Writing Helperz

PADDIE CHAYEVSKY'S FIVE QUESTIONS or Sidney Aaron Chayefsky -> uber Writer died in 1981

1) Who is the protagonist?
2) What does he want? (His objective/goal)
3) What or who is keeping him from getting it?
4) What do WE as the readers want for him? (Engage the audience)
5) How does he get it? (The plot)

THE 10 COMMANDMENTS OF THRILLERS

1) Thou shalt not take the crisis out of the protagonist's hands.
2) Thou shalt not make life easy for the protagonists.
3) Thou shalt not give exposition for exposition's sake - dramatise it.
4) Thou shalt not use false mystery or cheap surprise.
5) Thou shalt respect the audience.
6) Thou shalt know thy world as God knows this one.
7) Thou shalt not complicate when complexity is better.
8) Thou shalt seek the end of the line, taking characters to the farthest depths of conflict imaginable within the story's own realm of probability.
9) Thou shalt not write on the nose - put a subtext under every text.
10) Thou shalt rewrite.