Writing Lessons from Movies: Story Structure Secrets from Back to the Future

Intro:

2025’s “Write Stuff” Storybundle has kicked off – ten books to help you on your writing career path. (Including my book Enrichment Activities: 30 Days of Stay-at-Home Learning, Business, and Self-Care Activities for Writers.) I’m writing profiles for each of the books in the bundle. They’re all very practical books, either with concrete steps to follow, or with a very grounded insight into the writing life. Enjoy!

Class Description:

Want to understand story structure without falling asleep halfway through the explanation? And [Cough cough] without getting locked into the rigid template that is Disney-fing Hollywood movies lately?

Let Kris Rusch and Dean Wesley Smith take you to the movies.

Grab your popcorn and dive into Back to the Future to extract concrete, memorable writing lessons and show you how structure, stakes, and storytelling collide in one of the most beloved time travel films of all time.

It’s sharp, fast, and funny.

And it’ll change how you see story forever.

Curator's Note from Storybundle:

For years, Dean Wesley Smith and I used to speak for two days straight at conferences. Those shows have become the stuff of legend, but most people don’t talk about the two days of detail. They talk about the bonus event in the evening, where we used to go through a movie image by image to illustrate character development, plotting, and information flow. We had fun doing Back To The Future, which not only sets up the past of the story, but the future as well. There are hints for all three movies in the first, as well as information flow that begins before the credits even start. Writers can learn a lot from this little workshop, which normally sells for $75. – Kristine Kathryn Rusch

Who Should Read This:

Writers who learn better through examples
Pantsers trying to make structure make sense
Plotters ready to level up their scene work
People wondering what a Kris & Dean class is like before getting into their other classes.

The Kris & Dean Show is like sitting down with two wildly experienced writers in front of a wide-screen TV to talk story—and walking away with a notebook full of story hacks.

Excerpt:

Bio:

Dean Wesley Smith talks about the importance of Lester Dent’s Master Plot Formula, originally written in the 1930s.

These nine videos help you understand plotting of stories and novels and how to see the bones under a story. Lester Dent claimed that if he followed the formula, his stories always sold. All bestsellers in modern times follow this structure as well.

Step-by-step, Dean will help you understand why this plot structure works and how to understand it and apply it to your own writing.

Find out more about Kris & Dean’s classes and more at wmgpublishingworkshops.com.

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