The Story Elements That Show Up in Every Great Screenplay

__Steven Pressfield is the author of The War of Art , Gates of Fire , and, most recently, The Arcadian. He sat down with writer David Perrell on How I Write to lay out the principles behind great storytelling.

As a screenwriter, you might hit a wall on those principles because by now, they're probably really familiar. If you follow them, do you risk becoming formulaic? I mean, do you really need three acts, an inciting incident, and a low-point moment? If everyone has those, are you just plugging your characters into beats?

Pressfield has answers for you. These story elements are the structural patterns that show up in Greek tragedy, Shakespeare, and summer blockbusters for a reason. Pressfield's perspective is that learning these principles doesn't make you formulaic. It does give you a foundation.

Here are the big takeaways for screenwriters, but be sure to watch the whole conversation for more.

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Three-Act Structure Comes Naturally

Pressfield came to three-act structure reluctantly, like some of you probably did, too. It can feel like a formula. But he eventually embraced it because it mirrors how tension actually builds. Hook the audience in Act One. Escalate things through Act Two. Accelerate into the climax in Act Three.

He even compares it to a joke (the setup, the complication, the punchline). It's the shape a story naturally takes.

He admits you can have more than three acts, too. (See five-act structure.) But no matter what you’re doing, you’ll probably have a beginning, middle, and end.

The Inciting Incident Plants the Climax

Pressfield walks through Rocky to explain the inciting incident, which, structurally, is the moment in Act One (typically halfway through or around page 10) when the story really kicks into gear. This changes something in your character's world and sends them on their journey. This moment gets things moving and gives the story direction.

A good inciting incident lets the audience flash forward and glimpse the climax. In Rocky , Rocky gets chosen to fight Apollo Creed. We immediately know where this is going. That anticipation is the engine.

Keeping this in mind can be a great guide for creating your inciting incident. What will point to your finale?

Act Two Belongs to the Villain

Screenwriter Randy Wallace (Braveheart) gave Pressfield this one, and he's never forgotten it. Your hero might be the center of Act One, but Act Two should belong to the antagonist. That doesn’t mean you leave your protagonist behind; it just means that the antagonist rears their head.

The obstacles need to feel real and overwhelming, which means the villain has to step fully into the foreground. Second acts are hard, but this can help you. If your second act feels flat, ask yourself if your bad guy is doing enough damage.

The Act Two Midpoint

Midpoints are where your scripts get turned upside down. Everything changes. Pressfield calls this the "Michael Corleone moment."

Midway through Act Two, the hero stops straddling the fence and commits. In The Godfather , it's the scene where Michael quietly proposes killing a police chief. Everything shifts. The stakes rise. The audience feels the story hit another gear. Pressfield checks his own work for this beat every time.

Ask, “Does my hero have a moment where they definitively choose?”

The Godfather Credit: Paramount Pictures

The Solo Moment

Before your hero crosses into Act Three, they almost always go somewhere alone first. Pressfield points to the scene in The Godfather where Michael slips into the restaurant bathroom, finds the planted gun behind the toilet tank, and stands there while a subway car roars past. He's not doing anything. But it’s a moment that has an impact.

Taking the time to show your character’s interiority helps the audience grasp that transformation is happening. Give your characters time to process what is happening to them. You’d probably need a second before a big change in your own life, too.

The “All-Is-Lost” Moment

Some beat sheets call this “the low point.” It happens during your climax and is different from that solo moment above.

About three-quarters of the way through the story, everything should fall apart for your character. Pressfield describes Rocky going alone to the empty arena the night before the fight and realizing he's completely out of his depth.

The all-is-lost moment is important because it forces the hero to abandon ego-driven motivation in favor of something more essential. You want this moment to feel genuinely unsolvable. It’s an obstacle they can’t overcome. They won’t win.

The harder the hole, the more satisfying the climb out.

The Epiphany That Follows

Of course, the hero rarely gives up. Right after the all-is-lost moment comes an epiphany. It's another kind of reversal.

Rocky doesn't decide he'll win. He decides that if he can just go 15 rounds, that's enough. He redefines what victory means for himself.

Pressfield sees this as the hero moving from a fantasy of winning to an acceptance of reality. It's often quieter than audiences expect, but it's what makes the third act feel earned.

Rocky Source: United Artists

Heroes Change, Villains Don't

The hero is capable of transformation and self-sacrifice, Pressfield says. The villain operates on zero-sum logic. That is, to gain anything, they have to take it from someone else. Pressfield points to Bogart in Casablanca. He’s a man who starts out only looking out for himself and ends up giving up the love of his life for the greater good. He's a hero.

That arc is the whole story. It is what makes a satisfying ending. The villain provides the pressure.

Why Cursed Characters Work

Gosh, I love a cursed character. In stories, a gift almost always comes with a curse. How does a character deal with it?

Shane is the greatest gunfighter in the valley, which means he can never stop being a gunfighter. Achilles can't be defeated in battle, but lets his pride destroy everything he loves. Bilbo gets a magic ring that extends his life, but it's corrupting.

Pressfield says the curse resonates universally. We all carry something we can't put down. We're all searching for some kind of redemption from a past we didn't fully choose.

Reverse-Engineer from the End

Pressfield says you should know your ending first, then reverse-engineer everything else.

You have to set up early who your character is before they change. And you have to populate the middle with the scenes that make the transformation feel earned. The end is the point, so build backward from there.