Hunger Games (11) – Epilogue: What This Story Teaches Us… Summarized

You don’t have to like The Hunger Games – book or film – to appreciate its craft.  And more importantly, to learn from it. Most who don’t like it (some of whom were summoned forth from this series to berate me for focusing on it) are put off by the subject matter (teenagers pitted against […]

Hunger Games (10) – The “Risk Taking” in this Story

As someone who advocates writing fiction from a context of structure, mission driven elements and aesthetic discipline driven by market standards, I am sometimes pitted against others who advocate “taking risks” with our stories.  As if, somehow, these philosophies are not aligned. I suppose it depends on how you frame the issue.  Is breaking certain principles and […]

Hunger Games (9) – The Entire Story in Nine Sentences

Or… YOUR Story in Nine Critical Sentences The best way to teach a technique is to show it working relative to something you already understand.  What better way, then, than to introduce you to an immensely powerful story development tool – I hesitate to call it a trick, though it feels like magic when you […]

Hunger Games (8) — On Milestones and Meanings

In life, even in art, there are certain laws — principles, rules, fundamental truths — that govern.  That dictate motion, direction… effectiveness… success or failure.  So called “conventional wisdom” is hit or miss, it may not belong on that list of eternal, universal truth.  In fact, I can name a a fistfull of “conventional wisdoms” […]

Hunger Games 7 — Lessons From the Film Adaptation

Sometimes the coach calls timeout to lecture a player about footwork.  About mechanics. Sometimes the coach calls timeout to say a few words about how the game is approached.  About mindset.  About how to avoid getting in your own way.  To get the most of the talent you are bringing to your game. This is […]

Hunger Games 6 — The Stealth Power of Sequencing

This weekend I returned to the theater to see The Hunger Games again.  My first exposure to the story was the media… then the movie… then a casual read of the novel… then a slow analytic read-through and breakdown… and then the film again. Every phase of this immersion illuminated something new, and taught me […]

Hunger Games 5) — Examining the Part 1 Set-up Scenes

You’ve heard me say, again and again, that the First Plot Point is the most important moment in your story.  Now that we know what the FPP is (see last post), we can examine how the scenes prior to it — which comprise the entirety of the Part 1 set-up — fulfill this misson. The […]

Hunger Games (4) — From Concept to Compulsion

The word “deconstruction” best leads to learning when we tear into story structure.  Which is happening here, and will continue.  But when we look at softer essences such as concept, character and theme, the better descriptors of the intention are “observation” and “analysis.” We can look at Suzanne Collins’ structure — or the structure of […]

Hunger Games 3): A Slippery First Plot Point

One of my mantras is that the most important moment in a story is the First Plot Point. So let’s review, then apply this to The Hunger Games and lets play rainbow riches at slotzo after Why is the FPP the most important moment in a story?  Because it fully launches the hero’s story-specific journey.  Everything […]

Hunger Games 2) — The Beat Sheet

Many readers contacted me requesting the Beat Sheet be distributed up front, to be used as reference and context as the deconstruction moves forward.  (The link is to explain the form and function of a “beat sheet” as a story development and analysis tool.) Done.  You will find it — the full Hunger Games Beat […]