The Story Book: A Writer's Guide to Story Development, Principles, Problem-solving and Marketing
David Baboulene
Language: English
Pages: 256
ISBN: 0955708923
Format: PDF / Kindle (mobi) / ePub
`Fantastic. A bible for writers.` Bookshelf
Author, scriptwriter, story consultant and Ph.D scholar of story theory, David Baboulene, helps you to understand what makes stories that grip. With invaluable new thinking on subtext plus insights on story success from:
Bob Gale: Legendary Hollywood scriptwriter and producer of the Back to the Future trilogy.
Lee Child: 16 million Jack Reacher novels sold in 43 countries and 29 languages.
Willy Russell: celebrated playwright and film maker of classics such as Shirley Valentine, Educating Rita, Blood Brothers...
John Sullivan: television comedy writing legend - Only Fools and Horses, Citizen Smith, Just Good Friends...
Simply a must-read for anyone wanting to understand how to turn ideas into stories that sell.
The Story Book David Baboulene Ebook version published by: DreamEngine Media Ltd. All rights reserved. Copyright David Baboulene 2011 The right of David Baboulene to be identified as the author of this work has been asserted in ordance with sections 77 and 78 of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988. No part of this book may be reproduced by any means, nor transmitted, nor translated into a machine language, without the written permission of the publisher. Extracts
striplings who give you the impression that you went to the wrong school and that your clothes don’t fit. ‘This is Oswald,’ said Bingo. ‘What,’ I replied cordially, ‘could be sweeter? How are you?’ ‘Oh, all right,’ said the kid. ‘Nice place this.’ ‘Oh, all right,’ said the kid. ‘Having a good time fishing?’ ‘Oh, all right,’ said the kid. Young Bingo led me off to commune apart. ‘Doesn’t jolly old Oswald’s incessant flow of prattle make your head ache sometimes?’ I asked.
make? The choice will involve paying a price; choose A and give up B. Choose B and potentially lose C. Choose C and trigger D. Stakes are high, but the choice must be made. Often, whilst we are still assessing the implications of A, B, C and D, our protagonist chooses Z, leaving our brains scrabbling around for what this means as we project forwards. Let’s look a little deeper at what we mean by ‘meaningful’. When a Jedi knight decides to laser a storm trooper’s head off with a light sabre, we
is...? Who is going to win the match? A plane comes down in the mountains. The key question is...? Will the passengers and crew survive? Many people will look at their story and think, ‘that’s fine, but my story simply doesn’t lend itself to a big, clear key question. It just wouldn’t be right to try to force one in!’ And, of course, it mustn’t be forced. We have been talking throughout this book about what defines a down-the-middle, mainstream story, and I’ve used examples with obvious key
for dealing with loved but misguided/misplaced material. As discussed earlier, the secret is to build up a repository of good ideas – not just for this story, but forever. Jokes, character traits, subplot ideas, iconic images and moments, genius dialogue – none of it needs to get lost, but just because something is brilliant does not give you any good reason to crowbar it into this story. I love custard. That doesn’t justify putting it on my fish and chips. The test for such material comes