Screenwriting : Today's Wish and Creative Tip by Laurie Ashbourne

A Whole New World We spend a lot of time crafting the arc of our main characters so they are in a different place at the end of the story than at the beginning. Don’t forget, to SHOW the impact of their journey on the world of the story. This goes for every genre. Some plots make this more obvious than others; like if your character actually saves the world. But even in a small family drama, the world of the family should be changed by the end. Generally speaking, you would have the scene of the new world come first, and then end with the main character. But there are no hard fast rules on how and when to show this change – it depends on the story and the director. Sometimes the lead will do a voiceover to the new reality to close out the story. Typically, the bigger the world, the more you showcase its change at the end (ie: Jurassic World, Zootopia) this is your ordinary character in an extraordinary world structure. Where as if you had an extraordinary character in an ordinary world story, you’d want to show the change to the world and then end with a beat on the character (ie: Whiplash). No matter the genre or story structure, the world of your character’s story must be shown differently at the end, even if it is just the character seeing it with a fresh perspective. According to my browser bar this is the 84th installment of these (occasionally) daily tips. I’m taking requests to round out the next 15 to get to 100. May your day be out of this world.