My Resonant Screenplay Roadmap to Guide You to Write Great Stories

Have you been banging your head year after year against the iron gates of screenwriting opportunity? Have you been ignored or told that your screenplay is “unoriginal”, “not big enough”, “has no theme or vision”, “isn’t compelling”, “isn’t good for actors or investors,” “has characters that are unlikable or old”, “won’t resonate with an audience”, and so on. Sadly, the odds are that for most scripts these criticisms are true. Or are you struggling to rise to the next level in your screenwriting or producing career and have your scripts and films earn a bigger audience?

What’s the best way to get that big script gate to open for you? To lift your creative career to its highest potential?

The short simple answer is: Create more compelling and resonant stories. But how to best achieve that?!

The answer is not to focus on the events, dialog, or style of your script, for example. On its concretes! That’s a road paved with failing surface intentions. A creative has to first understand the road before paving any bricks on it.

Every creative act by human beings begins with an idea. That is, with some mental abstraction or concept. This is especially true for storytelling. Every story in essence is the dramatization of ideas. When creating a story, you are fundamentally conceiving ideas, building the clash of ideas, and concretizing ideas. Ideas are the deepest foundation of every story. The big idea of the Resonant Screenplay Roadmap (RSR) is that stories are essentially ideas in action. (Note that ideas can be on different levels of abstraction, from a more abstract theme to the more concrete meaning of a conflict or event.)

When focusing on ideas, a screenwriter is concentrating on a story at its most fundamental level. By learning how to create, develop, and improve a screenplay at the ideas level, a creative can consequently create much more evocative and popular stories.

The Logline of the RSR story creating, editing, and coaching system is:

Stories are ideas in action and by finding and dramatizing the best primary ideas in a screenplay a storyteller can best create a compelling and resonant story.

Let me now introduce you to the main elements of the Resonant Screenplay Roadmap of how to create stories. I’ll focus on five fundamental components of all stories, ones that deeply influence each other and are a sequential roadmap for creatives to follow to write a good screenplay. The first stage in this progressive method of creating a screenplay is arguably the most important. Concept.

A Captivating Concept

The core of every story, of every script, is its central conflict or premise. Or what is often called in Hollywood, its idea. (Here I use idea, concept, and premise interchangeably as the same thing.) The premise of a script is essentially its big main ideas related to character motivation, conflict, and stakes. These ideas must fire the imagination and be original in some way. If these foundational ideas of your screenplay concept are cliched, have small values, or are one-note, your script will be flat and unenticing.

As an example of a captivating story concept, let’s look at the inventive, layered, and high value ideas in the premise of the classic action film Die Hard. Consider these idea layers in the film’s concept: A (then) original location and problem -- innocents and rescuer trapped by terrorists in a locked down skyscraper. Intriguing lead characters of a tough, sexist New York cop and his successful, estranged businesswoman wife. A dramatic thematic idea in the character arc of the sexist protagonist -- of him learning to accept that his wife isn’t subservient to him but is and should be an independent and successful individual. But the key story element that lifts Die Hard to the level of a drama is the high personal stakes that this cop is lonely and loves and wants his wife back and has come to Los Angeles achieve this. But then she is taken farther away from him in the worst possible way. She becomes a hostage to terrorists.

All these captivating story and character elements in the Die Hard premise are ideas. And when such diverse and dramatic ideas are fused into a single film concept, they can make an original, exciting, and poignant story that we very much want to experience. And without having a story premise with such a complexity of high stake ideas as there is in this Die Hard premise, a creative would really struggle to develop a gripping 110 page script. (More on this later.)

In short, a great screenplay has zinger, layered big ideas in its premise.

One vital storytelling element in or implicit in a story premise is its theme. The idea that the story is really about. To develop a theme for your screen story is the second stage in the RSR.

An Emotionally Arousing Theme

The theme of a story is its fundamental abstraction -- its deepest main idea or meaning -- that underpins and unites all the parts of the story. (A narrower way of looking at theme is that it is the message of a story.) A script should be about something, its parts should add up to an important value proposition about people and life. If it does, we care. Why would people want to watch a film about nothing? Why would we deeply care about characters who believe in nothing, whose choices and actions are not life changing?

Ironically, it is abstract ideas that create the strongest emotions in audiences. Consider such classic films as Casablanca, The Godfather, An Officer and a Gentleman, and Gladiator. These films all create strong emotions in their audience because each is about an important idea or message. The Godfather, for example, is a cautionary tale about succession that warns us not to betray ourselves. Casablanca tells us to fight for life and love. We become intensely emotionally aroused watching such life lessons play out before us.

