Lord of the Rings,” after accepting the quest, all of the hero’s main goals are to travel to a point on a map closer to his ultimate destination. Defeat the first main opponentIn, “300,” after preparing for battle, the hero fights the first wave of an invading army.Defeat the second main opponentIn “Vampire Hunter D,” all of the hero’s main goals are to kill the next demon standing between him and the antagonist. Attempt to defeat the main opponentSurvive an attackEscapeCondition 3Define the planAttain a skillAttain a resourceAttain informationAttain an allyPrepareCross the third thresholdIn “Snowpiercer,” every stage of the hero’s journey is to reach the next car in a train on his way to the front car.Defeat the third main opponentAttempt to defeat the main opponentSurvive an attackIn almost every horror movie, the 3rd condition is surviving an offensive attack from a killer.Final ConditionCross the fourth thresholdIn “Hidalgo,” the final condition of the hero winning a long-distance race is to cross the finish line. Defeat the antagonistIn almost every action movie, the final condition is killing the antagonist or beating him in a competition. Listed below are the most common Act structures found in Hollywood movies.The hero accepts the quest. 2. The hero trains to fulfill the final condition. 3. The hero attempts to fulfill the final condition and fails. 4. The hero fulfills the final condition. 5. Denouement. The hero fails to fulfill the goal that would yield the incentive, resulting in creating a new condition. 2. The hero identifies the new condition of obtaining the incentive. 3. The hero acquires a resource he needs to fulfill the final condition. 4. The hero fulfills the condition. 5. Denouement. The hero identifies the incentive and its three successively dependent conditions. 2. The hero completes the first condition. 3. The hero completes the second condition. 4. The hero completes the final condition. 5. Denouement.The hero accepts the quest. 2. The hero attempts to complete the final condition and fails, creating a new condition. 3. The hero attempts to complete the new condition and fails, creating a new condition. 4. The hero completes the final condition. 5. Denouement.The hero accepts the quest. 2. The hero gathers a team. 3. The team accomplishes the first condition of obtaining the incentive. 3. The team plans and prepares to fulfill the final condition. 4. The team succeeds at neutralizing the final condition. 5. Denouement.The hero survives an apocalypse that creates a deficiency in his need. 2. The hero creates a plan to survive. 3. The hero fulfills the first condition of survival. 4. The hero fulfills the final condition of survival. 5. Denouement. The hero accepts a job that will fulfill his highest need and in-processes into the new job. 2. The hero trains at his new job. 3. The hero applies his training on his assigned task and fails. 4. The hero applies what he learned from failing to the task and completes it. 5. Denouement. HOW TO ADD MULTIPLE STORY LINESA 90-120 minute movie about a hero who accomplishes 1 goal in twelve steps would be painfully slow and lack depth. Giving the hero 1 overarching goal with 4 conditions is only half the solution to filling time and creating depth.The way to take your story to the next level of complexity is to give the hero multiple needs to fill, each with their own storyline, conditions and complications. There’s no right answer for how many storylines you should have, but the industry standard is 3: An “A-story,” “B-story,” and “C-story.” This gives you just enough storylines to fill 90-120 pages without things getting too complicated, choppy or fast.If all 3 storylines contain the same amount of screen time, each one would feel equally important, and it would be unclear what the driving force of the movie is. Therefore, the standard is for the A-story to take up 60-70% of the screen time. The B-story takes up 20-30%, and the C-story takes up 5-10%. This gives the hero enough time to complete the 12 step cycle, 3-4 times in the A-story, 1-3 times in the B-story and once in the C-story. The A, B and C-storylines serve a specific purpose, which defines the need/s the hero is attempting to satisfy in each storyline: The A-storyThe A-story is the longest storyline. So it carries the story, which means the hero’s ultimate goal in the A-story is the driving force of the story. Since the story needs the hero to be active, it makes sense that the hero’s A-story goal is to achieve an external, tangible goal. It’s what he wants to do most in life. It’s the impact/change he wants to have on the external universe. Below are some of the most common A-storyline goals:Save his world, home, business or a loved one’s home or business.Win a contest. Stop a killer, monster, oppressor or kidnapper.Find or return home.Fulfill a job contract. Get rich, powerful or otherwise successful. Get revenge.Survive.The B-storyThe B-story could be another tangible goal, but the standard is for the B-story goal to be what the hero’s heart wants most in life. It’s what he wants to become. It’s his quest for intangible, interpersonal, metaphysical, and/or internal accomplishment. It’s the impact/change he needs/wants in his internal universe. The hero may have to do something tangible to fulfill the condition of the B-story goal, but the topic/theme of the quest is psychological, inter-personal or spiritual. It creates the most tension when the B-storyline goal is a condition of the A-story goal. This means the hero has to achieve