Screenwriting : Reversals of Fortune by Ang Ortiz

One of the most fantastic breakthroughs for me regarding script writing was embracing Reversals of Fortune. I initially grabbed the concept through Robert Mckee, but had an epiphany about it later. When a story shifts from one positive value to another, from love to hate, tragedy to fortune, anger to happiness, good to bad and bad to good, ad infinitum, it keeps the viewer locked, especially when all other story elements are working correctly. I began detecting it in major films more and more. Samwise thinks he loses Frodo in farmer Maggots field, but no, he is safe, but wait Merry and Pippin stumble into the picture, good! Uh oh they have stolen vegetables from farmer Maggot, BAD! They run for their lives and stumble over a cliff, very bad, but a reversal, they spot the Hobbits favorite food, Mushrooms! GOOD, but NO, a Black rider comes BAD. Reversals of fortune keep the film tense and keep you swinging from one dramatic pole to the other.