Write, write, write

In an excellent TED Talk, Simon Sinek talks about something he calls "The Golden Circle". The lecture is about companies, products, leaders - why some achieve greatness and stand out where others fail. However, the lessons apply just as well to screenwriting.

May you never get that lost with your WHY.

Simon's "Golden Circle" has the WHY at the center, the HOW in a surrounding circle and finally the WHAT in the outer rim. He shows that, if you go from the inside out and begin with a powerful WHY, everything will click in better, stronger ways. The examples of exemplary companies and leaders he uses are the Apple company, the Wright Brothers and Martin Luther King. Watch it for these examples alone and it'll be well worth your time: Ted Talk and/or transcript.

The WHY isn't intellectual, the WHY is core, it is instinct brain. If you have the right WHY, you end up with people buying your products (whether that product is an iPhone or your script) because they believe what you believe. The WHY is cause, belief, "reason d'être".

• WHY: The center circle is the emotional core. The essence of your film, your log line, the one thing that juices you and keeps juicing you. The one thing you can say in one single sentence that makes every listener's ears perk up, eager for more.
• HOW: The middle circle is your craft in structuring your story, the arcs - and because you'll have started with the WHY, everything you structure, weave and plot will always have the WHY at its core - everything else will feel alien to your story.
• WHAT: The outer circle is your scenes, the action, the "dressing it up". It's clear to all of us that we should never start from the outside in. Never start with a bunch of neat action sequences, then build them into a structure and finally try to somehow magically invent/insert a core into it. Doesn't work ... and yet it's done again and again with the result of countless straight-to-DVD stuff.

Basically, I'm not telling you anything new here - but again, watch the Ted Talk - it'll be 15 minutes well spent, trust me on this. And maybe, just maybe, you'll remember "The Golden Circle" before you dive into your next script. 

May the WHY be with you!