Inside Story: The Power of the Transformational Arc

by Dara Marks

What is the secret to writing a great screenplay? Whether you're a beginning screenwriter or an A-list Academy Award winner, all writers struggle with the same to get to the great script inside. Step by step, Inside The Power of the Transformational Arc guides you through an extraordinary new process that helps identify your thematic intention-what your story is really about-and teaches you how to turn that intention into the driving force behind all your creative choices. The result is a profound relationship between the movement of the plot and the internal development of character, which is the foundation for the transformational arc. The transformational arc is the deeper line of structure found inside the story. Knowing how to work with the arc enhances your ability ? Express your unique point of view ? Give meaning and urgency to the line of action ? Infuse your characters with richness, subtlety, and surprise ? Develop a powerful emotional undercurrent ? Make your stories stand out and get attention A strong transformational arc is the single most important element that makes the difference between a good screenplay and a great one. Inside Story delivers what the name it's the real inside scoop on how to write a great screenplay with depth, dimension, and substance. It is a must-have for any serious screenwriter, playwright, or novelist.

Genres: Writing, Nonfiction, Film, Essays, Media Tie In, How To, Crafts

356 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 2006

Reviews

[Giorgia · Rating 5 out of 5]

Manuale eccellente, ricco di tutti i passaggi fondamentali che servono a strutturare una storia con un arco di trasformazione impeccabile. Esco da quest’esperienza di lettura assolutamente arricchita.

[Abigail Bok · Rating 5 out of 5]

Dara Marks is a highly regarded “script doctor”—for the uninitiated that means someone hired to make a mediocre movie or TV script better. She also has a doctorate in mythological studies, which gives her as you might imagine a long-horizon perspective on the art of storytelling. In Inside Story: The Power of the Transformational Arc she marries her two areas of expertise to offer a step-by-step guide to producing a script that holds the potential for a moviegoing experience that will stay with viewers long after the movie ends.

I am not a screenwriter or even an aspiring one, but this book is rich in useful advice for novelists like me, or in fact for anyone telling a story. This is no “screenwriting made easy” guide, with outdated tips about margin size, typefaces, and what kind of brackets to use around stage directions. Marks’s focus is lasered in on how to shape a story—what you tell at which stage, how to create characters that viewers can attach to, how to develop and sustain a strong theme, in short how to make a story meaningful, no matter what genre you are writing in. As she amply demonstrates, her advice works equally well for action-adventure stories as for romantic comedies, thrillers, or tragedies.

To do this she starts each chapter with a generalized concept, such as building a character or identifying your underlying theme, and after discussing the concept in broad terms, she gives examples from well-known films. The way she analyzes movies most people will recognize is one of the most enlightening and valuable aspects of this book: she explains why a particular story works and why it doesn’t, where the author is doing something right and where he or she has gone astray. Later in the book she takes the reader through the arc of a story step by step, revealing what’s important at each stage—the concept-establishing first act, the busy and eventful second act, and the cathartic and transformative third. Her advice moves seamlessly from the general to the particular and back to the general, illuminating both the mechanics and the uniqueness of any story. It’s not just a how-to, but a why-to.

I found this book tremendously valuable in its approach, full of both thought-provoking and actionable advice. I recommend it for anyone who tells stories, regardless of your genre or medium.

[Akemichan · Rating 3 out of 5]

Nonostante abbia sentito consigliare questo libro come fonte principale per la narratologia, io purtroppo non sono riuscita ad apprezzarlo appieno.

Intendiamoci, le informazioni che fornisce riguardo ai tre atti della narrativa, all'importanza dell'arco di trasformazione e anche alla questione della possibile presenza di tre differenti "plot" nella creazione del tema della storia sono molto interessanti e naturalmente è facile ritrovarle in molte opere, sia letterarie sia cinematografiche.
Non ho mai amato molto l'espressione "fatal flaw" e infatti in questo libro si dimostra una cosa ben diversa da quella che il nome fa pensare (e viene purtroppo interpretata), il che lo rende invece un punto fondamentale delle storie.
Tuttavia, ho trovato l'esplorazione di tutti questi temi, anche alla luce di altra conoscenza di narratologia, parziale, sia nelle informazioni che fornisce sia nell'esposizione. Quindi in generale lo consiglio, anche se non consiglio di fermarsi a questo.

