If you are a writer in film TV or games (or want to be) and the only story model you know is one hero-on-a-chronological-journey you are at a serious professional disadvantage.
The reality is that games, films and TV forms are now full of multiple protagonist stories. But in addition you need to master over a dozen nonlinear and fractured forms, including nine types of flashback, multi-plot and fractured tandem narrative, because these forms are now mainstream.
They are routinely nominated in the Academy and Golden Globe Awards and the Emmys and they're on TV every night. Audiences expect them. They are everywhere and, crucially, they are hybridising.
Like today’s leading writers in Europe and the USA, these forms need to become part of your stock in trade. Linda Aronson is the world expert in these complex structures. She is the only guru to provide practical guidelines for creating them. New Structures for New Audiences explains them.
Schedule
Day 1: (29 July 2017): Mentor antagonist stories, tandem narrative, multiple protagonist narrative, double journeys, simple flashback.
Day 2: (30 July 2017) : Complex flashback forms, consecutive stories (including Pulp Fiction), fractured tandem, nonlinear fixes for film. Nonlinear in games and to promote binge viewing in new generation serial TV serials.
The 'what' and the 'how to create' of six families of nonlinear and multiplot narrative and their subcategories (over 30 story structures) that don't fit the Hollywood model, including 9 types of flashback structure. How each form relies on splitting up, multiplying or truncating the basic three act structure of traditional screenwriting according to predictable patterns that you can use as templates.
How to use multiple protagonists, mentor antagonists, the passive protagonist and how the same character can be a protagonist in one time frame and antagonist in another;
‘the death of the second act’, that is, structures that truncate or do away with the second act altogether; also, stories that are exposition-heavy and cannot be told suspensefully except via non-linear.
How to use cross-connecting devices, including the 'macro plot' and 'the facilitating character'. How to use the 'portmanteau structure' a structural technique which permits a number of stories to piggyback on the structural build of one story (as in Pulp Fiction, Amores Perros, etc.)
Using a portmanteau to create your own Pulp Fiction-style structure.
Using nonlinear fixes for problem feature films.
How to use nonlinear series arcs to trigger binge viewing in new generation TV drama serials.
How nonlinear forms in games can increase emotional engagement and replayability. TICKETS
What the experts say.
'Linda Aronson is one of the great and important voices on screenwriting.’
~Linda Seger
'At last you will understand Pulp Fiction! All the vague confusing things that teachers and studio executives say about flashback, turning points and multiple protagonists are whipped into coherent shape, in a comprehensive, precise and extremely practical theory.' ~Christopher Vogler, The Writers' Journey
'Anyone who has heard Linda Aronson speak about screenwriting knows that the insight that she can offer YOU, about YOUR screenplay, is extraordinary. I have personally heard all of the so-called ‘script gurus’ speak, and I can tell you, if you want advanced professional script insight, Linda is the person for you.'
~Chris Jones, Academy-Award Nominated Screenwriter, organizer London Screenwriters' Festival
‘Linda Aronson is one of my heroes. My inspiration. Screenwriting Updated blew me away - Linda Aronson was the first person, maybe still the only person to really talk about the fact that structure doesn’t always have to be about one form.’ ~Pilar Alessandra. Leading Hollywood Scriptwriting Teacher.
‘F- ing brilliant’ ~Duncan Thompson, writer/script editor/screenwriting teacher.
'Narrative structure goddess' Linda Aronson ~Lucy Hay, top UK script editor.
Linda Aronson is an English-born, Australian playwright, scriptwriter, comic novelist and screenwriting theorist. She has taught screenwriting to professionals across the world, having come most recently from a six-month tour of Europe, which culminated in an appearance at the London Screenwriters Festival.
Her previous book Screenwriting Updated (published in Australia as Scriptwriting Updated) was the leading text on how to write non-linear films, until it was superseded by The 21st-Century Screenplay in 2010.
True confession: I've been talking about writing this review for about a year now, but I kept putting it off, excusing myself that there were other things to talk about instead.
The truth is, I have felt intimidated.
"Linda Aronson is one of the great and important voices on screenwriting." —Dr Linda Seger, author of "Making a Good Script Great"
The first screenplay I wrote that was ever seriously considered by producers was a story with a parallel narrative. I didn't fully appreciate that fact until long after it had been given a pass by... well, everyone.
