Thread by @KevinTMorales

I’ve had a few followers inquire about my process #writing in 5 acts. Which I’ll talk about it in this thread. By the way, this is my process for outlining and I’m not suggesting you should be doing this or that my way is better than your way, or the only way. 1/

I definitely believe there are more efficient ways and ways of thinking that are better to getting scripts finished which is priority 1 IMO. But there are people who have long processes and if you enjoy exploring through the writing and it’s more of hobby then go for it. 2/

But in my experience the real difference between amateurs or hobby writers and professionals is professionals finish. More often than not. Professionals understand a paycheck waits at the other end but only if it’s done. Hobbyists enjoy the process and maybe they finish. 3/

Which I’m not criticizing, but if you’re not writing to finish, to get feedback and improve and to “take to market,” or pitch, or go into preproduction then it doesn’t matter what your process is. As long as you’re having fun. I’ve developed processes for myself to 4/

Get me to finished first draft quickly and with a solid foundation under my feet and sturdy architecture that won’t collapse. Then I’ll pick out colors and furniture etc. My process of writing in 5 acts does a couple things for me: 1. Breaks story into smaller parts. 5/

2. Gets me out of the Save the Cat thinking which is so fucking obvious on page you guys. It’s formula and not cinema. It’s cheap knock off. Some writers can really dress it up and make it a page turner (which is always more about scene construction then anything else.) 6/

And the world is clearly happy with a familiar story that plays out they way every similar story does but you better hope you have an unbelievable hook because the easiest reason to pass on something is because “I’ve seen it before” 7/

Kevin, shut up. We aren’t here for your philosophy we just want to hear how you break a story into five acts.
Okay okay. But there’s no page numbers here. Many of you will find this frustrating and not a recipe you can follow. 8/

Act One: the investigation of a mystery and it’s meaning and danger, we learn of some of the antecedents of the story and we see intimate drama occurring amongst primary characters who take action: the discovery of all take us to— 9/

Act Two: conflict, complications, interests clash, intrigues deepen, events accelerate in a definite direction leading to— 10/

Act Three: our characters at crossroads, dilemma and impossible choices are faced which when decisions are made and action taken lead to— 11/

Act Four: reversals, tensions mount as mistakes from first three acts bear fruit, characters’ situations could be saved if uncertain elements planned play out and of course they don’t leading to— 12/

Act Five: catastrophe and disaster, all bets are off, fates are sealed; our characters are finally transformed and the story concluded with an ending that is surprising yet inevitable.

I use this structure planning a feature, a pilot, a season, multiple seasons... 13/

All made up of scenes or sequences that have action, conflict and reversal. 14/ End

Now time for my meeting 🤩

PS — all of this is incredibly hard. Don’t think that just cause I can articulate my process it is somehow easy. It’s nearly impossible and much of my writing process is sitting on the couch playing out thousands of variations on a scene in my head. The execution is exhausting.