his B-story goal before he can achieve his external goal. This is psychologically satisfying for the audience, because the hero’s external progress depends on his internal growth, which brings the quest full circle. Below are some of the most common B-storylines:The hero wants someone to fall in love with him. This is the most common B-story. The hero wants to save, protect or help a loved one (if that’s not already the A-story goal). The hero wants to prove his worth/virtue and be respected or accepted by himself, his lover, boss, children, parents, teacher or social group. The hero wants or needs to overcome an internal flaw. For a list of character flaws, do an internet search for lists of personality disorders, emotional disorders, behavioral disorders or character flaw tropes. If you want to write a story that is more emotion-based and focused on interpersonal relationships, you can swap the A-story and B-story so that the longer A-story revolves around the hero’s internal goal, and the shorter B-story revolves around the hero’s external goal. The shorter action-oriented storyline can still drive the story if you want. In “Back to the Future,” Marty spends most of his screen time unifying his parents to fulfill his dream of having a functional family, which is a condition he must fulfill before he can use his time machine to go back to the future, which he only spends about 20 minutes doing. In “Along Came Polly,” the hero spends most of his time falling in love with a woman named Polly. He only spends about 20 minutes completing a job for his boss, in which he learns the life lesson he needs to know in order to keep Polly. The C-storyThe C-story is an optional miniature side-story. If you have a C-story, it will appear in the last beat of the movie, which hints at what the future holds for the hero. So the C-story arc would logically involve solving a problem that sets the hero up for his next adventure. You have three options when adding your third (or more) storyline/s. Each storyline represents another quest for the hero. It’s the hero’s quest to accomplish whatever the third most important goal in life is for him, based on his beliefs. It can be used tactically to provide the hero with a resource he’ll need to solve the A-story line, or it can be a fun time-filler that could be cut without affecting the main storylines. In “Back to the Future,” the hero tries to prevent his mentor from dying in the future. Each storyline follows a character’s quest to fulfill their need other than the hero, such as the antagonist, love interest or sidekick. The storyline should be relevant to the hero’s ultimate goal or it will feel irrelevant and distracting. The C-story will have the most impact if it’s the character’s B-story and conflicts with the hero’s A or B-story goals. Each storyline represents a quest for one of the minor characters. This option has less impact on the story and the viewer, which can be a good vehicle for comic relief or fleshing out the tone of a genre-centric story… unless you’re doing a story like “Snatch” or “Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels” where there are multiple characters with conflicting goals that keep crossing paths. Either way, the minor character/s’ goals should somehow align or conflict with another main character’s ultimate goal/s, preferably the hero. Otherwise, the storyline is an unnecessary distraction. However, that can work to your advantage if you’re writing a mystery story where you want to misdirect the audience’s attention. DIVIDING STORY PROGRESSION INTO BEATSIt’s easier to splice 3 storylines into a movie if you divide the story into 5 Acts. It becomes even more manageable, if you divide each Act into smaller segments. A 90-120 minute movie breaks down like a 5-episode season of a sitcom. Each Act is an episode that revolves around the hero accomplishing a goal that’s a condition of his final goal. Each episode/Act can be further broken down into smaller self-contained, goal-accomplishing cycles. These mini-cycles are called Beats.My definition of a “beat” is, everything that happens between the time the hero enacts a plan to achieve an immediate goal and fails or succeeds to accomplish it. Beats tend to be 1-3 minutes long and last 1-5 scenes, though most beats are only 1 scene long. This way, each scene opens to a new action sequence and ends with the hero succeeding or failing to accomplish a goal. There’s no correct number of beats that should be in an Act, but on average, Acts 1 through 4 are 10 beats long, and Act 5 is 3 beats long. An effective way to ensure your story doesn’t have too many/few beats is to plot your story using this 40 beat formula. After you have the story completely mapped out, add or remove beats where the plot feels too forced. Every beat follows the same 9 steps, which are listed below. However, filling in the beats is last phase of the story plotting process. The beat structure is explained here because you need to be familiar with it in order for the rest of the storyline plotting process to make sense:Opening image:Each beat begins with the hero approaching a problem he needs to solve in order to accomplish a goal that will help him achieve his ultimate goal. This establishes where the camera will start rolling. So it needs to include the location and what the protagonist is doing when the director shouts, “Action.” Describe how the hero arrives or is found at the scene. The most common opening image is the hero walking through a door into a room where needs