INT. THE ARCHIVE – ALL HOURS
Episodes
88 conversations about how stories work, from character and theme to every event in the Story Blueprint.
Showing all 88 episodes
Pitch Materials
Season 2 ends where every finished script has to go next: out into the world. How do you compress 120 pages into one sentence someone will remember? Adam and Devin walk through…
Polishing and Wordsmithing
You finished a draft. Celebrate, then get it ready for readers. Adam and Devin split the last stage into two passes. Polishing is reworking scenes and the rhythm of the piece…
Road Trip 1 - Autumn Updates
A lo-fi episode recorded while both hosts were driving. With no notes, Adam and Devin catch up on what they've been working on during the pandemic, from the Story Blueprint app to…
Theme Builder
You don't need to know your theme before you write. Adam and Devin both used to force stories around a theme chosen up front; now they let the first draft reveal it. In this…
Scene Builder
How do you fix a scene that isn't working, or build one from scratch? Continuing the season's last stretch on refining your first draft, Adam and Devin zoom in from movements to…
Alternate Movement Structures
With the Story Blueprint's events covered, Adam and Devin turn to fixing the first draft you've built. This episode is about using the movement system as a diagnostic tool: break…
Final Image, Final Words
For their 75th episode, their "diamond anniversary," Adam and Devin reach the last event of the Story Blueprint: the final image and final words. It's the picture on the puzzle…
Tying Up Loose Ends
Tying up loose ends is the second-to-last event of the Story Blueprint: the resolution, where every setup gets its payoff and every storyline gets its due, saving one for the…
New Status Quo
The new status quo is where your story comes full circle. Your hero returns to their known world, or arrives somewhere new, and we see how different they are from the person we…
Home Alone Breakdown (Part 1)
For their Christmas breakdown, Adam and Devin take apart *Home Alone*, written by John Hughes and directed by Chris Columbus. Part one covers the overview, the five plots, and the…
Home Alone Breakdown (Part 2)
Adam and Devin finish their *Home Alone* breakdown, from the crisis to the resolution. Along the way they discover that the climax works best seen from the Wet Bandits' point of…
Road Back
The road back, also called the return or the journey home, is the third event of Movement 6 and the last event before the known world. Your hero has attained, or failed to attain…
Objective Attained
The objective attained, or outcome, comes right after the now or never. It's the answer to the question your story posed in Movement 1: did your hero achieve their objective or…
Climax 3 – Now or Never
Now or never is the third part of the climax and the first event of Movement 6, the final movement of the Story Blueprint. It's do or die: if your hero doesn't act now, they'll…
Climax 2 – Breakthrough – Crossing the Fifth Threshold
The breakthrough is the second part of the climax and the fifth threshold, the end of Movement 5. In the middle of the showdown, your hero has an aha moment: the last piece of the…
Climax 1 – Showdown
The showdown is the first part of the three-part climax, followed by the breakthrough and the now or never. Your hero comes face to face with the antagonist, or the thing they…
Enemies Gain Ground
Enemies gain ground is the third event of Movement 5, right before the climax. The antagonist sends their best, the varsity team instead of the JV squad, and the pressure, the…
Things Go Wrong
Things go wrong is the second event of Movement 5. Your hero has put their plan into action, and inevitably, it gets disrupted. What matters now is how they respond. After the…
Putting the Plan into Action
Putting the plan into action is the first event of Movement 5 and Act 3, the first domino your hero tips on purpose. After the dark, internal work of Movement 4, this should feel…
Re-choosal of the Quest – Fourth Threshold
The re-choosal of the quest ends Movement 4 and Act 2, crossing the fourth threshold into the climax. After the darkest moment, the fall of the heart wall and the reassessment…
Reassessment
Reassessment, also called the goal refocused, comes near the end of Act 2. Your hero is coming out of the darkest moment and the fall of the heart wall with clarity: out of…
Fall of the Heart Wall
