I'm totally obsessed with story structure and story theory, but I could not agree with you more.

Worrying about the exact number of scenes or hitting all "fifteen" beats is so backwards to the writing process in my opinion that I think it stifles or at least hinders a great many voices.

This, of course, coming from someone who considers the Dramatica theory of story extremely beneficial to writers.

Structure is not breaking successful movies down into their similar plot points. Rather, it is a holistic look at the story as one meaningful "whole."

That "whole" must come from the heart, otherwise it truly will be a "hole".

Finding the "magic" of any story IS one of the funnest part of the writing process for me.

I find my story's magic points many diffent ways. Sometimes it comes early during scene consideation when I'm trying to build up enough critical mass to know I have enough material to write a compellng story. Sometimes the "big idea" trumps all, and that's where the magic is. Sometimes it's cracking a character in a story. Sometimes it's a key set piece which you know is going to be memorable.

Magic takes many forms. And it can NEVER be reduced to following somebody else's formula.

Story beats are fairly important consideraation when trying to find a story's magic point. But I think considering the number of scenes is total bullshit. Case and point: Charlie Kaufman, Quintin Tarantino and Judd Apatow. Those film-makers tend to have bloated scenes. They definately don't subscibe to 1-2 page scenes. YET all three CONSISTENTLY craft amazing scenes and memorible characters.

Editing in between drafts can help you pin-point where the magic SHOULD BE. And sometimes during the actual writing of the script you'll have an epifany which tells you that this is good, people will respond favoribly to this.

Anyway. Great post, Scott. Finding "the magic" is where the fun is in writing.

- E.C. Henry from Bonney Lake, WA

HI Scott!

A "beat" is not a scene; a beat can be a sequence as well. For example, on my board, within the 40 beats, I can have anywhere from 60 to 110 card, in different assortments, to compose each beat.

There is no hard line rule that says there are 40 beats, no more, no less. That being said, there's few resonant stories out there that do not hit these beats on the mark. James may find the process stifling; however, as you and I have discussed, one must master classical design before branching off into anti-structure (which is, of course, contrary to its name, highly structured).

The magic is never the beats. That is simply lazy writing. The magic is how the writer executes the beats. That's where the wheat is separated from the chaff ~ hrh