Once it dawned on me that I needed to know more about the theory of structure than the usual three-act, single protagonist model, I went looking. And found nothing. Until I saw a reference to Linda Aronson on Twitter. And one thing led to another. I'm still hoping that the interview she agreed to do last year will finally appear here in December.
Now to the book.
It's big. Almost 500 pages, including a decent index (thank you). To put it in context, it is almost one hundred pages longer than Christopher Vogler's The Writers Journey. Vogler himself refers to The 21st-Century Screenplay as an "atlas."
"A lucid and eminently useful atlas of screenwriting technique. All the vague confusing things that teachers and studio executives say about flashback, turning points and multiple protagonists are whipped into coherent shape here, in a comprehensive, precise and extremely practical theory. An essential tool in any writer's kit." —Christopher Vogler, author of "The Writers Journey"
It's not really a book, it's a kind of mini-encyclopaedia. It should, in my opinion, have been published as at least two separate books, possibly more. It is divided into six Parts, and some of those Parts are divided into as many as six Sections, and a given Section can have up to eight chapters. There are fifty-six chapters in total.
Part 1 looks at creativity and getting ideas. With expanded examples and exercises, it could be a book in its own right. Part 2 addresses conventional narrative structure and, again, could be a book in its own right. Woven through Parts 1 and 2 are twenty-five "development strategies" which could—this is getting repetitive—provide the framework for a book of their own.
So how is it, 125 pages into this one book, I'm already saying it could be three different books? The best way to understand this is, Linda Aronson has so much good stuff to say, and feels she has so little time in which to say it, that she has tumbled it all out into one place.
And it is good stuff. Even Part 2, which deals with Conventional Three-Act Structure and could have been a simple regurgitation of Syd Field, contains a remarkably different approach to the subject. Regular readers will know I have been working on my own comparative analysis summary of structure theories for years, lining up alongside one another the key outlines of Syd Field, Linda Seger, Michael Hauge, Christopher Vogler, Viki King, Blake Snyder, John Truby, David Mamet, Brian McDonald, etc. Linda Aronson has a completely fresh approach, for which she takes no credit. She calls it "the Extended Smiley/Thompson plan" and says of it:
The Extended Smiley/Thompson plan is kinda like a beat sheet, but not really. I won't go into it here, other than to say that over the last year I have found myself drawn back to rereading this section many times.
Part 3 is called "Practical Plotting" and provides a lot of common-sense information on the art of screenwriting. Part 6 is called "Getting It On The Page." It rounds out the practical advice section of the book. There's good, solid, practical advice here, but nothing you couldn't find in a heap of other books.
If those Parts were the whole book, I would say it represented excellent value and that you should think about buying a copy. But there's more here.
Part 4 steps into the largely unexplored world of "Parallel Narrative." Part 5 reports on "Films with Structural Flaws": or Why Films Fail. This is an area that wouldn't make sense without Part 4, so they belong together, preferably as a separate book.
Parts 4 and 5 are what the fuss is all about.
If you'll be happy writing a few short films, or maybe a couple of three-act, single protagonist features, you don't need this book. Stick to Blake Snyder, Michael Hauge, Linda Seger, or Christopher Vogler.
To be clear, a parallel narrative is about "two or more complete stories in the past and present." It is not "a linear three-act structure with a chunk of action from two thirds of the way through the story stuck at the start to grab the audience," as found in a film such as Michael Clayton.
I had naively assumed that there was but a single type of parallel structure and had been trying to work out the principles governing that. Linda Aronson tells us that there are "six different sorts of parallel narrative films, each structured differently and each transmitting a different philosophy." To explain:
"These six fall into two main categories: films that jump about in time and films that don't. The films that stay in one time frame are often called ensemble films, and there are three main kinds. The films that jump about in time are often called non-linear films, and there are two main kinds. Finally, there is a hybrid, which is very like one of the ensemble forms, but it incorporates time jumps."
If that sounds complicated, we've only just begun. For example, the non-linear forms include six classes of flashback, and four classes of consecutive story. But don't worry, there are over 250 pages explaining everything.
_____________________________
I won't attempt to summarise it all here. What follows is a brief explanation of each of the six different sorts of parallel narrative films, together with some examples of films that adhere to that structure. For the rest, you need to buy the book.
1. Tandem narrative:
Films with equally important stories on the same theme, in the same time frame, with the action jumping between stories. Same theme, different adventures.
