I would argue that there need not be a “better” way to structure a story than the natural, classical structure. The fact that a thing is “normal” or “popular” or even “pedestrian” doesn’t make it inferior. The pedestrian attitude toward drowning is that it is undesirable. The popular way of dealing with this is to swim or to avoid the water entirely.

I don’t see a reason to improve upon these two methods of dealing with the possibility of drowning. You know what I mean?

I’m not trying to be cute here, either: There are plenty of movies being written that structure themselves classically, but you might not notice it upon first viewing. You might think the writer used some radical new structure that blows the boring old classical structure out of the water! But closer examination will probably reveal that it isn’t the structure, but the content that is radical. What the author fills x, y and z in (or, more specifically, the first action the character takes, the opposing force that renders the action useless and the next action the character chooses to take in response) can be shocking and seem radical to a “normal” (i.e. non-screenwriter) audience, even while fitting neatly into classical structure.

Just something to consider. Happy writing!

open source for the open seas

a concept design by 2 ITP students, looking to hit markets as early as May ’07

Who knew it could so easy to put mustaches on photos? Try out iStache. I highly recommend the straight gayness stache. It just fits everyone so well. So who should rock the stache? It’s a toss up for me, both…