Question: Where to learn more about specific narrative devices?

Another open forum question — from Jack:

I’ve read a lot of screenwriting books and very few mention anything about narrative devices beyond foreshadowing and dramatic irony… can you suggest any resources that go into more depth on the subject?

You’ve hit on something where there is a weakness in terms of coverage. Most screenwriting books attempt to hit wide areas of interest — screenplay structure being the predominant subject, but also character development, dialogue, scene-writing. The more specific subjects such as foreshadowing, irony, set-up / payoff, and so on — and this is only a guess — don’t present a wide enough subject area for publishers to get excited about publishing.

You’re more likely to find these narrower subject areas covered in screenwriting magazines. There are several of them. Here are two:

Creative Screenwriting

Script (magazine)

I would recommend checking out their archives or do a subject search on their websites — I suspect you’d find articles on some of the more narrow or refined subjects re screenwriting.

Early on as part of my own education about screenwriting, I read quite a few books about writing in general and novel-writing. They’re all in my office — I can post some of those titles tomorrow. I do seem to remember that they delved into narrower, more specialized subjects related to narrative devices.

Also there are tons of screenwriting blogs. I’ll bet if you go to JohnAugust.com, screenwriter John August’s blog, or WordPlay, screenwriters Ted Elliott & Terry Rossio’s fantastic site, you could do a subject search there and find something helpful.

But on a day when I’ve been hammering home the value of reading screenplays, I might as well be consistent and round off my comments with that same refrain. For example, if you’re curious about how foreshadowing works, go through your memories of movies you’ve seen and recall some good examples of that narrative device. Then read the script (most of them are available for free online). See how the writers handled it. 

I’m sure other GITS readers will have suggestions.

Comment Archive