If you can wrap your head around this concept, then I truly believe it will make the difference between a good script and a great script. See if you can reflect the content of the play in the structure of the play. For example, in Proof, the author structures the play, which is about the validity of a math problem, like a mathematic proof. He takes us on a roller coaster where we have to add up the doubt against what we believe and then do the math to finally solve the problem based on the evidence that has been presented to us. The play is masterfully crafted to reflect the content in the form. Below is commentary from writer and student Jon Bastian on this subject…

Jon Bastian on “Form Follows Function”
As a writer, the term “form follows function” fascinates me, because my father was an architect – and it’s from the field of architecture that the term is derived. It, and its inverse – “function follows form” – were the big architectural battlefield of the 20th Century. Without putting it in the same terms, I think many writers have fought the same battle without realizing they were involved.

In architectural terms, “form follows function” means this. If you’re hired to design, say, a bakery, you’re not going to design it to look like a train station. Oh, it may be a really pretty train station, with long, gleaming platforms and high skylights and beautiful ticket kiosks in gleaming stained glass. But when the bakers get there and realize that the flour is stored on Platform A, the ovens are in the left-luggage section and the refrigerators are out in the switching yard, they’re going to come back and say, “Hey – thanks for the crappy bakery.” They cannot perform their function – baking – because the place was designed to be something entirely different.

It’s also interesting to note that, again in the architectural world, a corollary to “form follows function” was “ornament is a crime.” The architects were talking about unnecessary buttresses, gargoyles and other geegaws – go look up “Bauhaus” for more on the structural version. But note only the word “unnecessary” in terms of writing. Something – anything, everything – in your writing should be ornamental and pretty, or ornamentally ugly – but it should never be unnecessary. See the “story is like a river” comments in Chapter 1 on The Concept Sentence for a reminder about necessity.

But back to “form follows function” as it relates to us...

When it comes to writing, it simply means that the structural and stylistic elements of your script should match the content of your story. If you’re writing a domestic comedy about a modern husband and wife, it probably wouldn’t do to design it as a five act classical tragedy in iambic hexameter. Likewise, an action adventure movie about a larger-than-life 17th Century pirate probably shouldn’t be written in 21st Century urban slang and laid out in elaborate flashbacks and dream sequences.

Some of this may seem self-evident, but it’s the other side of the coin that gets complicated. Mainly, finding the form that does follow your function. This is where examining the themes and adjectives for your story really come in handy. The adjectives will describe the styles you’ll lean toward, while the themes will give you insight into the structures.

For example, if one of your themes is “Alienation”, then you should attempt to keep your audience off-balance. Approach normal moments in non-traditional ways, make characters strange and (one time to break the rule) inaccessible. If one of your adjectives is “Mysterious”, keep the language oblique and withhold information – don’t tell the audience any more than they need to know.

Some examples to look at: Memento. One of the themes could be “Life with no short-term memory”, and the entire film is structured from that point of view, making the audience experience life exactly as the hero does – A Beautiful Mind follows the same strategy by only showing us events from the protagonist’s point of view. Another example: in La mala educación (Almodóvar’s Bad Education), one of the themes could be “Fantasy as escape”, and many sequences in the movie are actually made-up versions of real events – something we don’t know until very late in the film. Finally, for a less literary example, a theme for Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope could be “A boy becomes a hero” and, indeed, the story structure of that entire film is admittedly lifted directly from Joseph Campbell’s “A Hero’s Journey.” That’s been covered in detail in other books, but as the story begins, Luke Skywalker actually wants to go fight for the Empire, and has to be convinced to take up the task of helping Princess Leia and Ben Kenobi.

As you begin to structure your script, ask yourself, “What am I building?” If it’s a bakery, build a bakery. If it’s a train station, build a train station. But look to your themes and adjectives for clues, keep your concept sentence in mind for what is necessary – and you should be able to make form follow function, and avoid unnecessary ornament.

It isn’t as hard as it sounds. You just have to let the chosen elements assemble themselves. After all, the one advantage we have over architects is this: stories are not bound by the rules of physics.

Other Examples
Here are some other well-known films and plays, with their content compared to their structure – their function vs. their form.

Exercise @

1. Make a list of the content of your script. Then next to it, write down how you are reflecting the content of the script in the form of the script. Keep an open mind, use your imagination and go out on a limb to complete this exercise. From José Rivera: “Be prepared to risk your entire reputation every time you write, otherwise it's not worth your audience's time.”

Che’Rae Adams is the Producing Artistic Director of the Los Angeles Writers Center. The above excerpts are from her book “Writing is Hard and Other Whinny Baby Comments: An Objective Approach to Looking at Your Own Writing” with additional material by Jon Bastian and Colm Byrne.

Che’Rae teaches writing workshops in North Hollywood at the Lankershim Arts Center-her next workshop starts Monday, July 29^th-log onto www.cheraeadams.com to register.