Films about a small team of people thrown together in a group 'adventure'—a quest, a reunion, a siege (emotional/actual). All the main characters are versions of the same protagonist. Same team, same adventure. Galaxy Quest, The Big Chill, Saving Private Ryan, Little Miss Sunshine, Mystic River
3. Double journeys narrative:
Multiple protagonist films with two characters journeying towards each other, in parallel, or apart (physically/emotionally). Two lives in parallel.
There are six varieties of flashback, some simple, some complex, each serving a different story purpose. Some films have several kinds.
i) Flashback as illustration: a simple backstory device, e.g., when a detective asks, "Where were you on the night of April 5?" and we flash back to what happened.
iii) Bookend flashback: a scene or sequence in the present that appears at the start and end of the film, 'bookending' the story (Saving Private Ryan, Fight Club).
iv) Preview flashback: the film starts on a scene or sequence midway or two-thirds through, then flashes back to the start, running through chronologically to the end (Goodfellas, Michael Clayton).
v) Life-changing incident flashback: one life-changing moment is revealed bit-by-bit in one flashback shown several times incrementally (Catch-22).
vi) Double narrative flashback: two or more complete stories centered on one enigmatic outsider are told in different time frames, with the action jumping back and forth between the two. Films in this form drop into two categories according to their view of human nature and each is structured differently. They are:
Films that tell separate stories (with different protagonists) one after the other, coming together at the end. Their point is to make a political or philosophical comment. There are four main sorts.
i) Stories walking into the picture: new protagonists will walk into shot and the film switches to their stories (The Circle, Ten).
ii) Different perspectives: different versions of the same event (Run Lola Run); or different characters' versions of the same event (Rashomon).
iii) Different consequences from the same event: (Atonement).
The voice-over autobiographical narrator, honest or unreliable, can appear in all parallel narrative forms. It causes significant structural changes in double narrative flashback. Some films have a narrator who tells someone else's story, not their own, and who is either a minor player or an unidentified storyteller.
If you're worried about which is the best approach for your material, there is a whole chapter telling you how to decide.
The only other thing to emphasize is that this is an advanced book. To follow much of it you need to be film literate. No, I mean seriously film literate. If you haven't seen most of the films listed in this brief summary, you're going to struggle to understand the points being made.
The 21st Century Screenplay is an extraordinary book. At less than $20, it represents an accessible investment for every serious screenwriter. You won't read and grasp it all in a weekend. It's a book which demands study; it's a book that will reward study. That's not something I can say about every screenwriting book on my shelf.
If you're serious about screenwriting, I recommend that you buy this book.
There is an interesting article (here) in The New York Times, 21 November 2012, which notices a trend in dispensing with storytelling conventions in the current crop of films.
Linda Aronson is an English-born, Australian playwright, scriptwriter, comic novelist and screenwriting theorist. She has taught screenwriting to professionals across the world, having come most recently from a six-month tour of Europe, which culminated in an appearance at the London Screenwriters Festival.
Her previous book Screenwriting Updated (published in Australia as Scriptwriting Updated) was the leading text on how to write non-linear films, until it was superseded by The 21st-Century Screenplay in 2010.
True confession: I've been talking about writing this review for about a year now, but I kept putting it off, excusing myself that there were other things to talk about instead.
The truth is, I have felt intimidated.
"Linda Aronson is one of the great and important voices on screenwriting." —Dr Linda Seger, author of "Making a Good Script Great"
The first screenplay I wrote that was ever seriously considered by producers was a story with a parallel narrative. I didn't fully appreciate that fact until long after it had been given a pass by... well, everyone.
Once it dawned on me that I needed to know more about the theory of structure than the usual three-act, single protagonist model, I went looking. And found nothing. Until I saw a reference to Linda Aronson on Twitter. And one thing led to another. I'm still hoping that the interview she agreed to do last year will finally appear here in December.
Now to the book.
It's big. Almost 500 pages, including a decent index (thank you). To put it in context, it is almost one hundred pages longer than Christopher Vogler's The Writers Journey. Vogler himself refers to The 21st-Century Screenplay as an "atlas."
"A lucid and eminently useful atlas of screenwriting technique. All the vague confusing things that teachers and studio executives say about flashback, turning points and multiple protagonists are whipped into coherent shape here, in a comprehensive, precise and extremely practical theory. An essential tool in any writer's kit." —Christopher Vogler, author of "The Writers Journey"
It's not really a book, it's a kind of mini-encyclopaedia. It should, in my opinion, have been published as at least two separate books, possibly more. It is divided into six Parts, and some of those Parts are divided into as many as six Sections, and a given Section can have up to eight chapters. There are fifty-six chapters in total.
