EightCo-Creating Story and Structure

“We’re only interested in one thing, Bart. Can you tell a story? Can you make us laugh? Can you make us cry? Can you make us want to break out in joyous song? Is that more than one thing? Okay!”

—Jack Lipnick (Michael Lerner), Barton Fink

If you’ve answered Ganz & Mandel’s question “Who are our eyes on this journey?” you’ll need to answer a new set of questions: What is the journey? What is the path that your characters—and the audience—will be taking? What is the pattern of human change? In short, what is your story?

For us, brainstorming—or spitballing—the broad strokes of our story is the most exhilarating part of the process. Anything’s possible at this point. And all the advantages of collaboration ...

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