Dara Marks si concentra in particolar modo sugli "archi di trasformazione" positivi; fa solo un breve accenno alla "tragedia" (cioè quando il personaggio non supera il fatal flaw) e un altro brevissimo riferito a quando il protagonista non ha un atto di trasformazione ma è grazie a lui che ce l'hanno i personaggi secondari che girano attorno. E nessun riferimento al "corruption arc" (ho controllato, Breaking Bad è più recente del libro, ma possibile che non ci fossero altri esempi?). Ecco, per quanto io stessa preferisca simili archi di trasformazione (e addirittura quando il fatal flaw è davvero un difetto, vedi Malta dei Mercanti di Borgomago) credo che un libro di narratologia debba mettere sullo stesso piano tutti i possibili archi di trasformazione esistente, ognuno dei quali ha le sue particolarità.

Inoltre, Dara Marks utilizza diversi casi studio per illustrare come funziona nella pratica l'arco di trasformazione e quello che gli gira attorno. Questa cosa, che in teoria dovrebbe essere utilissima ad assimilare i concetti teorici (che sono belli pesi e concentrati) si è rivelata per me un'arma a doppio taglio, perché non sono riuscita a fidarmi del giudizio critico che l'autrice dà agli esempi che porta.
Per dire, secondo lei "Salvate il soldato Ryan" non ha una tematica di fondo chiara e le due scene iniziali sono troppo diverse tra loro, cosa che appunto confonde lo spettatore sul tema; io invece credo che sia proprio la contrapposizione tra la scena di guerra (soldati considerati meri numeri) e la decisione di salvare un unico fratello sopravvissuto (soldato considerato nella sua unicità) definisca immediatamente il tema del film.
Questo non essere d'accordo con lei mi ha portato a dubitare che le cose che diceva per altre storie fossero corrette. Mi ha colpito soprattutto quello riguardo il film "Romancing the stone", perché lei sostiene che il tema sia il "fidarsi dell'amore" e quindi critica il finale che sembra stabilire invece che la protagonista possa star bene anche da sola. Mi chiedo se invece non fosse questo il vero tema del film, cioè per poter aprire le porte al vero amore si deve prima stare bene con se stessi.
La mia non vuole essere presunzione: è solo che credo che non esistano interpretazioni universali riguardo alle storie e il fatto che questi due film succitati siano stati apprezzati dal pubblico registra meglio che forse altre persone l'hanno vista diversa da Dara Marks e che anche se lei, alla fine della fiera, avesse ragione, forse non sono le storie perfette quelle che poi le persone amano (d'altronde, ho molti esempi di personaggi che non hanno archi di trasformazione eppure sono molto amati).
Ma in generale mi dispiace che gli esempi non abbiano funzionato per me, perché il tema di fondo è molto complesso e gli esempi sarebbero serviti, ma tra le opinioni personali e la prolissità hanno finito per annoiarmi invece che spingermi a comprendere meglio la teoria.

[David Leroy · Rating 5 out of 5]

The past two years I have been reading practically everything worth reading on screenplay writing, not because I actually write screenplays, but because the world of MFA creative writing glosses over plot so fast that it offers very little in the way of story development. Inside Story stands far above anything so far that I have read because it offers a unique language for story that blends together psychology, and plot in a way that I have never seen in any other book. The Hero's Journey is far more than just a sequence of events, and Dara breaks that out in this book beautifully. This is a must have book in my opinion if you write screenplays, or novels and short stories.

[Dara B]

Are you in the Known or Unknown quadrant in your life at this very moment? Dying of exhaustion or approaching renewal? Does your C story help you or prevent you from getting ahead in your A story? Those are the kinds of questions I asked myself as I was reading Dara Marks’s book.

I am not a script writer but I am a great believer in interdisciplinarity. I read this book for thoughts on writing in general and also because it talks a lot about how transformation occurs in life. For those purposes, it was a great reading.