to do something. Hero’s opening action: Once the hero’s presence is established on the scene, he needs to do what he came there to do. He already has a goal and a plan in mind. This is the first thing he does to engage the environment in pursuit of his goal. Opponent with a conflict of interest or opportunity: There is always something standing between the hero and his immediate goal. It’s usually a person who has a conflict of interest with the hero. However, the “opponent” can be an ally of the hero, and the opponent’s ultimate goals can align with the hero’s. There still needs to be a source of conflict standing between them. In those cases, the conflict is the hero doesn’t want to the opportunity. Hero’s response: After the hero encounters his opponent, he must logically react to it. The hero can only act in his character. The only way the audience can know the hero’s character is by watching him demonstrate his values and skills, of which he has 5-10 he reuses in every beat.Opponent’s response: After the hero responds to the conflict in character, the opponent will counteract the hero’s action. Their action is usually a worst-case scenario that minimizes the hero’s chance of success. If the opponent has been seen before, they will use responses that were introduced in their first one or two appearances. Hero’s escalated response: After the hero is hit with the opponent’s response, he will counteract the opponent’s move. This move will be more dramatic than his first response. Opponent’s escalated response: The opponent will get at least one more chance to counter the hero. If the hero is destined to lose the conflict, this will be the deciding blow that neutralizes the hero and prevents him from achieving his goal. If the hero is destined to win the conflict, he would get another chance to respond with action after the opponent’s turn is over. The beat can go on longer by having the hero respond again, and the opponent can respond again after that. In an action movie where the hero is physically fighting an enemy, the tit-for-tat can go on for five minutes in a single beat. Most conflicts are conversations where two people parse words briefly and then reap the consequences. Final outcome: The final outcome is whether or not the hero won or lost the conflict. Hero’s closing image: The closing image is what the camera sees right before the director shouts, “Cut.” This shows the immediate aftermath of the encounter and either implies or states how the outcome affects the hero’s progress towards his ultimate goal. If the hero wins, he may be doing a victory dance. If the hero loses, he may be laying in a gutter bleeding. A note on non-plot related content:Every beat contains at least 7 actions that must happen in a direct cause-effect sequence to keep the plot moving forward efficiently. You can splice your C-story and/or irrelevant action sequences into any beat just to add humor, excitement, tension, relief, inspiration or romance. In comedies, the hero may have a funny altercation with a minor character and make a joke before getting onto business. In horror movies, the hero may get scared by something before doing what they have to do. In an action movie, the hero may scale a building or fight a minion before confronting the main opponent in the beat. These filler-sequences usually appear at the beginning or ending of the beat, since it can be confusing/distracting to have the hero side-track in the middle of an important conflict. The filler sequences usually consist of 2-3 actions. If the hero simply witnesses something happening but doesn’t interact with it, then there must be at least two actions: 1: The hero witnesses something. 2. The hero reacts to it. Then the action cuts back to the main story. If the hero interacts with the situation, then there must be 3 actions: 1. The hero witnesses something. 2. The hero responds to the situation with action. 3. We see the outcome of the interaction and the hero’s response to the outcome (as opposed to the catalyst). It helps to imagine these interactions like a 3-panel comic strip. The first panel introduces or sets up the situation. In the second panel, a catalyst reacts to the setup. The third panel is the resulting outcome or punch line. PARTITIONING MULTIPLE STORYLINES INTO 5 ACTS AND 40 BEATSIn the same way the entire story, each Act and each beat, begin with the hero setting a goal and end with him succeeding or failing to fulfill it, so must each storyline segment. Since each storyline segment consists of multiple beats in a row, I call them “beat chains.” A “beat chain” is defined as all the consecutive same-storyline beats that happen between the hero accomplishing a minor condition of an Act goal. To organize your beat chains, you need to know which storylines will appear in each Act and the order they’ll appear. Listed below are your options:Act 1A B A OrBABOr ABOrBAListed below are your options for how many beats to devote to each storyline in an Act:A-centric 6-7 beats are dedicated to the A-story, and 3-4 beats are dedicated to the B-story. B-centric6-7 beats are dedicated to the B-story, and 3-4 beats are dedicated to the B-story. All-AEvery beat is dedicated to the A-story.All-BEvery beat is dedicated to the B-story.All A and BEvery beat includes both storylines. A and B EquallyThere are an equal number of A and B beats.The outcome of the conflict in the last beat of each beat chain will have one of the following four impacts on the hero’s progress towards his current storyline’s goal as well