How To Start Your Video Story Structure

Ever feel frozen when you have to start planning your story?

Like you’re staring at your screen (or blank piece of paper if you’re old school like me lol) and you know the story you’re telling, just not how to put it into a structure form.

Here’s a good tip: work backwards!

Most of the stories we’re working on (speaking to my nonprofit video creators) have some sort of purpose and goal. Could be a testimony for Easter Sunday, or could be a film to show at a fundraising event…

And that goal/purpose can help us figure out how this story is supposed to end. Sometimes we already know how something is going to end- it tends to be the easier parts of the story.

So when we start with the ending and work backwards, we can start filling in the blanks.

WORK BACKWARDS AND START WITH YOUR STORY ENDING

Let’s take for example Awaken, my latest film about April who ended up with a life-threatening brain aneurysm.

After talking to her on the phone about her story, I knew that at the end, she had an awakened faith in God and was a walking miracle! (Cool, right??)

So I knew that’s how the story was going to end, that’s the resolution. So working backwards, what is the conflict that started the whole journey? When she got that brain aneurysm to begin with.

Now I have the two main plot points to my story, the conflict and resolution. Now I can start filling in all the blanks about her journey from the initial conflict to the resolution!

Seems pretty simple, and it is for the most part. :)

So next time you feel stuck and don’t know where to start when thinking about your story structure, start with the ENDING, work backwards, and see how things start to fall into place.

Sweet and simple tip for this week.