- The purpose of art and stories in our lives
- Entertainment vs. enlightenment
- Semiotics and the cognitive connection
STRUCTURE
- Anatomy of the 3-act structure
- Scene-by-scene and act-by-act analysis
- Plot patterns and the nine critical events
CHARACTER
- Eight character functions all stories must have
- Character vs. characterization
- Character as a story's driving motivation
CONFLICT
- Effective and ineffective forms of conflict
- Fear/hope, tension/release, threat/violence
- The axis of antagonism
METAPHOR
- Story substance, quality, and appeal
- Communication and the ladder of abstraction
- Convention and the ladder of originality/familiarity
IDEATION
- Character, scene, and thematic ideation
- Respecting genre and convention
- Research and the myth of writer's block
REVISION
- Identifying and strengthening weak scenes
- Overcoming plot holes and logic problems
- Ideation, incubation, and chaotic interpolation
CRAFT
- Premise to polish
- The writer's eye
- Maintaining inspiration