Excited as I was about the material, I was actually arguing a lot with the book when it came to the movies. The author is infinitely more informed on the topic than I am, however she seems to write about Hollywood movies primarily. I believe that in some great indie movies, particularly by younger directors/screenwriters, different kind of magic is at work. I would also love to see more on TV series screenwriting - the story there has move protagonists (think Game of Thrones) and much more time to develop, so surely the process is somewhat different.

What was great though is how therapeutic the reading was. Script writing distills from life and then this knowledge can be used in life again when each of us embarks on our own transformational journey.

[Letizia · Rating 4 out of 5]

Pretty good. At first I wasn't impressed, really, but I have to admit that when it gets technical it is definitely worth reading. The author is very capable of understanding the profound link of human transformation and the way it is channeled in story writing. Basically, when you read this book, you even understand something more about life, but I guess the point is you will be able to find the faults in your writing and maybe even fix it.

[Boze Herrington · Rating 4 out of 5]

"When we say that a person has depth or soul, it is usually in reference to someone who has been to these depths and has retrieved the lost pieces of themselves. Their lives have been enriched with meaning and purpose because in their darkest hours, when the rest of life was silenced, they were able to hear the whisperings of their inner spirit, the wise old sage Teiresias, who told them how to find their way home again."

[Clarissa · Rating 5 out of 5]

Bellissima rilettura in italiano rovinata solo dalla punteggiatura messa a caso.

[Paula · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is a decent book about writing a character driven story line. It was interesting. The author does the job of pointing out the various places in the plot line in which the character arc and the external plot arc need to achieve crisis. The weak point in the book is that she adds a third arc that is about relationships. While it makes sense that the internal arc needs both an external plot as well as a relationship arc in order to exhibit growth or collapse, the author doesn't make this very clear. She uses confusing terminology, saying that the external plot and relationship need to play out the Theme she doesn't make clear how the Theme relates to the internal plot. Sometimes it seems as if they are the same thing, and sometimes two separate things on which all three story arcs depend. Overall, it is probably a useful read, but I wish the author had taken more care in clarifying her basic ideas.

[Liz Fenwick · Rating 5 out of 5]

Love this book. There is just so much to take in and absorb from this book that I'm reading it a second time. I wouldn't recommend it for a beginning writer as I think it helps to understand her concepts if you have wrestled through a few stories first...you can them apply it or not to what you have or haven't done. It is definitely a book to have in your writer's toolbox.

[Fiona Harper · Rating 5 out of 5]

Fabulous book on writing - one of the best I've read in years. It took some of the things I'd worked out for myself and linked them to other ideas, developed them further... There's so much in this book I'm reading it through a second time!

[Courtney · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a fantastic text on screenwriting process. I highly recommend giving it a read if you'd like to take your story writing to the next level or examine whether you could/should be doing anything differently.
(Now, if only my screenwriting professor would apply Marks's concepts in class...)

[Debora · Rating 5 out of 5]

L'ho studiato, l'ho letto e riletto e sono convinta che per capire come si raccontano le storie oggi sia fondamentale. Non è la Sacra Scrittura e come strumento operativo ho trovato più utile Anatomia di una storia di Truby, ma è la base per comprendere tanti altri manuali e corsi.

[Jennifer · Rating 5 out of 5]

Fabulous screenplay craft book! Highly recommended.

[Nicole · Rating 4 out of 5]

Insightful and practical. Just what I needed to work through my novel.

[Sadie · Rating 5 out of 5]

Brilliant book - just as applicable to writing novels. A real eye opener for me - loved her theory on thematic structure.

[Hologram Dystopia · Rating 5 out of 5]

Actual rating: 4.5 stars. Super useful and recommended, even if some chapters are not as clear as I wish they were. I will re-read it for sure.
A must for any aspiring author, I'd say.

[Liliana Marchesi · Rating 5 out of 5]

Un libro da cui si può apprendere molto sull'arte della costruzione di un personaggio e della sua storia. Esempi chiari aiutano la comprensione dei concetti esposti. Sotto certi versi, questo libro è stato per me un "turning point" che mi ha sicuramente fatto venire voglia di imparare e scavare ancora più a fondo nella psiche dei miei personaggi.
Consigliatissimo!

