In the exciting and wholly original
Into the Woods: A Five-Act Journey Into Story
, John Yorke not only shows that there is truly a unifying shape to narrative—one that echoes the great fairytale journey into the woods, and one, like any great art, that comes from deep within—he explains why, too.
“A marvelous analysis of screenwriting and, with any luck, should help a great many people achieve their dreams.” —Julian Fellowes, creator of
Downton Abbey
With examples ranging from
The Godfather
to
True Detective
,
Mad Men
Macbeth
, and fairy tales to
Forbrydelsen
(
The Killing
), John Yorke utilizes Shakespearean five-act structure as a key to analyzing all storytelling in all narrative forms, from film and television to theatre and novel-writing—a big step from the usual three-act approach. Chapters here include:
Three-Act Structure
Five-Act Structure
The Importance of Change
How We Tell Stories
The Inciting Incident
Putting It All Together
Character and Characterization
Exposition
Subtext
And much more!
The idea of
Into the Woods
is not to supplant works by Aristotle, Lajos Egri, Robert McKee, David Mamet, or any other writers of guides for screenwriters and playwrights, but to pick up on their cues and take the reader on a historical, philosophical, scientific, and psychological journey to the heart of all storytelling.
is destined to sit alongside David Mamet’s
Three Uses of the Knife
, Robert McKee’s
Story
, Syd Field’s
Screenplay
, and Lajos Egri’s
The Art of Dramatic Writing
as one of the most original, useful, and inspiring books ever on dramatic writing.
“Brilliant on story structure.” —Ken Follett,
New York Times
bestselling author