ScreenCraft Presents

The Best
Screenwriting
Structures You Can
Apply to Your Scripts

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 Introduc on
Screenplay structure has nothing to do with mythology or saving a cat — it’s all about
basic choices a screenwriter can make to determine how they want to tell their story. It’s
actually pretty easy: you just have to know what structures you can play with. Taking
inspiration from Cinefix’s video on movie structure, we offer ten screenplay structures
that can be applied to any genre and story.

These ten structures are what you can choose from when it comes to deciding how to
tell your stories. Structure is less about hitting certain beats at certain page numbers
and more about deciding what type of framework you want to build your story on.

We’ll break down the basics, offer some examples, and let you take it from there as you
continue on your screenwriting journey.

A screenplay is " a story told with pictures, in dialogue and

That's what it is; that is its nature. It is the art of visual storytelling.

( from the book - SCREENPLAY by SYD FIELD)

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 Chapter 1: Three-Act Structure
Let’s be honest. When you break everything down to the core — despite the many
gurus that push their own philosophies on structure —everything has a beginning,
middle, and end. This has been the story structure followed by humankind since the
days of telling stories around the village fire or etching cave paintings on stone walls
depicting worthy stories of hunting for prey (beginning), confronting the prey (middle),
and defeating the prey (end).

The three-act structure in cinema is the most basic and pure structure that most films —
no matter what gurus and pundits say — follow.

There is the setup, the confrontation, and the resolution. Four-act structures, five-act
structures, and the seven-act structures for television movies — as well as many other
variations — are just additions to the core three-act structure.

Even the core story structure of screenplays that utilize the following nine other
structures that we present below can usually be broken down into three acts, but just
portrayed in different ways.

When you choose to use the basic three-act structure for your screenplay, you’re
offering perhaps the most accessible story design for audiences.

Each scene matters. Each scene progresses directly to the next, carrying the
momentum of the story forward in natural progression — void of any excess. There is
the setup of the character and their world, followed by a conflict that they are either
forced to face or choose to take on, and then we’re led to the resolution.

Movies like Star Wars, The Fugitive, Witness, Raiders of the Lost Ark, and Die
Hard are perfect examples of the three-act structure. Anyone, in retrospect, can apply
varying degrees of guru philosophy and beat sheets to each of them, but in the end,
those types of stories showcase true beginnings, middles, and ends with constant
forward progress as every scene builds towards the finale.

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 Chapter 2: Real-Time Structure
Rather than piecing together a screenplay only using the story’s most vital parts — as
you do in the three-act structure — other scripts represent their stories in a single
uninterrupted stream. The causality of whatever conflicts are thrown at the characters is
presented in real time.

Movies like 12 Angry Men, My Dinner with Andre, Nick of Time, United 93, and
High Noon are prime examples of the real-time structure.

There are no breaks, no time jumps, no flashbacks, or anything of the sort. The story is
presented unbroken and unfiltered. Every moment is important, and screenwriters that
attempt to apply this structure to their stories must understand that. There is a reason
why Jack Bauer in the real-time structured television series 24 was never seen going to
the bathroom in a single 24-hour period — every moment has to matter.

These types of screenplays can be tricky in that respect, so you often have to find a way
to drive the action and the motivation of the characters. The ticking time clock is
perhaps the best way to accomplish that.

If you look at High Noon and especially Nick of Time, the action and drama shifts into
gear because of a ticking time clock.

Something is coming by a certain time in High Noon, and the marshal must prepare.

The father in Nick of Time must do what the villain says if he wants to ever see his
daughter again — and the clock is literally ticking.

If you choose to tell your story within a real-time structure, understand that you have to
commit to the rules — not one second in the chosen moment of your character’s life can
be skipped.

The wonderful aspect of this structure is that the tension involved in the story is
escalated and so much more impressive when delivered honestly.

