Three-act structure as spine
Hunter organizes the screenplay around setup, confrontation, and resolution, with clear turning points between acts. The structure gives the writer a scaffold before the scenes are filled in.
Lew Hunter's screenwriting 434
3 ideas
Start from a strong premise line
Hunter has writers distill the film to a single-sentence premise before drafting to test whether the idea holds. A muddy premise predicts a muddy script.
Outline, treatment, then draft
He teaches building up through step outline and treatment so structural problems are caught before pages are written. Rewriting an outline is cheaper than rewriting a screenplay.