Glossary

The main character becomes a worse person and the world rewards them for it. Nightcrawler: Lou Bloom stops caring about anyone and wins everything.

The main character does the right thing and loses anyway, because this world does not pay for decency. Sicario: Kate keeps to the law and is broken for it.

The main character gives up the thing that kept them safe, and the world rewards them for it. Ratatouille, In Bruges, Legally Blonde.

The main character is offered a way to change, refuses it, and loses to someone who took it. The Social Network: Zuckerberg keeps using people and ends up alone.

The character in the main character's way, who has the same bad habit, only worse and by choice. Skinner hides and deceives too, but to protect an empire, not to survive.

Whatever makes the Muse look past the main character's bad habit long enough to team up with them. In Ratatouille it is the hair-pulling trick that lets Remy cook through Linguini.

A King who died before the story starts but whose rules still run the main character's life. Gusteau, alive only as 'Anyone can cook'.

The character who saves the day and whom the audience roots for. Usually the main character, but not always: in Training Day it is Jake, and the story is about Alonzo.

The parent, boss or mentor who taught the main character their bad habit, meaning well and being wrong. Django, who taught Remy that rats survive by staying hidden.

The character who lives the way the main character should, without ever lecturing. Linguini, who cannot lie for long.

The character the story is about: the one with the bad habit, who has to decide whether to drop it. Not always the hero. Remy; Ken in In Bruges.

The neutral figure who explains what the new world values and, later, rules on whether the main character has earned it. Anton Ego, critic first, then judge.

The three characters every story is built on: the one who must change, the one with the same flaw who won't, and the one who lives the alternative. Remy, Skinner, Linguini.

The story's moral authority: the force that decides who deserves the ending, always speaking through a character in the story. In Ratatouille it speaks through Gusteau and, finally, Ego.

The character whose success would be the wrong ending, evil or not. Often the antagonist, sometimes the main character: Alonzo in Training Day.

Who a character is in the eyes of the world: their job, rank or station, fixed before the story starts. Remy is a rat. That never changes.

A rare gift sitting in the one person the world least expects to have it. A rat who is the finest cook in Paris.

The Muse's defining quality: the exact opposite of the main character's bad habit, lived without compromise. Linguini cannot keep a lie going, which is why Remy stops hiding.

Skill in the thing the story is about, held at three levels: the main character has the rare kind, the antagonist the expected kind, the Muse none at all. Remy, Skinner, Linguini.

The one thing about a character that can change: a way of getting by that hurts people, learned at home, and that has to go. Will Hunting pushes people away before they can leave him.

The ending a character earns by dropping their bad habit: not what they wanted, but what they needed. Remy cooking in the open, in his own restaurant, as a rat.

Where the story starts, and where the main character's bad habit counts as common sense. The rat colony, where hiding from humans is how you stay alive.

Everything the story takes place in, split into three regions that each judge the main character differently: Home, the Strange World and Heaven on Earth.

Where most of the story happens: the main character's gift is valued here, but their bad habit gets punished. Gusteau's kitchen, where a rat can cook but cannot be seen.

Each scene happens because of the one before it, never just after it. Linguini is told to dump the soup, but he fixes it instead, so it gets served.

The win halfway through that was earned the wrong way, so it cannot last. Gusteau's is saved, the review is glowing, and Remy is still hiding under a hat.

Every stretch of the first half of a story has a twin in the second half that turns it inside out. Remy and Linguini team up early on; later they split.

A run of scenes that plays out the consequences of one decision and ends with the next one. Every story has eight.

The shape of a story: eight sequences in a ring, where each one in the first half has a twin in the second half that reverses it.

The prize all three main characters are chasing, each for their own reasons: what the main character wants, as opposed to what they need. Gusteau's restaurant.

The exact middle of the story, where the main character wins the prize by using the bad habit. It feels like a triumph and is not the ending. Linguini is a star chef; Remy is still under the hat.

The moment at the end of each sequence where the main character makes a choice. Eight per story: six decisions, two rewards. Remy deciding to cook as himself, in the open.

The survival rule the main character grew up on: do whatever it takes to get by. It wins the prize at the midpoint and never wins the ending. 'Rats stay hidden.'

What the story argues through action and never says out loud: to earn the ending, this character must trade this habit for this strength. Remy must stop hiding to cook as himself.

The rule the main character has to learn: be honest, trust your gift, take responsibility. 'Anyone can cook.'

Three checks to run on your Genie, your McGuffin and your Archetype before you outline, so a weak device gets fixed instead of papered over.