The fall of the heart wall comes right after the hero's darkest moment, and the two work as a pair. In the darkest moment, your hero recognizes the darkness inside; here they find…
Hero's Darkest Moment
The hero's darkest moment, also called the dark night of the soul, all seems lost or all is lost, sits in the middle of Movement 4. It's the showdown between your hero and the…
Aftermath
The aftermath follows the escape in Movement 4. Your hero has survived the crisis and found somewhere safe to catch their breath, but it's the eye of the hurricane: danger lies…
Escape
The escape opens Movement 4, the eye of the hurricane between the crisis and your hero's recovery. Your hero gets away from the danger of the crisis, but the threat isn't gone…
Crisis – Crossing the Third Threshold
The crisis is the third threshold and the center of the Story Blueprint, also called the tipping point, the midpoint or your hero's midterm exam. It's the fulcrum the whole story…
Approaching the Inmost Cave
Approaching the inmost cave is the last event before the crisis at the center of your story. The name comes from Christopher Vogler's *The Writer's Journey*: your hero is working…
New Direction
New direction, also called the adventure opens up, is the third event of Movement 3. Armed with what they discovered, your hero realizes they can't keep stumbling forward: they…
New Discovery
New discovery is the second event of Movement 3. Things have calmed down after the close call, and now something your hero learns, about the world, the antagonist, their…
Close Call
The close call opens Movement 3, the build from the danger zone to the crisis at the middle of your story. Your hero has just survived their first real brush with the antagonist…
Crossing Into the Danger Zone – Second Threshold
Crossing into the danger zone is the second threshold of your story and the end of Movement 2. It's the "until" in "it's all fun and games until…": something external happens that…
Approaching the Danger Zone
Approaching the danger zone is where the playful part of Act 2 gets refocused. As your hero nears the second threshold, they get their first real glimpse of the antagonist's…
Rules and Tools
Rules and tools is where your hero learns the mythology of the unknown world: how it works, what's dangerous, and what they'll have to work with. A tool can be an object, a skill…
Watering Hole
For their 50th episode, Adam and Devin take on one of their favorite events: the watering hole. It's the communal place of your story's world, whether that's a bar, a cafeteria, a…
First Day of School
The first day of school opens Act 2 and Movement 2. Your hero has crossed into the unknown world and is still in reaction mode: watching, gathering information, working out who…
Crossing the First Threshold
Crossing the first threshold is the climax of Act 1 and the last event of Movement 1 in the Story Blueprint: the moment your hero leaves the known world for the unknown, moving…
Choosal of Call
The choosal of the call to quest is the moment your hero agrees to leave their comfort zone. Even a hero who seems thrown into the story, or a reluctant one acting out of…
Refusal of Call
The call to quest is about the journey and the antagonist. The refusal of the call is about your hero. It's the moment to show the audience what's holding your hero back…
Call to Quest
The call to quest, also known as the call to adventure, is the fourth event of Act 1: the moment a quest, challenge or invitation is put in front of your hero. It's one of Devin's…
Inciting Incident
The inciting incident is the third event of Act 1: the moment the story is set in motion, or, as Devin puts it, the first domino tipping over. Adam likes calling it the "exciting…
Known World Routine
The known world routine is the second event of Act 1, sometimes called the ordinary world or, as Adam likes to put it, the comfort zone. It shows your hero's everyday world and…
The Hook
The hook is the first event of Act 1, and for Devin it's the most important event in any story: the first impression of the world you've built, and the moment your audience…
Campfire Chat 2: Youssef Kerkour (Part 1)
Adam's old friend from Bard College, actor Youssef Kerkour, joins Adam and Devin around the virtual campfire from a film set in Morocco. Youssef was the lead in Adam's first…
Campfire Chat 2: Youssef Kerkour (Part 2)
Youssef Kerkour returns to talk about specific projects: a fight scene with Jason Statham in *Redemption*, the live single-take film *Lost in London*, Tom Clancy's *Jack Ryan*…
