'Your Complete, Detailed, Step By Step Guide That Leads You From Blank Page All The Way To Your Completed First Draft...'
Here's what you will discover when you read it:
- A simple trick for creating POWERFUL characters that leap off the page at you and are remembered FOREVER.
- A simple yet effective device that is ESSENTIAL if you are to create a dramatic hero. (If you don't know this one, your hero will never reach the heights of true drama.) (Page 51)
- A simple trick to play with minor characters to give your script masses MORE LIFE and APPEAL.
- Why doing your research on the Internet can KILL your script. (Page 15)
- The single most important principle of telling a story that you must never forget. (Page 12)
- Why relying on real life for your endings may be one of the biggest mistakes you could make.
- A simple way to raise the stakes of the story to get your audience involved even more. It's something very particular you do to your Hero. And it works. (Page 38-39)
- The 14 beats you MUST have in your story if you want it to GRIP YOUR AUDIENCE. These are general beats, and work across any story, any genre.
- The simple, yet FATAL mistake you can make that means the life blood of your story starts to slip away - and your audience with it. (Page 31)
- The one software tool you should buy, plus the other two that you need and how you can get them for free.
- The most effective way to write a treatment. Don't beat around the bush. This is the shortest route from A-B.
- A SIMPLE TRICK for researching 'impossible' topics, such as historical drama, or science fiction.
- Why you MUST integrate one crucial aspect of your hero's character into the final moments of the script - and how to set your hero up from the start to make that happen. (Pages 44 and 51-53)
- A simple trick to put in early on to propel your story forward and rivet your audience to their seats.
- The three particular types of problem you should give your hero early to take the struggle out of building story. (Page 36, and previous).
- The one REAL definition of drama. Forget all the high minded discussion that doesn't help you when it comes to it. This is a simple sentence you should never let out of your mind. (Page 9)
- How Desire is CRUCIAL to your character, and how it should change in the course of the story. This is the thread that holds your story together. I show you how to use it. (Page 13)
- Why an attack on the Hero from this unlikely source is one of the best things you can do to RAISE THE INTENSITY of the drama. Plus whereabouts in the script you should make it happen. (Page 39)
- One specific scene that raises your hero's focus, and attention, and commitment, until he is like AN UNSTOPPABLE MACHINE who is STEAMING TOWARDS THE CLIMAX. (Page 42)
- How to locate people who will give you VIVID STORY MATERIAL without wasting your time. (Page 17)
- The right way to end your story so that your audience are left happy and satisfied. Miss this stage out and you will leave people uneasy without knowing why. (Page 44)
- A simple formula for a logline that helps YOU, not the studio. A big trap is to try to second guess people you have never met. Use this formula to stay true to yourself. (Page 25)
- A simple - and obvious - cover story that will GET YOU PAST MOST OF THE GATEKEEPERS of the places you need to research (Page 17)
- Why you should never EVER think of writing a script without a beat sheet - and how you go about creating one with no wasted effort.
- How to find so much story material you will have trouble deciding what to leave out. (Pages 15-20)
- 9 simple Rules of Thumb that you must never forget while you are performing the mysterious art of writing scenes and dialogue (Page 63-64)
- The 4 Tent Poles of your story that you MUST find before you start writing. (Page 13)
- The simplest way to create your Hero (Page 11) and why you don't need pages of backstory for them. (Page 54)
- The FOOLPROOF sign it's time to stop researching and START WRITING. (Page 18)
- The ONLY 8 facts you must know about your hero before you start to write - and why they have almost nothing to do with writing any kind of biography for them. (Page 51-53)
- How you create your Antagonist - and how to make sure they are the best possible villain for your story. (Page 12)
- The ONLY reason you should show what you have written to your friends. (Page 59)
- The best possible ratio for your different acts. Once you've heard it you'll never forget it, and it will inform your writing forever. (Page 26)
- 7 simple ways to GENERATE IDEAS. (Page 8)
- The FOUR Essential Tools for creating the best possible story. (Page 23)
- Where best to lay out the conflict between your protagonist and your antagonist so that it PUNCHES the audience hardest. (Page 37)