[Shervin · Rating 4 out of 5]

There are a lot of really valuable ideas in this book that you don't find discussed at length in other writing craft books, but I do think those ideas could have been much better organized. Perhaps if Marks had been more disciplined and streamlined in her approach this book would be more of an essential text on the topic than it is.

I particularly like that Marks says "write what you know" only applies to the theme of your story, not the actual milieu in which your story is set. You can't write what you don't know to be true thematically, but you can write about aliens and space cowboys. Also, that the internal journey of a character is what allows for external conflicts to resonate with deeper meaning.

I think her reminder not to change theme halfway through a movie should be plastered in every writer's room. She cites "Million Dollar Baby" as an example of this, which I haven't seen, but her spoiler filled analysis convinced me they did fumble the heart of that film. It reminded me of Oppenheimer, which I feel also makes this mistake, changing its core moral question halfway through, making the movie's third act less effective for me.

I also like what she says about Hollywood mistaking outer stakes as the reason people lean in, when it's the emotional stakes that resonate deepest and allow for stories to linger in the audience's mind. I wish she gave more compelling examples of this, but I kind of did my own thought experiment: say, a criminal might be trying to avoid going to jail. That alone creates some outer stakes to the story, but if said criminal sees themselves as a good, committed parent and their kid will go to foster care if they go to jail, now getting caught has emotional resonance and isn't just external but internal. Throughout the book, Marks drives home the point that stakes need to be tied to a character's flaws / values / thematic heart. I think I basically agree.

I do wish she sometimes used better examples to illustrate her ideas. It doesn't help matters that I don't like "Ordinary People," but she somehow manages to use that film more than any other to prove her points. Her criticisms of films like "The Pianist" (which she says is about a character enduring terrible events, but not testing said character's flaws, i.e. he's not culpable in any way but a victim) were valid, but ignored the fact that "The Pianist" is still a much better film than some of the other examples she uses to prove her points about the transformational arc.

All things being equal, I think Marks' ideas will help a screenplay or story. But Marks falls into the familiar trap that many screenwriting gurus do, in ignoring the fact that a structurally flawed film can still outshine a better structured film if it's otherwise executed at a much higher level.

[S. Taylor · Rating 5 out of 5]

The Inside Story gave my writing a jolt of emotional current.
This is one of the big three books to read is you plan on writing fiction. Dara Marks, originally a script consultant, lays the process of breaking down the components of storytelling into sensible chunks and then delves into the "why" within fiction. Touching on the myth or archetypes of characters, she uncovers the different strands, lines, that simutaneously evolve internally and externally. Again and again, from a simple view of structure, Ms. Marks continues to add more and more components enriching plot by defining themes/premise, defining character needs and want, problmes (obstacles and flaws). This doesn't mean that absorbing her ideas was easily done, on the first pass. To chew and digest, piece by piece required plug and play as well as moments of contemplation or not self-evaluation. Critical. Work. Yet if done during the writing process, oh brother, did my own story take on a richer, layered effect. Ms. Marks uses the three-act division so that it was possible to move through examples provided (movies) and then apply to my own writing, pushing my own characters and plot into a sensible boost and then rotation so that, a glimmer at least, of an arc (change for the better) was delivered. I've read this book twice and still go back, returning and come away with another morsel.

[Christy · Rating 5 out of 5]

What is the secret to writing a great screenplay? Whether you're a beginning screenwriter or an A-list Academy Award winner, all writers struggle with the same thing: to get to the great script inside. Step by step, Inside Story: The Power of the Transformational Arc guides you through an extraordinary new process that helps identify your thematic intention-what your story is really about-and teaches you how to turn that intention into the driving force behind all your creative choices. The result is a profound relationship between the movement of the plot and the internal development of character, which is the foundation for the transformational arc. The transformational arc is the deeper line of structure found inside the story. Knowing how to work with the arc enhances your ability to: ? Express your unique point of view ? Give meaning and urgency to the line of action ? Infuse your characters with richness, subtlety, and surprise ? Develop a powerful emotional undercurrent ? Make your stories stand out and get attention A strong transformational arc is the single most important element that makes the difference between a good screenplay and a great one. Inside Story delivers what the name implies: it's the real inside scoop on how to write a great screenplay with depth, dimension, and substance. It is a must-have for any serious screenwriter, playwright, or novelist.

