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You Don’t Need Luck To Be A Successful Screenwriter…

Hello everyone!  This time of year is all about 4-leaf clover luck and tradition – people wearing green and throwing parties. You may find yourself getting pinched if you don’t wear your green!

March is also known for “March Madness,” the college basketball tournament. Do you have a favorite team? At the Story Solution website and Facebook Page we’re always on your team, offering tips and instructional videos and free sample script analyses to help cheer you on toward screenwriting success with the proven Hero Goal Sequences method of creating dynamic stories and exciting, character-driven screenplays.

(And just let me mention… to simplify things, I use one word, “Hero,” to mean any man, woman, child, animated flower, one-eyed one-horn flying purple people eater – or any other character who has the lead role in any story.)

Truth is, I have analyzed hundreds of films and taught hundreds of screenwriting graduate students how to identify the story sequences and elements of character needed to write award-winning scripts. And I put it all in my book, The Story Solution, which outlines the 23 Actions All Heroes Must Take to keep audiences captivated.

What makes The Story Solution stand out from the rest? Most books on screenwriting – and there are many good ones – offer advice or story-building systems based on abstract ideas. It’s frequently overlooked out there that successful visual storytelling requires you to master one overriding physical, practical concept: CHANGE. Change must flow in constant visual MOTION to drive a story forward – the same way a shark must keep moving to stay alive. And the amount of change required in any feature film story can actually be physically measured.

I have discovered that there’s a universal number of “change units” required for audiences to be drawn into any film story and really feel it.  Each of these specifically timed short sequences contain common plot developing events. Not just the this-is-where-the-hero-beats-up-all-the-bad-guys kind of advice, but a series of actions in a specific order, appearing at predictable moments in a story.

And here’s how I know I’m right.  There once lived a playwright named Sophocles who wrote a smash hit play called “Oedipus Rex”… about 2500 years ago. I took a very close look at that play (and hundreds of others) and found that the storytelling is physically structured exactly like all major hit movies are today. The human mind has ALWAYS processed and enjoyed stories in the same way. It’s how our brains are built. It’s physically how we absorb – and feel – a story.

So if you master these specific steps of change, every screenplay you write with them will have the potential to become a winner with audiences.

Hey, it may sound to you like I’m full of hot air, and well, okay, at times there might be some truth to that idea. But in this case, I’M NOT WRONG about the power of Hero Goal Sequences.

As a tenured full-professor at California State University, Northridge, I have proven it to my graduate students many hundreds of times over. Every semester, I turn Hero Goal Sequence doubters into Hero Goal Sequence believers.

But some of you may still be thinking this all sounds way too clinical and soulless. Just 23 predictable sequences? Heck no! Where’s the creativity in 23 pieces of anything?!  What about ART?

Well, may I point out that there are only 26 letters in the English language? Just 26. And people have been creating great literature with those same 26 letters for centuries.  There are only 12 keys on a piano, and those same 12 keys are merely repeated on the keyboard at an ever higher octave pitch to constitute a piano. During the last few centuries, has “the problem” of only having 12 repeating keys ever limited creativity in music?

In The Story Solution you will learn:

  • The Secrets of Story Structure. How to put together your story the way professional screenwriters do. Instead of floundering and suffering over “oh what will my hero do next???” you will KNOW what they need to do next. By identifying the 23 Actions All Heroes Must Take, building your story will become a clear and specifically coached process for creating every two to seven page sequence in your script – and you’ll be constructing the right actions in your story to shape full, memorable heroes and heroines that audiences will love to follow.

  • How to Create Dynamic Characters. Having an engaging story is essential. But what’s a story without vivid characters bringing it to life? Learn to write dynamic characters that hook your viewers and make them burn to know what those characters will do next.

  • Rewriting skills. learn how to shape and test every scene and sequence to make sure they all move your story and characters forward to a fulfilling climax. The Story Solution is filled with tips and methods to make your rewriting process far less painful and much more rewarding.

Other key tools revealed:

  • How to write Powerful Dialogue

  • How to choose the best Character Categories to use in your story

  • How to Spot and Fix Story Problems before they become baked in

  • The secret to writing Powerful Character Growth.

And oh so much more.


BY THE WAY – The Story Solution HAS ONCE AGAIN HIT #1 BEST SELLER IN THREE BOOK CATEGORIES on CHINA AMAZON: Film and TV – Animation – Graphic Novels

So deeply pleased and excited. Thanks, China!

All Very Best Wishes,


About The Story Solution: Eric Edson’s The Story Solution provides screenwriting tips for those interested in screenplay writing. Seen as one of the best books on screenwriting and currently #1 in its category on China Amazon, Edson outlines 23 actions used to create three dimensional heroes. Visit the website at  https://www.thestorysolution.com to learn about writing a movie script. “Like” the Facebook page to receive tips on scriptwriting. Call (818) 677-7808 for information about writing a movie script.

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