One of the key ways to create deep emotion in an audience via themes or ideas is through character arcs. I’ll develop this idea in the next section. For now, I want to give an observation about the importance of theme from my own experience as a screenplay consultant: Every good script I’ve ever edited and every good writer I’ve ever worked with all had the same problem with their story and storytelling: An inability to develop and work with theme. For instance, one recent true-story bio pic script I worked on dealt with an intrinsically interesting setting, especially its specific sports arena. But the basic thematic ideas of the script were confused and undeveloped. Consequently, the story and characters added up to very little so had little resonance. A common disappointment in scripts and films today.

With the RSR framework of how to create stories, I focus on helping creatives how to develop a theme so that their story events will have meaning and thus be much more involving for the audience. Consider, for example, the relevance and importance of the theme of the deeply relevant film Saving Mr. Banks: How we all must deal with childhood psychological issues so we can fully enjoy our adult life.

The best screenwriters when working at their highest level always create conflicts and events that express important thematic ideas. Great writers have trained their minds to do this. The RSR approach helps train writers how to integrate theme and action.

When screenwriters have the theme of a story diamond clear in their minds, they can best develop characters that will intrigue and involve an audience. The next related stage in the RSR is creating characters that not only move a story but also an audience.

Empathetic Rounded Characters That Grab

Every good fiction character is a unique and believable amalgam of specific types of ideas. For example, you will often read or be told that the key to characterization is giving a character a goal or a want. That is only partly true. A character having a main goal is a necessary condition to creating a motivated character, but only a one-layered one. A scriptwriter needs to learn to create three dimensional or rounded characters. This means learning how to create idea layers in a character, such as premises, values, and traits, as well as devising their consequences like look and mannerisms, to name just a few layers.

Let’s now briefly consider the application of theme in character arcs to create rousing emotions in an audience.

A character arc is a premise (motivating belief) that a character holds and changes during a story. The most emotional part of many films is a climax where a character makes a final big choice/change and is then able to succeed in a life important quest. Consider the importance of John McClane’s character arc discussed above, where he finally comes to love and accept his wife as an individual. Also consider in Casablanca, where the protagonist Rick Blaine in the climax makes his final, irreversible choice between isolation and involvement that he has struggled with throughout the whole film. Without these two crucial ideas being at the core of Rick’s internal conflict during the film and being the base of his final choice, this climactic scene and film would not be very involving.

Also consider the reaction the audience has at the end of Saving Mr. Banks, when it cheers the protagonist P. L. Travers finding resolution with her tragic past and making her climactic decision to accept Walt Disney’s offer to buy her Mary Poppin’s novel.

Creating motivated, rounded characters who intrigue an audience is intensely difficult, but the RSR approach focuses on the deeper layers or ideas of a character to achieve this. The RSR also focuses on how to make an audience empathize with characters. If a scriptwriter builds characters and their arcs to have important beliefs and values that an audience strongly identifies with, it will more deeply care about these characters and react much more emotionally during their journey.

In short, a storyteller best creates a layered, empathetic character when working on the level of the character’s basic ideas.

And yes, once a screenwriter has the basic ideas of the characters clearly in mind, he is better able to build the best conflicts of the story. Creating enthralling conflicts is the fourth logical stage of the RSR writing approach.

Compelling High Stake Conflicts That Excite

Conflict is the first essential of every story. A story, very simply, is a series of escalating conflicts between two characters that leads to a resolution. What’s helpful to understanding conflict is that at their most basic level they are the clash of ideas that characters are acting on. That is, the conflicts and choices in a script are essentially clashing ideas. To create a compelling script, its conflicts must be of important high values. Values of a life and death nature physically or psychologically.

Consider the famous literary example of Les Miserable by Victor Hugo: Because of his love of justice, the protagonist Jean Valjean protects the downtrodden, especially Fantine and Cossette. Valjean clashes with his main antagonist Inspector Javert because of the policeman’s belief in a cold law devoid of compassion and true justice. It is this titanic struggle of opposing high values and important ideals that forms the story spine or structure of the Les Miserable and which helps cause the strong emotional reaction of the audience. The stakes (values at risk) of the story are literally life and death for the characters. These values, ideals, and stakes at the core of these conflicts are ideas.