Part 1 looks at creativity and getting ideas. With expanded examples and exercises, it could be a book in its own right. Part 2 addresses conventional narrative structure and, again, could be a book in its own right. Woven through Parts 1 and 2 are twenty-five "development strategies" which could—this is getting repetitive—provide the framework for a book of their own.
So how is it, 125 pages into this one book, I'm already saying it could be three different books? The best way to understand this is, Linda Aronson has so much good stuff to say, and feels she has so little time in which to say it, that she has tumbled it all out into one place.
And it is good stuff. Even Part 2, which deals with Conventional Three-Act Structure and could have been a simple regurgitation of Syd Field, contains a remarkably different approach to the subject. Regular readers will know I have been working on my own comparative analysis summary of structure theories for years, lining up alongside one another the key outlines of Syd Field, Linda Seger, Michael Hauge, Christopher Vogler, Viki King, Blake Snyder, John Truby, David Mamet, Brian McDonald, etc. Linda Aronson has a completely fresh approach, for which she takes no credit. She calls it "the Extended Smiley/Thompson plan" and says of it:
The Extended Smiley/Thompson plan is kinda like a beat sheet, but not really. I won't go into it here, other than to say that over the last year I have found myself drawn back to rereading this section many times.
Part 3 is called "Practical Plotting" and provides a lot of common-sense information on the art of screenwriting. Part 6 is called "Getting It On The Page." It rounds out the practical advice section of the book. There's good, solid, practical advice here, but nothing you couldn't find in a heap of other books.
If those Parts were the whole book, I would say it represented excellent value and that you should think about buying a copy. But there's more here.
Part 4 steps into the largely unexplored world of "Parallel Narrative." Part 5 reports on "Films with Structural Flaws": or Why Films Fail. This is an area that wouldn't make sense without Part 4, so they belong together, preferably as a separate book.
Parts 4 and 5 are what the fuss is all about.
If you'll be happy writing a few short films, or maybe a couple of three-act, single protagonist features, you don't need this book. Stick to Blake Snyder, Michael Hauge, Linda Seger, or Christopher Vogler.
To be clear, a parallel narrative is about "two or more complete stories in the past and present." It is not "a linear three-act structure with a chunk of action from two thirds of the way through the story stuck at the start to grab the audience," as found in a film such as Michael Clayton.
I had naively assumed that there was but a single type of parallel structure and had been trying to work out the principles governing that. Linda Aronson tells us that there are "six different sorts of parallel narrative films, each structured differently and each transmitting a different philosophy." To explain:
"These six fall into two main categories: films that jump about in time and films that don't. The films that stay in one time frame are often called ensemble films, and there are three main kinds. The films that jump about in time are often called non-linear films, and there are two main kinds. Finally, there is a hybrid, which is very like one of the ensemble forms, but it incorporates time jumps."
If that sounds complicated, we've only just begun. For example, the non-linear forms include six classes of flashback, and four classes of consecutive story. But don't worry, there are over 250 pages explaining everything.
_____________________________
I won't attempt to summarise it all here. What follows is a brief explanation of each of the six different sorts of parallel narrative films, together with some examples of films that adhere to that structure. For the rest, you need to buy the book.
1. Tandem narrative:
Films with equally important stories on the same theme, in the same time frame, with the action jumping between stories. Same theme, different adventures.
Films about a small team of people thrown together in a group 'adventure'—a quest, a reunion, a siege (emotional/actual). All the main characters are versions of the same protagonist. Same team, same adventure. Galaxy Quest, The Big Chill, Saving Private Ryan, Little Miss Sunshine, Mystic River
3. Double journeys narrative:
Multiple protagonist films with two characters journeying towards each other, in parallel, or apart (physically/emotionally). Two lives in parallel.