[Charlotte Tressler · Rating 5 out of 5]

Inside Story is a nuts-and-bolts tutorial on creating a story that follows the classical hero's journey without insisting that the writer conform to a formulaic structure. Using case studies of three popular films, plus references to countless others, Dara Marks shows us how to lead our protagonist on a believable story arc that will satisfy any reader or viewer.
This book could be used as the sole textbook for a semester-long film studies class. I'm creating my own private, one-person class by requesting most of the films it references from my local library. It seems I may not be the only person to think of this; there's a waiting list for several of the titles!
Inside Story is a must-read for any writer, not just screenwriters.

[Kevin Rhodes · Rating 5 out of 5]

I try not to be too much of a wannabe in choosing which screenwriting and storytelling books to read, but this one came highly recommended and has proven to be an essential. It offers specific, grind-it-out/do the work advice on what works and what doesn't, but beyond that, it fully captures the transformational story arc. (That's what I write -- more than that, it's what I live.) The combination is hugely powerful -- it combines skill sharpening with professional and personal growth. And Dara Marks does it all with welcome doses of empathy, sympathy, and sometimes gorgeous prose that makes you put the book down and take a moment to let it soak through your soul.

[Kimberly Jayne · Rating 5 out of 5]

Best book on plotting very affecting and compelling stories

I am not a screenwriter; I'm a novelist. Still, this book and its lessons on plotting have been the best of all the instructional books I've ever read on writing--and I've read many. Marks has a wonderfully clear way of imparting the lessons on various aspects of story development, and all of it resonated deeply. I'm using this book to help me finish up a new novel, and I think my story is going to be tremendously more compelling as a result of learning and really internalizing the story elements Marks teaches. Thank you, Dara Marks, for this book!

[Penney Peirce · Rating 5 out of 5]

Even though I don't think I'll write a screenplay, this is an accessible, extremely well-written guide to understanding the structure of films, and plots in general. It's important to realize what makes for a transformational story vs one where the protagonist never changes from beginning to end. Why is it that transformation really captures our attention? Dara gives us many examples of films we know that demonstrate what she's talking about. It's helped me understand story-telling in much more detail.

[Keir Challinor · Rating 5 out of 5]

To me this is the best book for any screenwriter. Although Save The Cat does go over basics of writing a feature screenplay. Dara Marks helps break down Plot, Character, and Theme, while also going over each section of the three act structure including the Set Up, Middle, and climax of story. I have read this book three times and each time is a new experience. If you ever were interested in writing a script but not sure where to start I would really recommend this book.

[Caitlin · Rating 5 out of 5]

Gets to the Heart of Story

While I’ve read dozens of books on storytelling, this one shows how braiding A, B, and C storylines together strengthens the story at each plot point. I appreciated that the author includes examples of beloved, successful movies that aren’t “perfect” and how they could have been strengthened as well.
A=external need
B=internal need
C=relationship

[J.D. · Rating 5 out of 5]

I love, love, LOVE this book. Once you get the hang of outlining a screenplay, this book takes you one step further and puts you inside your character's heads. You learn about motivation and how it serves to help your story along. I wish I had come across this book a lot sooner than I did!

[George Bloom · Rating 5 out of 5]

I work in Hollywood and sold one movie to a studio. This is a must read to keep yourself tuned up. It lays out key ingredients for a good screenplay. There are a few others like "Save the Cat" that also should be part of your writers diet.

[Dee Chilton · Rating 5 out of 5]

I have read many screenwriting and writing books over the years and, whilst I always get something good from every one of them I read, this one rates as one of my all time favourites. I would highly recommend it to any writer.