I think we all can agree that telling a fictional story requires a lot of prep work and planning. You want to make sure every aspect of your screenplay withstands audience scrutiny and makes it through the system to be greenlit and reach as many screens as possible. If you've been writing screenplays or pilots for long enough, you've probably heard the "rule" about coincidences. Every story gets one, but the rest of the beats need to be earned. Today, we're going to talk about those coincidences and how you can work them to your advantage while writing. Let's dive in. Coincidences in Storytelling As I mentioned above, every movie and TV show gets one coincidence per story. Ideally, that coincidence helps set your story in motion and doesn't ring false. So how can you get the most out of your coincidences? Scott Myers from Go Into the Story had this to say about coincidences: "You do not want to be guilty of writer’s convenience for many reasons, not the least of which is it yanks the reader out of the story universe when they swat palm of hand onto forehead and proclaim, 'Writer’s convenience!!!'" John August details the coincidences in Spider-Man 3 in a blog post from 2007. August states that while coincidences in and of themselves are not a problem, in movies they're usually used as a jumping off point. A coincidence can be a great way to set your story into motion. "There’s nothing wrong with...
Published By: NoFilmSchool - Today