Hiya,
I was fortunate enough to be recently selected to attend a BBC Writersroom writing workshop at MediaCity, Salford which I attended earlier this week. There were plenty of excellent tips, advice and pointers on offer such as...
What a character needs is always different from what a character wants.
The "need" is almost always apparent at the beginning of the script.
The "want" almost always comes from the inciting incident.
Multiple protagonists need different wants.
Be individual and distinct in your voice. Write a script that nobody else could have written the way you do.
However, I figured I'd share this particular snippet in full with fellow BCGers.
Ten Questions Which Make Up A Story:
To many of us, this set of questions may seem obvious when planning your script, (or even a novel) but it's certainly a handy tool to implement.
Basically, you need to ask yourself these ten questions about your story. If you can't answer them all, then you don't yet have a complete story and so thus your script or outline needs more work.
1) Whose story is it?
2) Why should we care about the protagonist? (How have you made sure your audience will invest time with this character?)
3) What emotional state is the protagonist at the beginning? (What does he/she need?)
4) What is the inciting incident? (What event changes the protagonist's world?)
5) What does the inciting incident make the protagonist want?
6) What obstacles are in the way?
7) What is at stake?
8) What does the protagonist learn? (How does the journey change him/her?)
9) What is the moment of crisis? (What is the final test of character?)
10) How does it end?
Of course, every story is different, but these questions should make up the structure, no matter how loosely.
Hope I've been of help in some way.