> In Hollywood where as William Goldman says “Nobody knows anything,” the thing about which nobody knows the least is almost always story. Okay, this is the part that really confuses me about the screenwriting world: it didn't invent story, or drama. There's a vast body of literature, both how-to and academic, from the worlds of writing fiction and writing plays, that talks about how stories work and how drama works and how to write them... and yet so little of this information seems to be part of the intellectual landscape of film. A handful of well-read people may cite Lajos Egri; on the other hand, look how long it took the filmwriting world to "discover" Joseph Campbell (mainly after he was repackaged specifically for screenwriters). What's going on there? Why is there such an abyss between these bodies of knowledge? Why does filmmaking so desperately try to reinvent the wheels of story and drama? Or am I confusing the marketing-books/software/consulting-to-aspiring-screenwriters cottage industry with the actual world of film? Any thoughts?

Every writer has his/her own method. Any many have a different method for each new story they write. Experiment, see what works for you and what doesn't. There is no formulae, and a robot can't do it because a story tells us something about the human condition...even if it's a story about Robots in Disguise. Optimus doesn't tell the story; that little Sam guy does. Great article! Violet, Freelance Editor with The Scribe's Best Friend. http://thescribesbestfriend.com/