There are six varieties of flashback, some simple, some complex, each serving a different story purpose. Some films have several kinds.
i) Flashback as illustration: a simple backstory device, e.g., when a detective asks, "Where were you on the night of April 5?" and we flash back to what happened.
iii) Bookend flashback: a scene or sequence in the present that appears at the start and end of the film, 'bookending' the story (Saving Private Ryan, Fight Club).
iv) Preview flashback: the film starts on a scene or sequence midway or two-thirds through, then flashes back to the start, running through chronologically to the end (Goodfellas, Michael Clayton).
v) Life-changing incident flashback: one life-changing moment is revealed bit-by-bit in one flashback shown several times incrementally (Catch-22).
vi) Double narrative flashback: two or more complete stories centered on one enigmatic outsider are told in different time frames, with the action jumping back and forth between the two. Films in this form drop into two categories according to their view of human nature and each is structured differently. They are:
Films that tell separate stories (with different protagonists) one after the other, coming together at the end. Their point is to make a political or philosophical comment. There are four main sorts.
i) Stories walking into the picture: new protagonists will walk into shot and the film switches to their stories (The Circle, Ten).
ii) Different perspectives: different versions of the same event (Run Lola Run); or different characters' versions of the same event (Rashomon).
iii) Different consequences from the same event: (Atonement).
The voice-over autobiographical narrator, honest or unreliable, can appear in all parallel narrative forms. It causes significant structural changes in double narrative flashback. Some films have a narrator who tells someone else's story, not their own, and who is either a minor player or an unidentified storyteller.
If you're worried about which is the best approach for your material, there is a whole chapter telling you how to decide.
The only other thing to emphasize is that this is an advanced book. To follow much of it you need to be film literate. No, I mean seriously film literate. If you haven't seen most of the films listed in this brief summary, you're going to struggle to understand the points being made.
The 21st Century Screenplay is an extraordinary book. At less than $20, it represents an accessible investment for every serious screenwriter. You won't read and grasp it all in a weekend. It's a book which demands study; it's a book that will reward study. That's not something I can say about every screenwriting book on my shelf.
If you're serious about screenwriting, I recommend that you buy this book.
There is an interesting article (here) in The New York Times, 21 November 2012, which notices a trend in dispensing with storytelling conventions in the current crop of films.
Good news. Linda Aronson has teamed up with AFTRS Open (the Australian Film Television and Radio School) to present a couple of two-day masterclasses (one in Melbourne and one in Sydney), early next year.
Linda is widely regarded as the world expert on nonlinear and complex film and TV structures. She is a multi-award-winning writer who’s spent more than thirty years writing for companies in Australia, UK, New Zealand and USA, with credits for TV drama series, serials, mini-series, children’s TV, drama documentary, feature film, stage plays, novels, short stories, radio drama, journalism and books on writing craft.
She has created TV drama series and storylines, been a script judge/selector in many contexts, including the Emmys, and now works all over the world as a consultant and teacher specializing in nonlinear and complex script structure.
Linda Aronson explodes the conventional screenwriting theory which assumes that structure means only one hero on a linear chronological journey. Instead she provides practical writing guidelines for writing flashback scripts, Pulp Fiction structures, multiple storyline films, and fractured forms like 21 Grams, Crash and The Hours. She shows how eighteen of these modern forms work to predictable patterns, and provides practical, down to earth templates for writing them.
Linda tells me these masterclasses will be her first time teaching in Australia in many years. In the last tax year she had eight international trips across three continents (Europe, USA, Africa) and still didn’t manage to get to all of the organisations that invited her. So this is a rare opportunity for Australians. Check it out.
Years ago, Linda Aronson taught a course at the Australian Film Television and Radio School (AFTRS). One component of the course was a list of Development Strategies that Linda created to assist students find the best version of their stories.
The Development Strategies were incorporated in Linda's book, Screenwriting Updated, and subsequently reproduced widely. In 2010, Linda published an expanded version of the book, called The 21st Century Screenplay. The following is a list gleaned from that book.
Next time you're about to start formulating a new story, try reading through this list and apply the strategies. Think of it as twenty-five steps to a complete story. I consider the Strategies to be distilled practical commonsense, from a professional writer who has decades of writing-to-a-deadline under her belt. You need a method in order to consistently pump out quality work. I suspect most professional writers do this intuitively. Linda Aronson started with an academic background and couldn't help analyzing her own approach, for the benefit of others.
If you find this information helpful, buy the book. It is an "atlas" (as Christopher Vogler describes it) of information about screenwriting.
