This page might be useful if you're developing a narrative project, such as a:

• Storyboard
• Animatic
• Video game
• Comic
• Augmented reality game (ARG)
• Immersive multimedia artwork

For any of these, you could prioritize visual design and illustration — in which case, you could use something like ChatGPT to generate a serviceable story and get right to development. But if you're sincerely interested in world-building, crafting compelling characters, and engaging stories, then read on!

See the animation page for examples and guidance on creating storyboards and animatics.

Resources

• Books:

  • Story: Style, Structure, Substance, and the Principles of Screenwriting by Robert McKee — A great book on narrative arcs, character development, and structure.
  • Save the Cat!: The Last Book on Screenwriting you'll ever need by Blake Snyder — Another popular screenwriting book.
  • Meander, Sprial, Explode: Design and Pattern in Narrative by Jane Alison — A fascinating book about non-linear and unusual "shapes" for stories.
  • Understanding Comics by Scott McCloud — The definitive guide to the grammar and storytelling possibilities of comics. (Should really be required reading for anyone involved in picture-making or creative work.)

• Screenplay Examples

  • The Script Lab — Collection of film and TV scripts.
  • Studio Binder — A collection of movie screenplays.
  • Guide to screenplay formatting

1. Exploration

Make a list of films, shows, books, comics, or other narrative media that you love — things that might be neighbors to your own work in genre or tone. What are the visual aesthetics of these? The central character motivations? The genre conventions or tropes?

What can you bring to the story that's uniquely yours? Informed by your own experiences, passions, or knowledge?

How can you turn things on their head? If you have a story idea, what is something totally unexpected or problematic that could occur?

Generative AI tools like ChatGPT and Claude can be very helpful at this stage. Consider using chatbots to:

• Ask you provocative questions after sharing your initial ideas or influences.
• Generate story pitches or summaries based on your vague ideas — see what sounds cool and what doesn't.
• Help with research into locations, technology, cultures, etc.
• Provide feedback on your writing or ideas.

2. Outline

As you collect inspiration and ideas, begin to form an outline of the overall story and/or individual character arcs. There are many approaches to writing a story, but I think the strongest ones start at the character level rather than the overall "plot."

For each character, make a table like the one below to flesh them out and discover driving forces or problems that might inform the overall story.

• Character Name:
• Physical appearance:
• Personality:
• Biography/Backstory:
• What do they want? (\ surface motive, what they tell themselves)
• What do they need? (\ true motive, may be unconscious)
• What's their problem? (if there's no problem in their life, the story is over before it begins)
• What do they value above all else?
• Beginning state: (how they are at the beginning of the story arc)
• End state: (how they are at the end of the story arc)

To outline the overarching story, approach it from the act and scene levels. The overarching story should have a "beginning state" and an "end state," with characters and events progressing and changing along the way. Traditionally, each act and scene should also have such an "arc", with a turning point, or moment, when a character says or does something pivotal.

• Act 1:
  • Beginning state:
  • Turning point:
  • End state:
  • Scenes
    • Scene 1:
      • Beginning state:
      • Turning point:
      • End state:
    • Scene 2:
      • Etc.
• Act 2:
  • Etc.

Shorter stories might only have a single "act", and there are other shapes and structures to discover (see Meander, Sprial, Explode above), but this is a reliable format used in many films and books. Pay attention to the next movie you watch and see if you can detect the "turning point" of a given scene. What are the "beginning" and "end" states for the protagonist?

Some writers might outline the story to a lesser (or greater!) extent, but following this format will let you get feedback as you go. If you just start hammering it out on a blank piece of paper one chapter at a time, big picture questions may not be addressed until it's too late. Within the compressed time of a class project, you may not fully develop your story, but you can bring it into focus enough to assess the major themes and craftwork.

3. Write

Google Docs and Word are both great. Sharing a cloud document is usually best for receiving feedback from your instructor.

There are more industry-specific screenwriting apps too, that can help with accurate formatting. Such as:

• Scrivner
• Final Draft
• Writer Duet
• FadeIn

For comics, storyboards, and animatics, writing a script is still useful because its faster than drawing pictures. You can describe the visuals within the script like this:

SARAH: "No, don't go in there!"

JASON walks down the steps into the basement and sees a giant creature writhing in the shadows

JASON: "What the—"

4. Edit

As you share your work-in-progress, using comments, annotations, and history-tracking is very helpful.

You will also surly want to go back to early scenes and edit them as you develop later pieces of the story.