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 Chapter 3: Mul ple Timeline Structure
This is perhaps one of the most complicated structures in screenwriting. You take a few
otherwise linear stories and mix them up together.
Films like Intolerance, The Fountain, Cloud Atlas, and even The Godfather Part II
embrace the multiple timeline structures.
Most of the time the stories are blended together and peppered with the same themes,
emotions, and messages, but aren’t always specifically and directly connected. One
story’s causality doesn’t always affect the others. The sole connection between them is
the shared themes, emotions, and messages — beyond production choices like using
the same actors to portray different characters, showcasing the same locations in
different time periods, etc.
The magic of this structure is that it can give the audience the sense that all life in the
universe is somehow connected.
If you do decide to connect the storylines somehow — as Francis Ford Coppola did in
The Godfather Part II — each story can have an even deeper meaning. When we see
the rise of Michael Corleone’s power matched with the more subtle rise of his father’s
power, we begin to feel the duality of the two stories that could have otherwise been
movies of their very own.
However you do or don’t connect these multiple timeline stories, this structure offers
writers a way to go beyond conventional storytelling.

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 Chapter 4: Hyperlink Structure
Linear stories, like those found in the three-act structure, showcase somewhat of a
domino effect. Each domino falls forward, causing the next to fall, and the next, and the
next, until a final resolution is made. It’s telling a story from Point A to Z, never missing
an alphabetical point in between.
But some cinematic stories like those found in Magnolia, Crash, and Babel are like
multiple timeline structures — but with each and every story hyperlinked, like multiple
different rows of falling dominoes weaving in and out of each other but always ending in
the same resolution at the end. The cause and effect of each story lead everything
together.
These types of stories give the audience a sense of how our individual lives can be so
interconnected. The cause and effect of what we do or don’t do can have a parallel
cause and effect in other people’s lives.
In Magnolia, Paul Thomas Anderson crafted a story where eight characters and their
stories slowly started to connect as the film went on.
The key aspect of hyperlink stories is that by the end, each story and character has to
masterfully impact the others, where if you were to remove one storyline or character,
the overarching story wouldn’t work. It’s hard to master, and even some of the hyperlink
films we’ve mentioned may not add up to a perfect degree, but the experience of that
attempt can be invigorating for a reader or audience.
And it makes the read of such a screenplay even better because it engages the reader
as they wonder if and how all of these stories and characters are truly connected.

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 Chapter 5: Fabula/Syuzhet Structure
While you may have never heard of this type of story structure, it’s actually more
common in movies than you may think. Fight Club, Casino, American Beauty,
Goodfellas, Forrest Gump, Interview with the Vampire, and Citizen Kane are prime
examples.
This structure comes to us from Russia, using terms that originated from Russian
formalism and employed in narratology that describe narrative construction.
Fabula is the meat of the story while the Syuzhet is the narration and how the story is
organized.
This specific structure employed by American cinema often utilizes original organization
by showing the end first, and having the audience view how they got there. The story is
about the journey and focuses on the how as opposed to the what.
Citizen Kane begins with the death of the title character as he mutters “Rosebud” on
his deathbed. His life is then presented through flashbacks interspersed with a
journalist’s present-time investigation of Kane’s life.
The fabula of the film is the actual story of Kane’s life the way it happened in
chronological order, while the syuzhet is the way the story is told throughout the film.
Forrest Gump opens with the near-ending of the story as Forrest waits for a bus. We
learn the fabula of the story through his flashbacks as he tells various bus stop
companions certain chronological stories from his life. The syuzhet of the story is
present in the scenes at the bus stop being intertwined with those stories of his life. Had
the film been presented in the three-act structure, we would have opened with Forrest
Gump as a boy and progressed through to the point of him waiting at the bus stop. The
moments of Forrest talking to others at the stop would have been unnecessary and the
overall voice-over narration may not have been used at all.
Interview with the Vampire opens with vampire Louis being interviewed by Malloy.
Louis recounts his days as a vampire hundreds of years prior, with his maker Lestat.
That is the fabula of the story while the interview scenes represent the syuzhet. The
events of the stories (fabula) themselves exist independently from the telling of it
(syuzhet).
It’s a unique structure often used in true stories, but can just as easily be creatively
applied to fictional ones as well. The structure gives us an added sense of narrative and
excuses the otherwise looked down upon usage of voiceover narration. So if you’re
feeling the need to have a voiceover in your script, one of the best ways to do that is to

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feeling the need to have a voiceover in your script, one of the best ways to do that is to

write within a Fabula/Syuzhet structure.

