The Sequence Approach
Over the weekend, we had a discussion in the Writing Question comments about the “sequence approach” to busting a screenplay’s story structure. I remembered a Done Deal Pro interview with screenwriter Ryan Condal. He doesn’t have any produced writing credits yet, but that’s only because he sold his first spec script in 2008:
Ryan Condal was born and raised in Hasbrouck Heights, New Jersey. He attended Villanova University in Pennsylvania, where he received his degree in Accountancy in 2001. After spending six years working in pharmaceutical advertising, Ryan made his first sale with his script Galahad to The Film Department in early 2008. Since then, he’s been hired by Warner Bros. to pen the adaptation of Ocean, a graphic novel by Warren Ellis, for Nick Wechsler Productions. He was recently hired by Spyglass Entertainment and Film 44 to write Hercules, a comic book miniseries by Radical Comics that Peter Berg is attached to direct.
Anyway in the interview, Condal talks about the sequence approach:
You are using the sequencing method as I understand it to plot out your scripts first? Can you let people know what the sequence method is for those who have never worked with it? And can you talk about how it helps you plan what to write?
Sequencing is gold. I hesitate to even talk about it, lest all of your readers go out and become overnight successes and put me out of work. I jest, but this approach really is that good. And there’s no magic to it, it’s just good, common sense. That’s what’s so brilliant about it.
Essentially, you want to look at your script as eight 12–15 page sequences. Act 1 and Act 3 each get 2 sequences and Act 2 gets 4. Each sequence should have a mini-goal for the protagonist (some more defined than others) and a beginning, middle and end just like your script does. That way, you end up with a sequenced script that builds on itself and creates those wonderful “peaks and valleys” that create tension/release, tension/release all throughout your story. Each sequence has a goal — what is or isn’t accomplished at the end of it — and a first, second and third act just like your script. The first act of the sequence is the setup (2 or 3 pages), then the main body is the conflict (5–9 pages) and then the resolution (1–3 pages). Each sequence has to do with the greater goal of your story, each one building on the last and raising the stakes and conflict until the story and conflict is eventually resolved at the end of the script.
The best feature of sequencing is that it makes your script digestible. Especially the second act. When you go in to outline your script, instead of having 120 pages of scary infinity, you have 8 clear sequences you need to design and create that fill out this larger structure.
It’s simple brilliance and something every writer should be doing. Beyond having a killer concept, structure is king. Sequencing will eventually lead you to bullet-proof structure. And structure will get you respect and structure will win you jobs in the room, just like I have. Bad structure means bad screenplays, even if you have great dialogue and characters (which you should also have, of course — like I said, this shit is competitive!)
The sequence approach makes a lot of sense. As noted in comments previously, one book on the subject is “Screenwriting: The Hidden Structure of Successful Screenplays” by Paul Gulino.
Every writer is different, every story is different, there’s no right way to write. Having said that, the sequence approach is an increasingly popular one in contemporary screenwriting.
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