Preface
Introduction: The Action-Idea
1 Let's Start at the Very Beginning, Middle, and End
2 Why You Want Your Movie to Be a Bomb!
3 The Subject Is an Action ... Not a Person
4 Forget Sub-plotting--the Best Plots Have One-Track Minds
5 Plot Is Soul
6 The Ends Are Always in the Means of the Plot
7 Why Is My Beautiful Plot Growing a Hand Out of Its Head?
8 The Four Species of Plot
9 What the Poetics Says About Epics Like Lord of the Rings
10 Destiny Is an Accident Waiting to Happen
11 Keep It in the Family ... The Tragic Deed
12 Oops! I Caused My Own Undeserved Misfortune Again
13 How a Little Moralizing Turned a Gladiator Gore Fest into a Best Picture
14 A Movie Is Long Enough, So It Ends Happy or Sad
15 If You're Happy and You Know It ... Time for a Reversal of Fortune and Discovery
16 "It Scared Me Because I Saw It Coming" ... The Rolls Royce of Complex Plots
17 The Devil Is in the Realistic Details of the Plot of Angel Heart
18 Whatever Causes the Action Better Be Up There on the Screen
19 A Movie Gave You a Bad Case of Pity and Fear? The Doctor Recommends a Catharsis
20 Action Speaks Louder Than Words, and Together They Can Speak Volumes!
21 The Perfect Hollywood Sad/Happy Plot versus the Perfect Poetics Sad Plot
22 Move Your Audience by Teaching Them What They Already Know
23 The Good, the Bad, and the Intermediate Hero
24 It's the Thought Behind the Action That Counts: Creating the Tone of Your Screenplay
25 How to Cheat If You Can't Hire a Whole Chorus
26 How to Create Characters That Are Really Really Really Alive
27 Dialog Is a Piece of the Action
28 If the Pitch Doesn't Fill Me with Horror and Pity, the Movie Won't Either
29 The Non-Linear Soul of Quentin Tarantino
30 If Your Story Were a Musical, Where Would the Numbers Be?
31 History Repeats Itself ... Real and Imagined
32 Aristotle's Take on the Importance of Drama
33 Aristotle Took Comedy Seriously
Closing Comments