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 Chapter 6: Reverse Chronological
Structure
One of the more original structures we’ve seen in movies is telling stories in reverse
chronological order. Now, this differs from the Fabula/Syuzhet structure. While we do
start with the end — or near end — we aren’t going back to a chronological storyline.
We’re slicing the screenplay into pieces and then arranging the story using those
sections from end to beginning with each scene itself told in order.
Memento is the prime example of this structure. It brilliantly uses the reverse order of
scenes to create unique tension and wonder of who the character is, why he is doing
what he’s doing, and whether or not the characters involved in his story can be trusted.
With each regression of the story — as opposed to progression in three-act structures
and chronological applications — we learn a little more, while at the same time more
questions are presented.
The beginning of the story becomes the main cause of tension, curiosity, and intrigue.
If you watch the film in chronological order, it’s a completely different experience that
erases much of the tension and intrigue.
Reverse chronological structures are difficult to construct. It’s not as simple as slicing
that script into chunks and reversing the order of those story chunks. You have to still
write a compelling and engaging story that plays better in that reverse order, leaving
cliffhangers and presenting questions that readers and audiences may ponder — all
while answering questions at the same time.

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 Chapter 7: Rashomon Structure
This structure is derived from the classic Akira Kurosawa masterpiece of the same
name — Rashomon.
It centers on telling the same story from different points of view. These stories can often
use elements of the Fabula/Syuzhet Structure — having a character within the
syuzhet remembering or recalling events — but the fabula is different here because it’s
the same story told multiple times from the perspective of different characters.
While the story itself is the same, it’s different because of the way it is being told.
This allows the audience to remember that there are always different sides to the same
story. It allows you, the writer, to inject even more creativity and ingenuity into your
screenplays. But it’s a tricky slope to maneuver because the attention to detail has to be
near perfect to evenly relate each perspective. And each perspective has to offer
individual worthiness as a self-contained story— while at the same time presenting an
overarching story that has equal worth and intrigue.

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 Chapter 8: Circular Structure
The circular narrative is a story that often ends where it starts and starts where it ends.
Once again, this structure utilizes elements from the Fabula/Syuzhet Structure. The
syuzhet is more represented as a Mobius Strip, as if the story were a single flat line of
paper that is twisted in the middle and then joined at the ends, creating a circle — albeit
with a twist. At the same time, the fabula is like an ouroborus symbol — a snake or
dragon eating its own tail.
Time travel stories are the most prominent circular structure narratives and utilize the
circular aspect of the narrative in the most literal of ways. Movies like Back to the
Future, Primer, 12 Monkeys, and Looper showcase characters that go back or
forward into time, affecting their past or future selves or events — usually showcased by
playing with the paradox visuals of ending and beginning with the same scenes,
moments, and locations, or variations of them.
But non-time travel stories can embrace this structure as well, in almost any genre, and
can handle the circular aspect in more loose fashion. Homer’s The Odyssey opens with
Odysseus leaving Ithaca to go to war and then later closes with his heroic return to the
same location. It’s a subtle circular narrative, but circular nonetheless.

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 Chapter 9: Non-Linear Structure
Non-linear films like Pulp Fiction, Reservoir Dogs, Annie Hall, and Dunkirk tell
stories by jumping backward, forwards, and sideways in time to tell a single story. Such
stories are not presented in chronological order, or the narrative does not follow the
direct causality pattern of the story events that you’d find in a three-act structure or
through the average fabula — the meat of the story.

The concept behind non-linear films is to challenge the way we think we remember
things — or how characters recall their own memories of experiences they’ve been
through.

Memento is often attributed to a non-linear structure but is actually differentiated by

This challenges the reader and the eventual audience. They have to remember where
certain scenes and storylines left off and they have to be able to pick the story back up
almost immediately.

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 Chapter 10: Oneiric Structure
Oneiric Structure is unique as it depicts a cinematic story using dream-like visuals,
exploring the structure of dreams, memories, and human consciousness.

Subtle usage of this structure is best represented by Cameron Crowe’s Vanilla Sky.
The lines between real world and dream world get more and more blurry as the film
moves forward. We’re not sure what is real and what is not.

The Tree of Life embraces the Oneiric Structure tenfold. Just watching the film feels
like you are witnessing someone’s life — and the life of the planet overall — through
vague and half-remembered memories and dreams.

These types of films are often presented by auteurs, likely because telling such stories
— especially in the extreme cases like Terrence Malick’s The Tree of Life — often
requires one single vision and visionary.

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