22. Bourne again: Infuse your characters with purpose motivation

Homework

Film theory like this is often overlooked, and stories suffer for it. Fish for nuggets of truth like these in everything you watch. This kind of understanding will make you a screenwriting supergenius!

There’s no place like home

In some TV shows or movies, pinpoint exactly where on Maslow’s hierarchy the protagonist’s motivations reside. Pick films & shows vastly different from each other to provide a varying outlook on story.

Make a firm decision on where the protagonist in your script will fall on the hierarchy.

Next step

Page count too high? Go through your script and see if any dialogue can be removed.

Remember: actions speak louder than words.