as the next storyline/beat chain. Typically, if the hero succeeds at the beat conflict, it will have a positive impact on his quest progression, and if he fails, it will have a negative impact. However, the hero can, and sometimes should, experience false victories and false failures. The last beat in Act 2, which is the midpoint of the movie, is almost always a false failure. This makes the audience happy to see the hero win a major victory and then cringe as his high hopes are turned into hopelessness. Listed below are the ways the outcome of each beat chain can affect the story: Positive +Success fulfills current storyline condition, allowing the hero to progress to the next condition.Success fulfills the other storyline’s condition, allowing the hero to progress to its next condition.Negative -Failure closes the current storyline path, preventing the hero from completing his next goal using his current plan.Failure closes the other storyline’s path, preventing the hero from completing its next goal using his current plan.None 0The outcome does not affect the current storyline’s progressThe outcome does not affect the other storyline’s progressDelayed positiveThe outcome yields a positive reward the hero will need on his current storyline but won’t receive until later.The outcome yields a positive reward the hero will need on the other storyline but won’t receive until later.Delayed negative -> -The outcome yields a negative reward the hero will need on his current storyline but won’t receive until later.The outcome yields a negative reward the hero will need on the other storyline but won’t receive until later.Listed below are some common Act structures with storyline orders and impactsOption 1Act 1: A-centricA (Success = A+, B0)B (Success = B+, A0)A (Failure = A-, B0)Act 2: A-centricA (Success = A+, B0)B (Failure = B-, A-)A (Success = A-, B-)Act 3: A-centricA (Failure = A-, B-)B (Failure = A-, B-)A (Success = A+, B+)Act 4: All AA Success = A+, B+)Act 5: A, B and C equally. Option 2Act 1: A-centricAct 2: A-centricAct 3: B-centricAct 4: All-AAct 5: A, B and C equally. Option 3Act 1: A-centricAct 2: B-centricAct 3: B-centricAct 4: All-AAct 5: A, B and C equally. Option 4Act 1: A-centricAct 2: B-centricAct 3: All-BAct 4: All-AAct 5: A, B and C equally. Option 5Act 1: A-centricAct 2: B-centricAct 3: A-centricAct 4: B-centricAct 5: A, B and C equally. How do you transition between Acts?You could end every Act so that its 10th and final beat coincides with step 12 of the goal cycle, and begin the next Act at step 1 of its own cycle. When you do this, the hero succeeds or fails to accomplish a goal in the 7th to 9th beat of the Act. Then in the 8th to 10th beat, he gets the incentive for completing the current condition, uses it and looks to the future. Then, in the first beat of the next Act, he gets a new goal, which he can decide for himself or can come out of the blue in the form of diabolic ex machina. If every goal cycle lines up, one after the other, with a clean break between them, the story could feel like it keeps starting and stopping. You can make the story move faster and more seamlessly by overlapping the begging and ending of each Act. You accomplish this by having the hero complete step 9 in the last beat of each Act. Then, in the next Act, the first three steps of the new goal overlap with some or all of the last three steps of the previous goal cycle. You can overlap cycles in the following 3 ways by : Beat 1 = step 10 and 1. Beat 2 = step 11 and 2. Beat 3 = step 12 and 3. OrBeat 1 = step, 10, 11 and 1. Beat 2 = step 2 and 12, Beat 3 = step 3. OrBeat 1 = step 10, 11, 12 and 1. Beat 2 = step 2. Beat 3 = step 3. By lining up the storylines so they overlap, every beat follows a logical cause and effect chain reaction of events that lead up to a finale at the end of each Act. Since every Act ends with the hero accomplishing the most important goal in the world to him, and attaining a prize, which causes a repercussion, which causes the hero to look to the future, every time the hero jumps to a new Act, his life and his quest take a major, meaningful turn that’s logically connected to his ultimate goal. Every beat, and every Act link together into a unified quest chain, which makes your hero behave like a rational, motivated human being living in a realistic universe. Guidelines to partitioning Acts:There are some guidelines about storyline placement that narrow down the best possible combinations:If your script has a B-story, then the A and B storylines must both appear in at least Act 1, Act 2 and Act 5, because you have to set them both up and then end them. Act 4 is usually all-A, because the hero must usually complete the B-storyline before he can complete his A-story quest. Typically, Acts begin and end with the prominent storyline, and the minor storyline appears in the middle. It’s not a good idea to have two consecutive Acts be all A or B, because then the minor storyline will barely have enough impact on the story to justify its existence. So the most common way to organize your script is to have the A and B story flip flop. The C-storyline appears no more than twice in each Act, and doesn’t even need any dedicated beats. It can appear as a filler sequence in another storyline’s beat. CONDENSING THE 12 STEP CYCLE INTO FEWER THAN 12 BEATSSince every Act has at most 10 beats, it’s mathematically impossible to devote a full beat to every step of a single goal cycle. It’s even more impossible to fit 3 story lines into a 10 beat Act. The solution to this problem is to insert multiple steps into a single beat. The more steps you combine in a single beat the faster the story will move, which is good for action sequences and action movies in general. The fewer steps you combine in a single beat, the slower the plot progresses, which is good for dramatic sequences and dramatic movies in general. It’s best to only combine 2 steps, 3-4 at most. Any more than that and your story will start getting jumbled and start to narrate itself. Listed below are the logical combinations of steps you can use in beats:You can combine any combination of the first 7 steps, including non-sequential combinations such as 1 and 5. 