Story: Substance, Structure, Style, and the Principles of Screenwriting

“Pascal once wrote a long, drawn-out letter to a friend, then apologized in the postscript that he didn't have time to write a short one.”

Here the author uses a humorous (possible) historical anecdote to illustrate a complex and important truth of the writing craft: Brevity is essential to telling a good story and yet difficult to do well. Here Pascal (presumably the French philosopher Blaise Pascal) apologizes to his friend, acknowledging his own awareness of his failing and implying that the friend will be aware of it too.

“Our appetite for story is a reflection of the profound human need to grasp the patterns of living, not merely as an intellectual exercise, but within a very personal, emotional experience.”

In this chapter the author explores the universality of storytelling, which comes from an innate, primal place inside of us. We share stories as a way of making sense of the world around us, of our perception of that world, and of our place in it.

“To retreat behind the notion that the audience simply wants to dump its troubles at the door and escape reality is a cowardly abandonment of the artist's responsibility. Story isn't a flight from reality but a vehicle that carries us on our search for reality, our best effort to make sense out of the anarchy of existence.”

This is the first mention of “the artist’s responsibility,” a theme that echoes throughout the text. “Escapism” is an oversimplification of the art of storytelling, and to indulge in it for its own sake is to deny what it is to be an artist. Here the author begins to introduce the reader to their duty as a writer, which intersects with the idea that story—even when it is superficially fantastical—engages with real-world truths about human existence.