Table of contents
| Back cover| Pages from the book
Back cover for
Yves Lavandier's
Constructing a Story
Constructing a Story is designed for
writers of fiction in any medium. Yves Lavandier, himself a filmmaker,
breaks down the inner workings of narrative and proposes an accessible
step by step method. Whether you're an experienced writer or just
starting out, you'll be captivated by Lavandier's original and cheerful
approach to storytelling.
Learn how to build the foundations to any story, and master such tools
as milestones, the enriched structure, and thematic subplots. Discover
how to create a complete character arc, and how fractal theory can
be applied to storytelling. See how to avoid deus ex machina and easy
outs, and how to install, exploit and resolve the powerful tool of
dramatic irony. Find hundreds of tips on meaning, comedy, endings,
exposition, stakes, villains,... and the real three-act structure.
Constructing a Story takes a global view. Its many rich
story examples from around the world include The Apartment,
Casablanca, A Christmas Carol, Citizen Kane, City Lights, Cyrano de
Bergerac, A Doll's House, Groundhog Day, Hamlet, The Lives of Others,
North by Northwest, Once Upon a Time in the West, Oedipus Rex, One
Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest, 1001 Nights, Some Like It Hot, Tootsie,
and Toy Story.
Yves Lavandier was born in France in 1959. In 1983,
he moved to New York and studied filmmaking at Columbia University.
Since 1987, he has been working primarily as a screenwriter for film
and television. He's also written and directed ten shorts and a feature
film, Yes, But... (2001), winner of several audience
awards from around the world. In addition, Yves Lavandier runs writing
workshops, works as a script consultant and is the author of the renowned
treatise Writing Drama.
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