6, 7, 87, 8, 98, 9, 109, 10, 1110, 11, 126, 96, 9, 1010, 11, 11, 12Every beat in your story will fall into four categories: Introduction beatsSteps 1-5 revolve around the hero’s internal thought process. It begins with him identifying a need and ends when he enacts a plan to get it. Action beatsSteps 6-9 revolve around the hero’s external actions. It begins with him taking action and ends with him succeeding or failing to achieve a major goal. Outcome beatsSteps 10-12 revolve around the hero getting the incentive that fulfills his need. It begins Special beatsEscalation beatRefusal of the callCondensing the first 4 stepsThe purpose of the first 4 steps are to introduce information that sets up the hero’s quest. It would be tedious and unnecessary for the hero to spend an entire beat on each of those steps in every Act, especially if/when the information has already been stated, or is implied or obvious. So they are often condensed into 1-3 beats to free up more beats. Option 1:The hero states his goal, the stakes, conditions and his plan.Option 2: The hero states his ultimate goal and the stakes of completing the goal.The hero states the conditions of completing his goal and his plan to meet the conditions. Option 3: The hero states his goal, stakes, and conditions.The hero states his plan to meet the conditions. Option 4: The hero states his goal and the conditions.The hero states the stakes and his plan to meet the conditions.Option 5:The hero states his goal. The hero states the stakes.The hero states the conditions and his plan to meet the conditions. Option 6: The hero states his goal and stakes.The hero states the conditions. The hero states his plan to meet the conditions.Extending beat chainsIf you condense the first 4 introductory steps down to one or two beats, you can use the beats you freed up to expand on your introduction with more forward-moving action and tension, or the hero can proceed to enact his plan to fulfill the condition/s of his goal. Your options for increasing the steps/beats it takes him accomplish minor or major goals are the same.Listed below are ways to increase the number of beats it takes the hero to accomplish a goal:Assign multiple conditions to completing a goalAssign multiple steps to fulfilling a condition at the beginning of a questThe hero doesn’t know the condition to achieving a goal and must discover itNew conditions are created or revealed along the wayThe hero encounters multiple unexpected obstacles and opponentsThe hero wins a mid-beat conflict, but it’s a false victory.The hero fails a mid-beat conflict.The last option on the list needs to be elaborated on. In every beat, the hero has an immediate goal he’s trying to accomplish, which he must encounter/overcome an opponent to complete. At any step of the way, the hero can fail to achieve his goal, and since he still needs to accomplish his goal, he’ll have to spend another beat trying something different. Alternately, he could step away from the quest/storyline and spend the next beat working towards a different storyline goal and return to his failed quest under different circumstances. Listed below are common reasons why the hero may fail a mid-beat conflict: The hero runs out of time. The hero is weakened from a previous event.There’s an unexpected, catastrophic complication while executing the plan.The hero has insufficient/missing skills, resources or alliesThe hero uses a flawed/cursed skill, resource, character trait, ally or planThe opponent’s skills, strategies, resources or allies trump the hero’sThe opponent is an impassable forceThe hero doesn’t/can’t know the condition to win until he tries and failsListed below are common ways the consequence of failure extends the hero’s quest: Changes the condition of passing the opponentChanges the condition of achieving the ultimate goalChanges the conditions of achieving another storyline’s goalAdds a new condition of passing the opponentAdds a new condition of achieving the ultimate goalEliminates/nullifies the hero’s skills, resources or planIncreases or improves the antagonist’s skills, resources, strategy or alliesNothing changes. The hero must simply have a rematch with the opponent and do better next timeSometimes you only need to extend a beat chain by one beat. Listed below are multiple ways the hero can accomplish a failed goal in the next beat: The hero immediately returns to the opponent and uses a different skill, resource, strategy or allyThe hero immediately returns to the opponent prepared to fulfill the condition of passing the opponent.The hero immediately circumvents the opponentIf you want to extend the hero’s quest further, you can plan to have the hero spend multiple beats on a side-quest before he attempts to fulfill the condition of his goal again. Listed below are common activities the hero can spend one or more full beats doing