Act or question

There are so many books out there about how to structure a story. This is especially true in screenwriting but increasingly I’m seeing lots of requests about building in story structure to development documents for factual programmes.

Listen, story structure has its place. Of course it does. But I’m not convinced that it’s the best place to start. I think it’s good for tightening your story once you know what your story is, but often if people start asking me about what their midpoint is or where the end of the first act is, I’ll get them to take a step back and think about the core questions in their story.

Here are seven questions that I ask people to think about with regards to their story to get them started. Any one of these is a good starting point. Ultimately most stories are about someone wanting something - even if all they they want it to be left alone - and it happens in a specific place which often brings extra challenges to the story. And, of course, in any story we want an audience to feel something.

• Who is it about and what do they want?

• What do they have to do to get what they want?

• How do you want to tell your story?

• Where does it take place?

• How do you want people to feel at the end?

• What do you think it’s really about?

• What holds everything together from start to end?