1. Define the task at hand.
2. Brainstorm the best 'real but unusual' remedy.
3. Solve the genre equation.
4. Find non-narrative triggers.
5. Create a simple narrative sentence.
6. Create an advanced narrative sentence.
7. Make sure the disturbance happens soon and involves real change.
8. Distinguish the idea from a story.
9. Differentiate the action line and the relationship line.
10. Create a relationship road.
11. Peg the relationship line to the action.
12. Identify the protagonist.
13. Identify the antagonist.
14. Find out what the plot tells you about characters.
15. Get into character.
16. Create a character arc.
17. Insert a misleading plan.
18. Find the first-act turning point scene (surprise/obstacle).
19. Devise second-act complications via the first-act turning point.
20. Second-act turning point, Part 1: Protagonist's worst possible moment.
21. Second-act turning point, Part 2: Decision to fight back.
Years ago, Linda Aronson taught a course at the Australian Film Television and Radio School (AFTRS). One component of the course was a list of Development Strategies that Linda created to assist students find the best version of their stories.
The Development Strategies were incorporated in Linda's book, Screenwriting Updated, and subsequently reproduced widely. In 2010, Linda published an expanded version of the book, called The 21st Century Screenplay. The following is a list gleaned from that book.
Next time you're about to start formulating a new story, try reading through this list and apply the strategies. Think of it as twenty-five steps to a complete story. I consider the Strategies to be distilled practical commonsense, from a professional writer who has decades of writing-to-a-deadline under her belt. You need a method in order to consistently pump out quality work. I suspect most professional writers do this intuitively. Linda Aronson started with an academic background and couldn't help analyzing her own approach, for the benefit of others.
If you find this information helpful, buy the book. It is an "atlas" (as Christopher Vogler describes it) of information about screenwriting.
________________________________________________________________________
1. Define the task at hand.
2. Brainstorm the best 'real but unusual' remedy.
3. Solve the genre equation.
4. Find non-narrative triggers.
5. Create a simple narrative sentence.
6. Create an advanced narrative sentence.
7. Make sure the disturbance happens soon and involves real change.
8. Distinguish the idea from a story.
9. Differentiate the action line and the relationship line.
10. Create a relationship road.
11. Peg the relationship line to the action.
12. Identify the protagonist.
13. Identify the antagonist.
14. Find out what the plot tells you about characters.
15. Get into character.
16. Create a character arc.
17. Insert a misleading plan.
18. Find the first-act turning point scene (surprise/obstacle).
19. Devise second-act complications via the first-act turning point.
20. Second-act turning point, Part 1: Protagonist's worst possible moment.
21. Second-act turning point, Part 2: Decision to fight back.
Linda Aronson is one of the best screenwriting "gurus" out there. Here she discusses advanced screenwriting techniques such as non-linear stories, flashbacks and stories with multiple protagonists.
Linda Aronson is an English-born, Australian playwright, scriptwriter, comic novelist and screenwriting theorist. She worked for some years on a D.Phil in late nineteenth century fiction at Oxford university but later abandoned it to become a full time writer. Her book, The 21st Century Screenplay, is the leading text on how to write non-linear films. She teaches screenwriting to professionals everywhere, and has just returned from a six-month speaking tour of Europe, which culminated in an appearance at the London Screenwriting Festival.
She's a tough lady to pin down. I've been chatting with her about doing an interview for the last twelve months. When we finally synchronised our schedules, Linda proved to be warm, generous and articulate. Here is the substance of our discussion.
_______________________________________________________________________
• Where were you born, and where did you grow up?
I'm a seventh generation Londoner, born within the sound of Bow Bells, so I'm officially a Cockney, though my father was Scottish. When I was very young, there was a whooping cough epidemic. My older brother and sister became ill and our parents decided they needed to get us out of London. So I grew up in an outer suburb, in Essex.
I went to Grammar School in Essex. Then, in 1968, when I was 18, I went off to Northern Ireland to study at the University of Ulster.
• Why Ulster?
I wanted to get out of London. I found growing up in the suburbs of London very claustrophobic and I wanted to taste the world.
The establishment of the University of Ulster in 1968 was one of the triggers for the start of The Troubles in Ireland. I was there two weeks when the Civil Rights marches started, and I got involved in all of that. It was quite dramatic, living in a war zone for some years. My goal at the time was to develop an academic career that would fund me to write novels and poetry. I first published my poems at age 20. I have published four novels, but I'm a natural dramatist.
• What kind of a family did you grow up with?
I had a brother and sister, quite a bit older than me. Within the sweep of the British class system of the day, we were lower middle class, though that's a distinction which was already losing its meaning, as it became more possible for people from my kind of background to go to university. It was very very difficult to get into university, not automatic if you’d passed your matriculation, as it was for my Oz husband growing up at the same time in Australia. I was the first person in my family to do so, though my father was a brilliant man. He left school at fourteen, as they all did in those days. He became an electronics expert in the Navy and ended up running his own electronics business. It's a shame he died before the advent of the digital age, because he would have been in his element today.