Story Breakdown: National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation (Part 1)
The first episode of StoryOsophy's breakdown series, in which Adam and Devin take a film apart event by event after preparing separately. They start with a Christmas favorite…
Story Breakdown: National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation (Part 2)
Adam and Devin finish their *Christmas Vacation* breakdown, covering acts two and three. They find that John Hughes stretches the road of trials, pushes the crisis late, and packs…
Story Blueprint Overview
This is the map for the rest of Season 2. Adam and Devin walk through the entire Story Blueprint, all six movements, three acts and roughly 30 story events, from the hook to the…
Movement 6 (Act 3)
The last movement is a cool-down. Movement 6 starts at the height of your climax and brings the story to a swift, meaningful finish. Devin calls it as important as Movement 1…
Movement 5 (Act 3)
Movement 5 opens Act 3. Your hero has recovered, re-chosen the quest and found their focus, and now the story picks up speed toward the climax. Adam and Devin walk through the…
Campfire Chat: Josh Stifter
Animator, writer and filmmaker Josh Stifter was one of five filmmakers Robert Rodriguez chose for *Rebel Without a Crew*, a docuseries in which each made a feature for $7,000 in…
Movement 4 (Act 2)
After the midpoint crisis comes the eye of the hurricane. Movement 4 is quieter on the outside and stormy on the inside. The group falls apart, the hero hits bottom, and then…
Movement 3 (Act 2)
Movement 3 is where the middle of your story is won or lost. Your hero is now in the danger zone, the stakes are higher than ever, and everything builds to the midpoint: the…
Movement 2 (Act 2)
Your hero has crossed the first threshold. Now what? Movement 2 begins Act 2 and takes the hero from out of their comfort zone into the danger zone. Adam and Devin compare it to…
Movement 1 (Act 1)
Movement 1 is your story's handshake. It takes your hero from their comfort zone out of it, and it sets up everything: tone, the hero, their internal obstacle, the objective and…
Acts and Movements
Acts are the largest divisions of a story, and the classic three-act model has become Hollywood's formula. The trouble is the middle: Act 2 is half the story, and it often becomes…
Scenes and Sequences
Scenes are the smallest rooms in your story's house. In this episode Adam and Devin zoom all the way in: what makes a strong scene, how scenes link into sequences, and how those…
Story Architects
Structure doesn't have to feel rigid. In this episode Adam and Devin ask you to think of it as design instead: you're an architect with the same rooms everyone has, free to build…
Introduction to Story Structure
Season 2 starts here, with structure. For a lot of writers the word means something rigid, a paint-by-numbers kit that boxes in their creativity. Adam and Devin used to feel the…
Nonlinear Storytelling – Part 2
How do you scramble a story's chronology and keep its spine? Adam and Devin close Season 1 with a deep look at *Memento*, told backward in five-minute pieces by a man who can't…
Nonlinear Storytelling – Part 1
Nonlinear stories skip around in time, moving sequences out of order so the narrative has something different to say. Done well, they engage the audience like a puzzle; done…
Flashbacks and Flash-Forwards
A flashback jumps to a time before the main story; a flash-forward jumps ahead. Used lazily, a flashback covers up a structural problem or springs a reveal the audience had no…
Subplot (Part 2)
Adam and Devin finish their look at subplot with ensemble stories, where several storylines get nearly equal weight, almost "AAA" stories. Their main example is *Stranger Things*…
Subplot (Part 1)
A subplot is a secondary storyline that strengthens and deepens the main one. Writers' rooms label them A, B and C stories: the A story is the spine, the B story is secondary, and…
The Forces of Levity and Gravity
Levity is lightness, humor, making light of something; gravity is weight and seriousness. Great stories use both, building and releasing tension like a roller coaster. In this…
Objects and Filmed Media
In film and TV, symbols can sit quietly in the background: a painting on a wall, the color of a jacket, a knickknack on a table. If you notice them, they deepen the story; if you…
Symbolism-Part 1-Objects and Allegory
A symbol boils a complex idea down to a single thing you can see: a logo, a ring, a fake mustache. In the first of two episodes on symbolism, Adam and Devin explore how stories…
