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The microphone in the coffee mug surprises me every time. Thanks for another great video.

I think a lot of frameworks can be rationalised after the fact. I am also suspiscious about the sameness of all the writing advice these days. Everyone seems to be reading from the same hymn sheet.

So much here, I need to rewatch! ❤

Brilliant video, Julian!! As always. :)

This stuff is GOLD. Thanks so much for this!

Could you make a video about writing backstory and how to write it well,Please :)

This is very helpful, thank you for the examples! I was wondering if movies are cutting down the Threshold Prelude parts when they adapt a novel into a movie. They have limited screen time so can't include everything. I have watched plenty of movies though where I never really felt that I truly cared about the main character. The lack of movies showing enough of the Threshold Prelude points could be part of the problem.

Disney movies however are known for doing an excellent job of attaching viewers to characters quickly though, so it would be awesome if you could consider showing Disney examples in your future videos, too! (As well as the others I mentioned in a comment on another video haha) I can't wait to see more!!! 🙌 I could watch these all day! The examples really help me grasp the concepts better and help me see possibilities for my own writing. Thank you!

Gold !!!

The pillars remind me of Dwight Swain’s scene-sequel sequence structure. He wrote about it in his book, Techniques of the Selling Writer, in 1973. I might combine the two.

Great video! Thank you! ❤
Off topic, I'm super curious about what is in your cup!

You're prelude, sounds to me, like your protagonist's interior struggles, goals, obstacles etc. An evaluation of where he fist in the world, and an opportunity to discribe and immerse us into that world. The inciting incident might be brooming in there or, in fact, nowhere to be seen yet.

At least, The Threshold Prelude will be stuck in my brain :) Thanks Julian! Quick question: Has anything changed in workbook and do I need to repurchase it?

I love how helpful this is...but I have a few bones to pick, just because I see how some of what you have here has adopted story structure ideas that I find flawed and it seems a shame when most of it is brilliant, to rehash and reuse old things that were never that great to begin witn:

At 13 minutes about the choice with the flawed action, I know the Fatal Flaw is a term used in this way, but I don't call that behaviour from Katniss of holding her tongue, a real decision, because if she didn't she'd die.

The " Fatal Flaw" as a term is flawed.

I agree with Lisa Cron of Story Genius about that.

And Harry doesn't really make a decision either.

I think it's not good to keep using these flawed terms like Fatal Flaw. And "misbelief" also is flawed ( Story Genius uses" misbelief" , Cron admits it's not perfect, but better than Fatal Flaw ,.
Because "mis" implies its an error,), but in Katnisses case it's the only decision because she can't at this point, due to her family, etc fight the Government or flee The Seam.

I'm not trying to be argumentative.

I saw the comment where you're writing a book...and I hope you think about this Fatal Flaw thing some more and come up with an accurate more applicable and versatile term we can all use, as I'm sick of people with otherwise great advice, confusing things by using these kinds of terms.

It's a tall ask to come up with a new, better term, but it would be helpful..

I'm especially interested because I'm writing a near future sci fi where my MC is in a similar situation to Katniss, where the Government has the citizens tightly controlled, but even going so far as monitoring what they think with biodigital convergence.

My characters choices aren't really choices like Katniss's choice isn't a choice. It's only survival.

This suggests a passive character, and passive characters are supposed to be weak and not what writers want, but yet  The Hunger Games was wildly popular regardless, and I think it's because life is often like this. A relatable situation (of not having a choice and being stuck, ) is more important for reader connection than them " making a choice".

The whole choice thing...for some reason it's gained hold as an important element ofmstory structure but it isn't.

And Katnisses " choice" to hold her tongue isn't a choice either.

She can't fight any of it...to choose all those things...leav8ng the seam with Gale, os speaking her mind, could kill her and her family. And if that happened there would be no atory.

I hope you knwo where I'm coming from.

I think this framework is really interesting and I want to invest more time utilising it and buy the book...but I think it deserves to improve on the old terms like Fatal Flaw...and try to unravel what that kind of element really should mean and stand for, rather than try to squeeze the example characters to fit.

I loved The Hunger Games... But I would call Katnisses decision to be how she was survival ...maybe a term referring to holding into the Status Quo work work.

In a negative arc the flawed action in the prelude climax may make more sense as a correct action that is set up to become increasingly difficult to commit to.

This seems like a very interesting way to deal with what I would call the "status quo" section of the story.

now, I'm curious how this works with multiple story arcs in one story. That is to say there is an overarching story across my trilogy. And this works well for starting the first book. But in those same scenes, I need to do another set for the overarching story too, right?

Also, I'm curious how you might change this for writing the initial episode of a Soap Opera style story. Would you actually put in the dilemma? or just start with the moment of crisis and contemplation when the next storyline starts in the middle of act 2?

Just starting NaNoWriMo and this video is brilliant. New to your channel but glad I'm here! Keep up the good work.

When is the Storypillar book coming out? :)

Save the Cat! Writes a Novel using one of the examples analysed by Jessica Brody in the book.

How would you make the exposition at the start of the novel interesting enough to make the readers keep reading?