• What was your first paying job?
It was sorting out files in the basement of my Dad's office, at fourteen. I did a lot of waitressing jobs, from the age of sixteen onwards, during my summer holidays. With my first waitressing job I was also a chamber maid, because I was working in a hotel on the Isle of Wight. And I learned how to do silver service, which was fun.
• When did you first take an interest in films/stories?
I was always passionate about literature and writing. I won my first writing competition when I was five. The prize was six month's free supply of Cadbury's chocolate.
It was a famous competition, held annually. They would get a bunch of children around the UK to give them feedback on their new products. You had to write a little essay on Why I Love Cadbury Chocolate Fingers. My mother was very strict about what we ate and it was rare we had anything like that, so I lied through my teeth about my imaginary addiction to Cadbury's Chocolate Fingers, and it obviously did the trick.
• You moved out here when you were 23. What was your biggest surprise on arriving in Australia?
It was not as English as I thought it would be. I lived in Ireland for three years before I went to Oxford. When I got to Australia, I found it to be very Irish. There were words I already knew from Ireland that people thought were Australian, like "stonkered" and that sort of thing; and there was an approach to life which I thought was Irish. I was also struck by the size of everything, traveling around; the country is huge.
• What was your first writing job?
I guess this should really be how did I get started as a writer, since I wrote and got produced on spec a lot at first. I soon gave up poetry and got into playwriting as an undergraduate. Apparently my first play was toured in Berlin and other places in Europe by the Drama Society of my university with great success in 1971, when I was twenty-one, but I didn’t know anything about this until last year when one of my friends who’d performed in that tour told me! She thought I knew! I really started focussing on plays when I got to Australia. There used to be a wonderful institution called the Australian National Playwrights Conference (1972-2006), which is where I first met Ken Ross, Debra Oswald, and many other writers who are now active in TV, film and stage. The ANPC had a competition every year in Canberra. Top directors, actors, critics and dramaturgs came from all over Australia to work on the plays. In 1973, my first proper stage play, Closing Down, was one of those read. My first paying job as a writer was to adapt Closing Down into a radio play for the ABC, but I wrote that on spec rather than being commissioned. In 1975 I had an amateur production of a play called Cafe in a Side Street, which I also adapted for ABC radio. In 1976, my third play, The Fall Guy, was read at the ANPC Conference. As a result, it was picked up by Melbourne Theatre Company, and also performed in Adelaide by The Stage Company and later in Milwaukee, USA. It was nominated for an AWGIE award. As a result of the success of The Fall Guy I was asked to write a film, Kostas, which was nominated for AWGIE Best Stage Play and AFI Best Film, and then I got into television.
• How did you come to write your screenwriting books?
I ran a course at AFTRS (Australian Film Television and Radio School) in Sydney, for which I invented what became the twenty-five Development Strategies found in Part 2 of The 21st Century Screenplay. They were deemed to be very useful and have been embraced all around the world. AFTRS encouraged me to write a book.
I wrote what I knew about linear three act structure, from my point of
view as a working writer. I summarised the views of other writers I
admired (always, of course, acknowledging them). That done, I thought I’d
like to say something about flashbacks and reunion films and group
films, but I couldn’t find anything in writing on the subject, or
really, get any information at all. I asked a visiting expert about the
structure of an ensemble film like The Big Chill, but got no answers. In the absence of any answers, I decided to have a crack at the job myself. I watched ensemble, time jump, and flashback films again and again and again to see how they worked. To my surprise I observed patterns and those patterns occurred consistently in films from around the world. That was exciting enough, but one day, when I was banging on about my discoveries over the dinner table, my daughter, who’s a classicist, said, “Mum, you do realise that The Odyssey has a flashback in the middle.” I had no idea. When I read it, I realised Homer three thousand years ago was using flashback in the way writers like Guillermo Arriga, writer of 21 Grams and Babel, use it— stealing jeopardy from the end of the story to speed up a slow, episodic start.
I completed Screenwriting Updated and presented it to Meredith Quinn, the publisher at AFTRS. She sent it to an American publisher, Silman James in Los Angeles, publisher of quality screen craft books, who immediately picked it up for publication before it had even been published in Australia. Since then, sales have gone through the roof. Ten years later, I extensively revised and extended the book, adding a massive amount of new material—so much that the publisher felt it was a new book. This was published as The 21st Century Screenplay.
