Have you read the Mark Trail comic strip lately? For that matter, have you ever read it? The strip began in 1946 and pretty much changed the same until earlier this century when some minor alterations were made.
But less than two months ago, in the second week of October, it went through a radical change from nature strip to, well, what some people might call – and in fact are calling – an “unnatural one.”
Over my years running various TV series I’ve been amazed at how many professional writers don’t understand the basics of good storytelling. In a nutshell, the trick to working out your plot is to always remember that the scenes must flow from and to each other in a progression that takes into account three different elements. That is, it must be logical, surprising, and climactic.
What this means is that everything that happens must grow out of what happened before. On one level, given the personalities of the characters and the situation they are in, each plot point must be inevitable. And on another level, these inevitable twists and turns must be such that the reader or viewer could never have predicted them.
THE USUAL NOTE FROM LB: From the summer of 2002 to the spring of 2010, Gwen the Beautiful and I were the proud and often exhausted owners of a beautiful Ozarks property we called Cloud Creek Ranch.
In many ways, the ranch was paradise. But it was a paradise with a price that started going up before we even knew it existed. Here’s another Monday musing about our adventure and the lessons we learned.
Oh, and if y’all detect any irony, please believe me when I say it comes straight from the universe and not your kindly Uncle Larry B.
The Most Honourable Keith Telly Topping His Very Self is the sole proprietor and writer of “From the North,” which is, hands down, my favorite blog written in the English language.
The blog might well be my fave written in any language, but inasmuch as I only read and understand English blogs, I guess I’ll never know. (At least I believe I understand them. Hard to be sure what one is ignorant of when one is, you know, ignorant.)
Anyway, Keith has this terrific blog that you all should be reading regularly, or to be more accurate, “irregularly” because that’s the interval at which it comes out.
The writers of Get Out, Darkest Hour, Molly’s Game, In the Fade, The Big Sick and ‘mother! get together to educated, entertain, and dish for The Hollywood Reporter.
Hie thyself to THR’s YouTube Channel for more edification and shooting of the shit!