before attempting the original goal again. The hero tries to abandon the quest but is reminded of the stakes and returns willingly, he’s forced to return, or the problem follows himThe hero creates a new plan to overcome or circumvent the opponent using information learned from the conflictThe hero trains/learns a new skillThe hero fixes a psychological flawThe hero fixes a physical flaw/weakness/injury.The hero fixes a flawed/cursed resourceThe hero retrieves the resource required to fulfill the condition of passing the opponentThe hero performs the task required to fulfill the condition of passing the opponentThe hero seeks out and learns the condition of passing or circumventing the opponentThe hero journeys somewhere else where he will need to accomplish a goalThe hero seeks/gathers new or old alliesThe hero reconciles with an estranged ally or alliesThe hero builds, assembles, stages, sets up or prepares a resource or situationYou can further extend any beat chain by having the hero fail steps or by adding more expected or unexpected steps, conditions, obstacles, opponents, setbacks and complications to his quests.Listed below are types of extended beat chains:Two-beat chain:1 conditionIntroduce the goal, stakes, 1 condition and plan.The hero enacts the plan and fulfills the condition.Three-beat chains:1 condition with 1 failureIntroduce the goal, stakes, 1 condition and plan.Step 1: The hero enacts Plan-A and fails.Step 2: The hero enacts Plan-B and fulfills the condition.1 condition with 1 planning beatIntroduce the goal, stakes, and 1 condition.Introduce the plan.The hero enacts the plan and fulfills the condition.1 condition with 1 debate beatIntroduce the goal, stakes, plan and 1 condition.The hero debates whether he can/should enact his plan.The hero enacts the plan and fulfills the condition.1 condition with 1 traveling beatIntroduce the goal, stakes, 1 condition.Step 1: Travel to the location of the condition.Step 2: The hero fulfills the condition 1 condition with 1 expected conditional questIntroduce the goal, stakes, plan and 1 condition.Step 1: The hero fulfills the conditional quest.Step 2: The hero fulfills the condition.1 condition with 1 unexpected conditionIntroduce the goal, stakes, plan and 1 conditionStep 1: The hero enacts the plan and fulfills the condition but learns there’s another condition.Step 2: The hero fulfills the second condition.1 condition with 1 missing skill and 1 training beatIntroduce the goal, stakes, plan and 1 condition that requires a skill the hero doesn’t have.Step 1: The hero trains to fulfill the condition. Step 2: The hero fulfills the condition. 1 condition with 1 missing resource and 1 resource gathering beatIntroduce the goal, stakes, plan and 1 condition that requires a resource the hero doesn’t have.Step 1: The hero attains the missing resource. Step 2: The hero fulfills the condition. 1 condition with 1 resource building beatIntroduce the goal, stakes, plan and 1 condition that requires a resource to be built.Step 1: The hero builds the missing resource. Step 2: The hero fulfills the condition. 1 condition with 1 resource preparation beatIntroduce the goal, stakes, plan and 1 condition that requires the hero to deploy resources before he can enact the plan.Step 1: The hero deploys his resources. Step 2: The hero fulfills the condition. 1 condition with 1 resource fixing beatIntroduce the goal, stakes, plan and 1 condition that requires the hero to fix a resource before he can enact the plan.Step 1: The hero fixes his resources. Step 2: The hero fulfills the condition. 1 condition with 1 missing ally and 1 recruitment beatIntroduce the goal, stakes, plan and 1 condition that requires an ally the hero doesn’t have.Step 1: The hero recruits the missing ally. Step 2: The hero fulfills the condition. 1 condition with 1 estranged ally and 1 unification beatIntroduce the goal, stakes, plan and 1 condition that requires an ally the hero is estranged with.Step 1: The hero unifies the estranged ally. Step 2: The hero fulfills the condition. 1 unknown conditionIntroduce the goal and stakes. State that the condition is unknown and the plan to learn the unknown conditionStep 1: The hero enacts his plan and learns the condition of the goalStep 2: The hero fulfills the condition of the goal.2 conditionsIntroduce the goal, stakes, 2 conditions and a 2-step plan.Step 1: The hero fulfills condition 1.Step 2: The hero fulfills condition 2. 1 condition with 1 escalation beatIntroduce the goal, stakes, conditions and plan.Step 1: The problem gets worse, and the stakes escalate.Step 2: The hero fulfills the condition. 1 condition with 1 refusal beatIntroduce the goal, stakes, and condition.Step 1: The hero refuses to enact the plan and learns he must accomplish his goal.Step 2: The hero fulfills the condition. 1 condition with 1 conflicting internal flawIntroduce the goal, stakes, condition that conflicts with the hero’s internal flaw.Step 1: The hero fixes his internal flaw.Step 2: The hero fulfills the condition. 1 condition with 1 conflicting physical flawIntroduce the goal, stakes, condition that conflicts with the hero’s physical flaw.Step 1: The hero fixes his physical flaw.Step 2: The hero fulfills the condition. 1 condition with 1 defense beatIntroduce the goal, stakes, condition and plan.Step 1: The hero is attacked and defends himself.Step 2: The hero fulfills the condition. 1 condition with 1 chase beatIntroduce the goal, stakes, condition and plan.Step 1: The condition or opponent flees, and the hero gives chase.Step 2: The hero fulfills the condition. 