ABSTRACT
In The Screenwriter’s Workbook, Syd Field seconds William Goldman. “Structure is the most important element in the screenplay. It is the force that holds everything together; it is the skeleton, the spine, the foundation.” A strong structure that will support a story; not one that the story must be forced to fit. Structure is a design for drama, a narrative strategy for telling a story so it will have the greatest dramatic impact and connect most deeply with the audience. It is a delivery system for a screenwriter's dramatic purpose. Once the dramatic purpose and narrative strategy is clear, the “proper” structure for a story should become clear, too. The individual scenes, of course, will have structures, too, born of the dramatic purpose in each scene, which will determine how late a screenwriter hits the scene, how early he/she gets out, what dramatic events occur in the scene, and, ultimately, the structure/order of the screenwriter dialogue beats.
