by Aaron Mendelsohn
I don’t love the story-breaking process. It’s like putting on sunscreen when all I really want to do is get outside and play with my kids. It’s like doing push-ups before breakfast. I whine about it, I put it off, I dread it every time. And every time, I’m really, really glad I did it.
Being a stickler about my story-breaking is one of the key reasons I’ve managed to sustain a 20+ year successful writing career. My method is simply this: I ask myself a series of eleven story-related questions that prompt ideas about key character and story points. Once I answer the questions to my satisfaction, I start filling in the story until I have a detailed outline.
Many of my questions are intuitive, like “Do I know what my story 
is about?” and “What is the Call to Action?” “Do I know what my story is about?” is particularly important because the answer ends up being the cornerstone of my screenplay (or pilot or series pitch). If I can’t distill my concept into a simple, clear, one-sentence logline, I may be sitting on a story that’s weak, broken or over-complicated.