1 condition with 1 escape beatIntroduce the goal, stakes, condition and plan.Step 1: The hero is attacked and flees.Step 2: The hero fulfills the condition. TYPES OF BEATSVariable drop beatsState the story goalState the Act goalState the beat chain goalState Act 1 planState Act 2 planState Act 3 planState Act 5 planState the Act conditionState the beat chain conditionIntroduce the heroIntroduce the antagonistIntroduce POCIntroduce sidekickIntroduce resource giverIntroduce antagonist’s sidekickIntroduce antagonist’s minionIntroduce hero skillForeshadow opponentForeshadow conditionForeshadow backfireForeshadow prizeForeshadow complicationState the stakesGain allyGain enemyGain resourceLearn tier-1 conditionLearn tier-1 conditionQuest progress beatsStory introductionAct introductionDebate/decisionPlanningLearn plan requirementCatalystEscalationFulfill A-story tier 2 conditionFulfill A-story tier 1 conditionThe universe strikes backThe antagonist strikes backHero attackedBackfireFleeChaseDiaboli Ex MachinaPreparationTravelTrainingThresholdApproaching the thresholdReceiving the prizeRepercussions of the prizeSunsetEnact Plan-A, B, CPlan-A,B,C step 1, 2,3 Fulfill tier 1 condition’s tier 2 conditionFulfill tier 2 condition’s tier 3 conditionStoryline marker beatsBegin storylineEnd storylineTransitionJumpLandingPositive impactNegative impactNeutral impactSpecial purpose beatsBeat #1Receiving the prizeRepercussions of the prizeSunsetTYPES OF LINKSStoryline linksBegin StorylineEnd storylineTransition beatContinue current storylineA-story to A-storyA-story to B-storyA-story to C-storyA-story to A/B-storyA-story to A/C-storyA-story to A/B/C-storyA-story to B/C-storyB-story to B-storyC-story to C-storyPositive impactNegative impactNeutral impactBeat outcome linksIf beat conflict outcome = WIN, then:Tier 1, 2, 3 condition = FULFILLED or INCOMPLETETier 1, 2, 3 condition step = COMPLETE or INCOMPLETEIf tier 1, 2, 3 condition = FULFILLED, then: Proceed to next: tier 1, 2, 3 condition questProceed to next step of current condition questIf tier 1, 2, 3 condition = INCOMPLETE, then: Proceed to next step of current condition questJump questIf beat conflict outcome = FAIL, then: Hero’s next action = Retry engaging opponentLook for another solution to current beat conflictLook for another way to fulfill current condition questState/debate a new planEnact: Plan-B, C, DDig inRun awayProceed to next step with FAIL on recordIf beat conflict outcome = FAIL, then: Change quest variable: A, B, C storyline, Tier 1, 2, 3, condition quest suffers setbackCreates a conflict of interest with A, B, C storyline, Tier 1, 2, 3 condition questCreates a conflict of interest with another character Adds a new condition to A, B, C storyline, Tier 1, 2, 3, condition questAdds a new step to A, B, C storyline, Tier 1, 2, 3, condition questThe hero cannot fulfill his current plan.Escalate the stakes of A, B, C storyline, Tier 1, 2, 3, condition questDivine intervention links:Deus ex machina False failureSummon just what the hero needsSummon an ally, resource, informationDiaboli ex machineFalse victorySummon a setbackSummon worst case scenarioSummon conflict of interestLocation linksStay in same locationLeave current location. Go to new location.Temporal linksFast forward toFlashback to Meanwhile atCause/effect linksBut ThereforeAnd thenBeat chain linksBegin beat chainEnd beat chainContinue current beat chainHope indicatorHigh hopesMedium hopesLittle hopeHopelessDISTRIBUTING VARIABLESAll of these options may seem overwhelming, but each Act is only 3-10 beats long, and the beginning, middle and end of each Act serve specific purposes, which affects what can/should happen there. These limitations narrow your options to a manageable level. Each stage of an Act also requires certain variables to be introduced or used, which further limits what can happen in each beat. Before you can know where to place the variables, you need to know what they are. Below is a list of types of variables: Anatomy of a heroIdentityGoalsHomeHauntHome basePersonality type indicatorsSkillsResourcesFlawsValues/beliefsAlliesEnemiesNeutral charactersCharacter inventoryHero’s identityHero’s starting pointGoalsFOILsStakesPlansSkillRequired ResourcesCursed resourcesFlawsQuest informationPersonality type indicatorsValues/beliefsLogical reactions Fight or flightCharactersMain CharactersHeroAntagonistHero’s sidekickHero’s mentorHero’s loverHero’s POCAntagonist’s sidekickTier 1 threshold beat opponentsSupporting charactersResource giverInformation giverOpportunity giverQuest giverCatalyst giverTier 2-3 threshold beat opponentsAntagonist’s minionMinor charactersSituational crutchesFiller crutchesExtrasTypes of AlliesSidekickTeam membersLoverMentorPOCResource giverInformation giverOpportunity giverTypes of enemiesTier 1-5 threshold opponentsMonster of the beatAntagonistAntagonist’s sidekickAntagonist’s minionsNeutral charactersSituational crutchesFiller crutchesExtrasLocations Hero’s homeHero’s hauntHero’s home baseAct 1-5 threshold locationsAct 1-5 threshold doorstep locationsAct 1-5 tier 1-3 condition locationsTransit locationsLocation of the A, B, C-storyline prizesStep locationsForeshadowingTier 1-5 goal conditionsTier 1-3 threshold conflict outcomesTier 1-3 threshold conflict opponentsTier 1-5 threshold conflict locationsTier 1-5 threshold conflict solutionsTier 1-5 threshold conflict complicationsTier 1-5 threshold conflict conflicts of interestBelow is a list of mandatory variables and where they should