• Why are you so focused on teaching, rather than getting on with your own writing?
Bizarrely, despite the proliferation of mainstream films and TV that use ensemble casts and flashbacks, I am the only screenwriting theorist offering practical guidelines for writing in those forms. I feel it’s important there is a voice out there saying, “No, you do not have to conform to the linear three act model. You have at least six other structures. Start to think in terms of allowing your content to dictate the structure.” The problem is that screenwriting theory has now become big business. In a high-cost high-risk industry like film, the pressure to offer easy quick-fix, one-size-fits-all answers is enormous. The result is that those wonderfully useful structural tools for handling one-hero linear stories have become simplified in transmission and are now assumed and asserted by many people (thankfully not all) as the one way to write a film, with the one-hero story the only type of story that is suitable for a film. This is very dangerous, indeed actively destructive. While mainstream film and TV routinely use flashbacks and ensemble structures, young writers who try to use these forms often get knocked back. On the other hand, scripts are being irreparably damaged because writers are forcing their flashback or group-story material into a one-hero-on-a-single-linear-chronological-journey model when it just doesn’t fit. It’s common to hear experts saying that anyone who uses flashback is a bad writer. It’s heartbreaking. And the strangest things about all of this is that the facts fly in the face of the theory. Theory is getting increasingly detached from the reality of the industry. As I’ve suggested, it’s now impossible to watch an evening’s TV without seeing flashbacks or multiple protagonist structures, often both, and such structures are out there all the time in mainstream film. Yet many screenwriting theorists are still insisting that these models constitute bad writing (that is, if they consider these forms at all). My work routinely puts me in contact with very senior writers and executives from US and UK TV who cannot believe that new writers are being told not to use flashback or group stories. They look at me and keep questioning me as if I’m making it up. Frankly, I don’t think people will have a career as writers in five years time if they don’t have a working knowledge of these parallel narrative structures. Producers are wonderful people, but often they don’t understand just how writers think, how difficult it is to write and to keep objective about your own work. I predict that within a few years, producers will be asking writers to apply, say, a Memento-like structure to a story. That is incredibly difficult to do, if you’re trying to find a theory to support your work as you go along. You certainly can’t do it at speed An experienced writer can indeed do a lot of this stuff intuitively and at speed; but if you’re a new writer, you really need guidelines. Most of the people who could provide guidelines are too busy writing, so I’m afraid it’s down to me. And I don’t resent it because the reception I get from writers, script theorists and script executives is so positive. There is huge frustration out there about the pressure to conformity. I get standing ovations. I think my theories are useful but I’m not precious about them. I’m looking forward to seeing people pushing the envelope. I would love to have someone prove me wrong.
• Any chance you’ll be teaching in Adelaide in the foreseeable future?
I’ve been invited in the past, but the timing hasn’t worked out. I’m supposed to do a lecture tour in Australia later this year, but it hasn’t been finalised as yet. If someone invites me, I’ll come.
• What projects do you have underway at present?
I’ve been getting back into writing, combining these theories with my own story-telling. I’ve written a cutting-edge experiment in immersive virtual reality. It is an installation project.
The first production of the first of these pieces is in development in the United States at present, which is very exciting. Technicians are struggling to work out whether it is technically and financially possible. The plan is for it to be staged in the US or Europe later this year. You will walk into a room and the drama will occur all around you, and involve your touch, hearing and vision. Four non-linear story-lines unfold, stories that you’ll only be able to put together at the end. It’s like a living story; the drama happens 360 degrees around you.
• What was the best advice you were given at the start of your career?
A very kind British writer—I can't remember his name—heard a reading, at the Australian National Playwrights Conference, of my first play Closing Down, written when I was a very young, insecure writer, aged 23. He said to me: "Linda, you must keep writing. You're talented."
That sustained me for a long while.
The best piece of writing advice came to me from Carl Sautter, who sadly passed away last year, in the early 1980s. He said that everything one writes must be real, but unusual.
• What one screenwriting advice book (not your own) would you recommend to a young wannabe screenwriter in Adelaide?
Here's a short video of Linda Aronson at a workshop for film workers in Sweden in November 2011, where she talks about the rise of parallel narratives.
(published in Australia as Scriptwriting Updated) was the leading text on how to write non-linear films, until it was super
in 2010.
and 
are required reading at many film schools. She has taught at 
• 
, by Christopher Vogler.