![]() It’s just a method I think could be helpful in breaking plot. Going back to our current example, we now know the protagonist is looking for an El Camino in order to seduce the woman he’s obsessed with, but you, the writer, could choose many ways for the story to unfold, depending on if you want the protagonist to succeed or fail, if you want an adversary to interfere with his plan, if you want his wife to find out what he’s up to and leave him, etc… It just depends on what your story is about, who your characters are, and the rules and stakes of your world.Īsking questions is simply a method for determining how to tell the story you want to tell.Īm I suggesting this as a hard and fast rule for breaking pilots? Absolutely not. That’s the whole point! By deciding which questions you want to focus on exploring, you can very quickly and easily hone in on the trajectory of your story. Notice how the questions we ask determine the direction of the story and the scenes that will follow. Then the next sequence could be: Where can the protagonist find a 1964 El Camino? At the end of that sequence, let’s say the protagonist discovers: A psychic told this woman that the man of her dreams would drive a 1964 El Camino. If Gulino’s protagonist, a married man, were trying to seduce a woman, the sequence of scenes that followed would most likely revolve around him working out a plan to gain the woman’s affection. The question you choose for the beginning of a sequence – in the case of Gulino’s example, How can a married man quickly and easily seduce a woman he’s obsessed with? - is what the story will be primarily focused on for the next sequence of scenes. A sequence begins with a question and ends with an answer, or reveal, of some sort. Using this approach, you would simply break your story into a series of questions and answers. The sequence method is an easy way to make sure your story is believable, cohesive and clear. Instead of the writer posing the question ‘how do I make the pursuit of this woman fill up sixty or ninety minutes of screen time?’ it is much more fruitful for him or her to ask ‘what is the quickest and easiest way for this character to get the girl?’ Human nature being what it is, chances are the man will do the easiest thing first, and only if that fails will he try to do a more difficult course of action. ![]() Sequences, by posing a series of dramatic questions within the overall dramatic tension, offer an opportunity to give the audience a glimpse of a great many possible outcomes to the picture before the actual resolution… For example, a writer may invent a story in which, in the setup, a married man becomes obsessed with a woman and decides he’s willing to risk everything to have her. According to Paul Joseph Gulino, in his book, The Sequence Approach: What follows is a take on pilot structure – and keep in mind, it’s just one take – in this case, a combination of my understanding of three-act structure and sequences, and also a few other tips and tricks I learned from people much smarter than me.įirst, let’s talk about sequences. So if you also find that intimidating, this approach may help. There’s no previous episode to jumpstart or guide you as you begin to think about how you want to tell your story. For me, it’s easy to get lost when breaking the plot of a pilot, since you’re working with, well… nothing. ![]()
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