How Stories Must Be Structured by Logic

Oh, god! Not again, please. Why have the Muses wreaked such punishment upon me? Another script I’m editing that has no logic.

I’ve read countless unproduced scripts over the last thirty years. Many suffered from the same problems: Cliched concept, shallow characters, a lack of values, contrived events, no sense of drama, and so on. A lack of logic is also way up there as a reason that many scripts fail. (I must also confess to having read some good scripts over the years. A few…)

Have you ever received the note that your story lacks plot or logic? Or the often-related note: Your characters are reactive and passive?

Yikes! Those reactions are tent folders!  

How Failing Writers Create

Many writers seem to create like this:

They kinda get a story idea and then just let their emotions burble up story “content”.  And splat onto the page it goes. Then the writer shoe horns these conflicts, events, and scenes into some kind of chronological event line. Often with a penchant for flashbacks, new characters suddenly dropped in to cause mayhem, and the hand of god (AKA author) throwing rocks -- any rocks -- at the characters. Thus brewed is a stale stew of characters reacting to things happening to them as story sidetracks and contrivances abound. Many such concoctions are never finished. The final result: A storytelling blackhole and a stalled creative career.

I hope that’s not you. Is it?

There is an alternative to this disaster. An element that every good story must have. And I truly hope yours does.

Logic.

Actionable Takeaway of How to Create Story Logic

A believable and compelling story is always logical. That is, its events are clearly set up, caused, and connected. A writer can and must train their story mind to be logical. Following are eight ways to help you create a logical story:

1) Create concept and theme statements as standards to control what to include and what to exclude in your story.

2) Use your story concept as the generator to create the conflicts, events, and scenes of your plot. That is, everything in your story expresses the story premise so that all these events are logically related.

3) Make all the characters, conflicts, choices, arcs, and events express the theme.

4) Be certain that your concept is an expression of your theme.

5) Develop character goals to clash in logically related conflicts that drive the story.

6) Create story events and scenes that are the logical expression of your characters’ main goals and conflicts.

7) Organize and connect the events into a plotline of the Protagonist and Antagonist conflicting back and forth like a tennis match.

8) Create cause and effect between your scenes. Scenes in a plot are not disparate happenings but are logically connected. That is, one scene causes the next, which causes the next, and so on. A plot is an escalating succession of scenes falling like a line of dominos.

Your bottom line:

Apply the above logic ideas to your script outline! Don’t go to pages without editing your outline or beat sheet for LOGIC. Doing this many many times will train your mind to be logical when you are creating a story.

By having a ruthlessly logical plot structure, your script will zing and impress much more. Logic is essential to good storytelling and to creating a captivating and resonant script. Check your new story for logic now! Does it have a clear and strong logic?

If you need help to develop a logical plot, reply LOGIC.

.