In short, the more high-value conflict your screenplay has the more compelling it will be. The deeper a creative can work in the arena of value-rich ideas, the more intense will be the conflicts and events he will create. And thus, the more creative and emotion-inducing a plot writer he can make himself. Which brings us the ultimate stage in the RSR.

Therefore: An Unforgettable and Resonant Plot

What is the purpose, the end, of having a Captivating Concept, Emotional Theme, Empathetic 3D Characters, and Compelling Conflicts?

It is to create the final stage of the RSR -- a riveting screenplay plot. That is, a logical and escalating series of actions/events that leap off the screen to skyrocket the thinking and emotions of an audience.

What then is the best way to create such a plot?

A scriptwriter first has to develop the above four key story elements (and others). The key to creating the plot then becomes how to take the basic ideas in these elements and use them to develop a series of related, escalating events. Note that these events flow from the actions of the characters, which come from their motives and conflicts, and so on. That is, the actions and events of the plot express or concretize the ideas in the premise, theme, goals, and conflicts. To stress this vital point: One fundamental way to create the events of the plot is to take the story premise and milk, twist, and escalate its basic ideas to create a logical and dramatic plotline.

And, of course, a plot must be climaxed, not only in a way that resolves all the character goals and conflicts of the story, but also so that it deeply engages and moves an audience emotionally. How many times have you seen a film where its climax and payoff were a dud? That frequently happens because the key thematic ideas in the script were not properly developed and climaxed. This can have vast, negative consequences for a script and a film. It is a film’s climax and its final payoff scenes that an audience most wants to and does talk about most after a screening. These conversations are vital to a film’s strong word of mouth and resonance; to it being an unforgettable experience and repeat engagement, or not.

To stress in a positive way the main point of how to create a plot according to the RSR: When a screenwriter is intimate with the basic ideas of his story, it is much easier to create the most dramatic and memorable conflicts and events for the script.

And to stress this point in a negative way: When a screenwriter hasn’t clearly developed the foundational ideas of his story, it will be very hard to develop a logical and exciting plot.

But why is knowing intimately the ideas underlying a plot especially valuable to creating a resonant script or film?

If a screenwriter truly understands the importance of ideas as the base of his stories, his screenplays will be an integrated whole with values, conflicts, actions, and events that have a deeply personal meaning to the audience. His stories will create a resonance that is unforgettable and will deeply move not only an audience but also producers, distributors, financiers, and talents reading the script.

“How To” Is Crucial

To restate the essence of the Resonant Screenplay Roadmap: The principle that underpins this blueprint of writing and editing fiction is that stories at their deepest level are ideas. Therefore, when you are devising your screenplay, don’t primarily focus on the action and the events. Instead, dig deeper to focus on the ideas that underly the action and events.

But knowing a principle is not enough. A creative learns how to apply principles through experience and coaching, and countless hours of hard work and failure.

What is vital to the RSR writing system as a principled and practical guide to creating stories is its HOW TO nature. I show my clients the basic meaning of the key story elements of a screenplay and then I show them how to practically apply these principles to their own specific script. I don’t, for example, just tell them what is a plot, I also show them how to develop a plot. I don’t just tell them what a character arc is. I also show them how to create and progress a character arc. Of course, some clients just want the concrete on-the-page solutions.

Of course, there’s more to the RSR but you get the picture.

It’s all about You and Your Career!

Back to the big question about you.

Do you want to be able to walk through that iron gate of big scriptwriting opportunity?

Great stories are the most powerful gate openers. There are many theories and debates about how to best write good stories. But let me be blunt about the RSR:

The best way to create good or better stories is to understand and focus on the fundamental nature of stories. Its Ideas.

I apply the RSR to help screenwriters develop their story concepts and scripts, as well as for creatives in my Screenwriting Mentorship Program. The RSR, of course, equally relates to editing and improving stories. For example, one of the biggest issues facing film and television creatives is problem solving during the editing stage of a writing a script. Working on the basic ideas level of a story allows a creative to problem solve at a deeper and more productive level. Finding the best practical, on-the-page answers, happens most to those writers who are ideas focused.

If you train your mind to better see and dramatize ideas in writing, you will be able to create more compelling stories and find a bigger audience that will react much more strongly.

Ideas move the world, all creative ventures, and screenwriting careers.

So, what are you going to do next to create more resonant stories?

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Former film and television producer Scott McConnell (the story guy) is a script developer, coach, and analyst.

Please feel free to forward this email of The Story Guy Newsletter to any person who may be interested in its content or Scott McConnell’s story editing and coaching services.

Stories are ideas in action!

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