As the opening exercise in Jennine Lanouette’s screenwriting class for teenagers, she’ll ask them to think about dating. Then they’ll be asked to write two scenes: one showing a person alone in a room ...

The five-act structure is a plot formula that divides a story into five sections: the exposition, rising action, climax, falling action, and resolution. From these classical explorations comes our ...

Got an idea for a screenplay? Many of us do, but finishing it often means you need to wrap your mind around the structure. In this lesson, you'll learn how to set up your story, build the rising ...

When I wrote my recent feature Test I ignored the usual advice about screenwriting structure. It was a leap of faith and an experiment in not knowing. Compared to earlier writing experiences (a ...

All products featured here are independently selected by our editors and writers. If you buy something through links on our site, Gizmodo may earn an affiliate commission. Reading time 7 minutes ...

Poor old three-act structure. It gets hammered away at, like an old punching bag, every time someone wants to challenge the primacy of the formulaic Hollywood screenwriting methods. “Take that! You ...

When you watch a lot of film and television, you begin to sense a pattern. In the beginning, you meet characters. In the middle, you see them struggle. At the end, you watch as they succeed or fail.