appear:Variables required in any beatLocationProtagonistProtagonist’s actionBeat conflict opponentBeat conflict opponent’s actionProtagonist’s actionBeat conflict opponent’s actionProtagonist’s actionBeat conflict opponent’s actionProtagonist’s actionBeat conflict outcomeBeat conflict prizeBeat conflict repercussionStoryline linksACT 1A-story (1-5 beats between beats 1-5)Introduce: The identity of the story universe.Introduce: The story universe’s rule 1Introduce: The story universe’s rule 2Introduce: The hero’s identity.Introduce: The hero’s ultimate A-story goal.Introduce: The ultimate A-story goal’s known conditions.Introduce: The ultimate A-story goal’s stakes for successIntroduce: The ultimate A-story goal’s stakes for failure. Introduce: The hero’s ultimate A-story goal Act 1 Plan-AAction: The hero enacts the ultimate A-story goal Act 1 Plan-AIntroduce: The hero’s skill 1Introduce: The hero’s skill 2Introduce: A-story resource 1Introduce: A-story resource 2Introduce: The hero’s creed 1Introduce: The hero’s creed 2Introduce: The hero’s personality trait 1Introduce: The hero’s personality trait 2Introduce: The hero’s internal flaw 1Introduce: The hero’s internal flaw 2Introduce: The hero’s external flaw 1Introduce: The hero’s external flaw 2Introduce: The hero’s primary POC’s identityIntroduce: The hero’s primary POC’s ultimate goalIntroduce: The hero’s primary POC’s skill 1Introduce: The hero’s primary POC’s resource 1Introduce: The hero’s primary POC’s creed 1Introduce: The hero’s primary POC’s personality trait 1Introduce: The hero’s primary POC’s internal flaw 1Introduce: The hero’s primary POC’s external flaw 1A-story (1 beat between beats 9-10)Action: The hero debates whether he can/should cross the threshold A-story (Beat 10)Action: The hero fails to fulfill the ultimate A-story Act 1 conditionB-story (1-4 beats between beats 4-7)Introduce: The hero’s ultimate B-story goal.Introduce: The ultimate B-story goal’s condition.Introduce: The ultimate B-story goal’s stakes for successIntroduce: The ultimate B-story goal’s stakes for failure. Action: The hero enacts the ultimate B-story goal Act 1 Plan AAction: The hero fails to fulfill the ultimate B-story Act 1 conditionC-story (Beats 6-9)Introduce: The hero’s ultimate C-story goal.Introduce: The ultimate C-story goal’s condition.Introduce: The ultimate C-story goal’s stakes for successIntroduce: The ultimate C-story goal’s stakes for failure. ACT 2A-story (2-5 beats between beats 11-15)Introduce: The hero’s ultimate A-story goal Act 2 conditionsIntroduce: The hero’s ultimate A-story goal Act 2 Plan-AAction: The hero enacts the ultimate A-story goal Act 2 Plan ACallback: The hero’s primary POC.Callback: The hero’s internal flaw 1A-story (between beats 18-20)The hero fulfills the ultimate A-story goal Act 2 conditionsB-story (2-4 beats between beats 14-17)Introduce: The hero’s ultimate B-story goal Act 2 conditionsIntroduce: The hero’s ultimate B-story goal Act 2 Plan-AAction: The hero enacts the ultimate B-story goal Act 2 Plan AC-story (1-2 beats between beats 12-19)Introduce: The hero’s ultimate C-story goal Act 2 conditionsIntroduce: The hero’s ultimate C-story goal Act 2 Plan-AAction: The hero enacts the ultimate C-story goal Act 2 Plan AACT 3A-story (2-3 beats between beats 21-23)Introduce: The hero’s ultimate A-story goal Act 3 conditionsIntroduce: The hero’s ultimate A-story goal Act 3 Plan-AAction: The hero enacts the ultimate A-story goal Act 3 Plan AA-story (3-4 beats between beats 24-27)Action: The hero fulfills the ultimate A-story Act 3 condition.B-story (2-3 beats between 23-25 if there’s an A-story, between 21-23 if there is no A-story)Introduce: The hero’s ultimate B-story goal Act 3 conditionsIntroduce: The hero’s ultimate B-story goal Act 3 Plan-AAction: The hero enacts the ultimate B-story goal Act 3 Plan AB-story (3-4 beats between beats 24-27)Action: The hero fulfills the ultimate B-story Act 3 condition.C-story (1 beat between beats 21-27)Action: The hero enacts C-story goal Act 3 Plan AAct 4A-story (1-3 beats between beats 28-30)Introduce: The hero’s ultimate B-story goal Act 4 conditionsIntroduce: The hero’s ultimate B-story goal Act 4 Plan-AAction: The hero debates whether he can/should cross the threshold Action: The hero fulfills the ultimate A-story Act 4 condition.B-story (1-3 beats between beats 28-30)Introduce: The hero’s ultimate B-story goal Act 3 conditionsIntroduce: The hero’s ultimate B-story goal Act 3 Plan-AAction: The hero debates whether he can/should cross the threshold Action: The hero fulfills the ultimate B-story Act 4 condition.ACT 5A-story (2-3 beats between beats 31-33)Introduce: The hero’s ultimate A-story goal Act 5 conditionsIntroduce: The hero’s ultimate A-story goal Act 5 Plan-AAction: The hero enacts the ultimate A-story goal Act 5 Plan AA-story (1-3 beats between beats 34-36)Action: The hero debates whether he can/should fulfill the ultimate A-story goal Act 5 conditionsA-story (beat 37)Action: The hero fulfills the condition of his ultimate A-story goal.B-story (1-2 beats between beats 33-36 if there is a B-story)Action: The hero fulfills his ultimate B-story condition.C-story (1 beat between beats 35-36)Action: The hero fulfills the condition of the ultimate C-story goalACT 6A-story (Beat 37)Action: The hero attains the ultimate A-story prize.B-story (Beat 38)Action: The hero attains the ultimate B-story prize.C-story (Beat 39)Action: The hero attains the ultimate B-story prize. ................
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