Story Diamond Update FREE DOWNLOAD

The Other Chris Pratt was trying to help me understand John Truby's ambiguous and obscure use of the English language when he gave up and threw me a juicy bone—Michael Arndt's Instructional Video on Insanely Great Endings (IGE).  Arndt wrote Little Miss Sunshine and the screenplay to Toy Story 3.

I'm only one-third the way through IGE, but I'm already a fan. Yeah, you're right, there's a lot of Moral Premise related stuff in it...but no,  don't think Michaels has ever heard of my book.

But having now been exposed to Arndt's theory structure, I couldn't help resist adding it to The Story Diamond (below), or at least my simplified interpretation of it. Watch his tutorial. And I'm looking forward to watching his video on Beginnings.

Anyway, here's the latest version of the Story Diamond. Yeah I know this is getting crazy, but as busy as it is, it's still helpful if you've got a magnifying glass. For a PDF download click the link above. For a link to all my posts on The Story Diamond, click HERE.

How Subplots Enrich Your Story

Here's fresh insight that will refine your subplots and reinforce your story's main physical and psychological spines.

But first let's set the stage.

In other places I explain how a story's subplot can be devised and used to reinforce the Moral Premise of the story. In short, those explanations have focused on these traits:

1. Each subplot follows a particular character in their pursuit of a specific goal.

2. Each subplot has fewer dramatic beats than the story's physical spine.

3. The psychological arc of every character in every subplot lies someone along the arc between the opposing values anchored by the Moral Premise Statement.

For example, let's say we have a story titled HOT WATER. Our story's main plot (or physical spine) centers on a protagonist—an elderly but persistent widow—who battles a secretive landlord who refuses to provide more than 65/F of heat to the hot water heating system during the winter months.  The widow's goal of the main plot is to sue the landlord to reveal how much profit he's making by keeping the temperature at 65/F, and thus force him raise the temperature.

But the landlord's position is that his financial records are private, and he further argues the tenant agreement specifically states that the maximum temperature that he needs to provide tenants is 65/F, not a degree more.

Let's say the Moral Premise Statement for our story is:

Ensuring a Good Roller Coaster Ride for Your Audience

As a script consultant one of my concerns is whether the story is going to give the audience a rollercoaster ride, vs. some dull, slow spots. There are several kids of rollercoasters possible: (1) action, (2) goal progress, (3) dialogue, or (4) emotional tension. Here is how you can quickly CHART and SEE what your script is doing. For a Goal Progress chart (like the one below) open a blank sheet in a spreadsheet program like Excel and do the following:

1. Create a series of numbers in a column corresponding to each page of the script (e.g. 1-106)

2. Step through the script and for each PAGE (not scene) determine whether your hero/protagonist is making progress toward his/her goal or is being pushed away from his goal by the antagonist. Score the whole page on a scale from -5 (regression) to +5 (progression).

3. When you're satisfied that your numbers reflect the hero's progress, select the two columns (page number on left, and values of progress on right) and...

4. INSERT an x-y scatter line chart. When the chart appears, if you see any flat areas where there is no progress, or too much progress back-to-back, you know where to revise your script to get a good roller coaster for the variable evaluated.

The chart above is from a script I've been working on with a write for the past 4 years, and we seem to have a good roller coaster going. Charts like this can be easily correlated to a story's beats such as turning points, pinch points, and act breaks, to say nothing of the mid-point's Moment of Grace.

You'll find other posts about this topic at this link:
http://moralpremise.blogspot.com/search/label/Rollercoaster%20Charts