Reversals
A reversal flips the audience's expectations: hope, then despair; victory, then defeat. Adam learned the tool from screenwriter Shane Black (*Lethal Weapon*, *The Long Kiss…
Mystery, Suspense, and Dramatic Irony
Mystery, suspense and dramatic irony aren't just genres; they're tools you can use in any story. All three come down to one question: who knows what, the audience or the…
Resolution Part 2
Adam and Devin wrap up their conversation about resolution. Adam shares his trick for keeping an audience hooked, they discuss how Lost lost track of its own questions, and they…
Resolution-Part 1
Adam and Devin begin a two-part look at resolution: how you tie up loose ends and bring every thread of a story together into an ending that means something. They look at the…
Setups and Payoffs
Fresh from a car crash, Devin joins Adam to talk about one of their favorite storytelling tools: setups and payoffs. They explain how to hide a clue in plain sight, why the…
Dialogue and Subtext (Part 2)
Adam and Devin finish their conversation about subtext with practical advice and some of the best scenes ever written. They explain why your first draft should say everything…
Dialogue and Subtext (Part 1)
With Devin fighting a cold, Adam and Devin start a two-part conversation about subtext: what lies beneath the words. They define it, explain why the gap between text and subtext…
Character Arc
Last episode covered where a character starts and ends. This one covers everything in between. Recording from freezing rooms with the heat turned off, Adam and Devin map the…
Transformation and Catharsis
What's the difference between a character's transformation and the audience's catharsis? Adam and Devin define both, argue that every story needs a transformation, and walk…
Stakes
Every writer hears "raise the stakes," but few can explain what that means. Adam and Devin define stakes as what a character stands to gain or lose, and show how they grow out of…
Tone, Style, and Genre
If theme is what a story says, tone is how it says it. Adam and Devin explore genre, tone, mood, style and voice. They talk about why genre is mostly a marketing box, why changing…
Theme
What is a story really about? Adam and Devin dig beneath the plot to find theme, the central idea that glues a story together. They explain why a theme is not the same as a moral…
Plot and Structure
Plot and structure are where most writers struggle. Characters come easily, but getting them from the beginning to the end is hard. Adam and Devin define plot and structure…
Setting
Setting is the foundation of storytelling. Adam and Devin break it into time, location and world, and show how setting reveals character, sets the hero's constraints, and keeps an…
Who Are You Listening To?
Who are the voices behind StoryOsophy? Adam and Devin tell the story of how they met, where each of them comes from, and why they make good writing partners. Then they answer…
The Six Types of Narrative Conflict
Adam and Devin go through the six traditional types of narrative conflict one by one, with plenty of examples, and show how most stories blend several of them. ## In this episode…
Conflict!
"Story is conflict" is one of the most repeated rules in writing. Adam and Devin take it apart. They agree the heart of story is choice, then argue, in true person-against-person…
Character Archetypes (Part 2)
Adam and Devin finish their tour of the character archetypes with the characters the hero meets on the journey: allies, the trickster, the shapeshifter and the shadow. Along the…
Character Archetypes (Part 1)
What is a character archetype, and how does it work in a story? Adam and Devin start their tour of the archetypes from Joseph Campbell and Christopher Vogler with the characters…
What are Characters Made Of
The first of many StoryOsophy episodes about character. Adam and Devin look at what makes a character good or great, where characters come from, and the components every character…
The Writing Process
Adam and Devin walk through the stages of the writing process: brainstorming and development, structuring, writing, editing, and feedback. Each stage needs a different mindset…
StoryKeepers
In the first episode of StoryOsophy, Adam and Devin explain what the show is for, who it's for, and why they left their awkward early recordings in. Their message is simple…
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