Aristotle's Poetics for Screenwriters: Storytelling Secrets from the Greatest Mind in Western Civilization

by Michael Tierno

Overview

This expert screenwriting guide shows how Aristotle’s timeless principles apply to today’s cinematic storytelling.

Long considered the bible for storytellers, Aristotle's Poetics is a fixture of college courses on everything from fiction writing to dramatic theory. Now award-winning writer/director and Miramax story analyst Michael Tierno demonstrates how Aristotle’s ideas can be an essential resource for screenwriters and anyone interested in studying plot structure.

Tierno breaks down the fundamentals of screenwriting, highlighting particular aspects of Aristotle's work. Then, using examples from some of the best movies ever made, he demonstrates how to apply these ancient insights to modern-day screenwriting. This user-friendly guide covers a multitude of topics, from plotting and subplotting to dialogue and dramatic unity.

With expertise and jargon-free prose, Tierno makes Aristotle's monumental work accessible to beginners and pros alike in areas such as screenwriting, film theory, fiction, and playwriting.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781401305567
Publisher:	Grand Central Publishing
Publication date:	05/01/2025
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	193
File size:	2 MB
Age Range:	18 Years

About the Author

Michael Tierno is an award-winning writer/director of feature films, including the independent film Auditions. He is a story analyst for Miramax Films and teaches screenwriting seminars nationwide. He lives in New York City.

Table of Contents

	Preface	xvii
	Introduction: The Action-Idea	1
1.	Let's Start at the Very Beginning, Middle, and End	7
2.	Why You Want Your Movie to Be a Bomb!	13
3.	The Subject Is an Action ... Not a Person	19
4.	Forget Sub-plotting--the Best Plots Have One-Track Minds	25
5.	Plot Is Soul	31
6.	The Ends Are Always in the Means of the Plot	33
7.	Why Is My Beautiful Plot Growing a Hand Out of Its Head?	37
8.	The Four Species of Plot	41
9.	What the Poetics Says About Epics Like Lord of the Rings	47
10.	Destiny Is an Accident Waiting to Happen	55
11.	Keep It in the Family ... The Tragic Deed	59
12.	Oops! I Caused My Own Undeserved Misfortune Again	63
13.	How a Little Moralizing Turned a Gladiator Gore Fest into a Best Picture	71
14.	A Movie Is Long Enough, So It Ends Happy or Sad	75
15.	If You're Happy and You Know It ... Time for a Reversal of Fortune and Discovery	79
16.	"It Scared Me Because I Saw It Coming" ... The Rolls Royce of Complex Plots	83
17.	The Devil Is in the Realistic Details of the Plot of Angel Heart	87
18.	Whatever Causes the Action Better Be Up There on the Screen	93
19.	A Movie Gave You a Bad Case of Pity and Fear? The Doctor Recommends a Catharsis	97
20.	Action Speaks Louder Than Words, and Together They Can Speak Volumes!	101
21.	The Perfect Hollywood Sad/Happy Plot versus the Perfect Poetics Sad Plot	105
22.	Move Your Audience by Teaching Them What They Already Know	109
23.	The Good, the Bad, and the Intermediate Hero	113
24.	It's the Thought Behind the Action That Counts: Creating the Tone of Your Screenplay	117
25.	How to Cheat If You Can't Hire a Whole Chorus	119
26.	How to Create Characters That Are Really Really Really Alive	123
27.	Dialog Is a Piece of the Action	129
28.	If the Pitch Doesn't Fill Me with Horror and Pity, the Movie Won't Either	135
29.	The Non-Linear Soul of Quentin Tarantino	139
30.	If Your Story Were a Musical, Where Would the Numbers Be?	143
31.	History Repeats Itself ... Real and Imagined	149
32.	Aristotle's Take on the Importance of Drama	153
33.	Aristotle Took Comedy Seriously	157
	Closing Comments	163

Editorial Reviews

Makes the precepts accessible with easy comparisons to contemporary hits.

Variety.com