Most novelists and screenwriters struggle to hook readers and keep them interested.
The number one problem script readers and coaches see in stories is a certain point, somewhere between the end of Act I and just after it, when they realize they don’t care about the characters or what’s going to happen. The story is dead.
One way to fix this problem is with a solid structure. Here are a few structural frameworks that might be helpful to you. They can be used at various stages of planning a story, and they can be used together or separately.
Joseph Campbell’s Hero’s Journey:
The standard steps of the classic mono myth are old-fashioned, but can help writers who struggle with a compelling plot. The trick is making sure your story conforms to these steps without feeling like every other story.
This method simplifies things to their bare essence, in terms of the level of spectacle in a story. It works well for smaller stories, like short stories and TV scripts.
This structuring method from screenwriter Chris Soth can help through the long desert of Act II. By breaking the act into several “mini-movies,” each with its own complete story, it puts you in the mind of sequences and set pieces. Your story becomes more like a Russian nesting doll than one long, boring line.
Too many stories feature characters doing the same things, not moving the story forward. Using mini-movies can keep things progressing and keep the audience invested in what’s happening.
The Arches Method:
In this method, you chart setups and payoffs and draw each one as an arch across a long horizontal timeline of your story.
Whenever you plant a mystery, question, curiosity, “strange attractor,” or a cliffhanger, either emotional or physical, you start an arch. Whenever you answer the question, solve the mystery, or resolve the cliffhanger, you close the arch.
The goal is to create many interlocking arches throughout, some short, some long, to keep the audience hooked by more than one thing throughout. Best to make sure all the arches are closed by the end of the story.
This method works well for longer stories: novels, epic movies, or seasons of a TV series.
The Art House method:
If you don’t like traditional structure or story convention, just follow your characters and see where they lead you. You’ll probably end up with an ambiguous “art house” type of story, possibly with an ending that doesn’t feel fully resolved.
Even so, when characters drive a story, it can be more immersive and believable than a plot-driven story.
Regardless of what method you use, practice telling and writing a lot of stories. It’s the best way to master the art of storytelling.
These are all solid methods of storytelling methods. For my first feature I am going arthouse method in a Monty Python sort of sketch movie way like Holy Grail.
I feel the aimlessness you describe a lot in many Netflix-type series. The creators would have been better off shaping the story into a 2-hour movie, rather than stretching it out to 8 or 10 hours using various subplotting techniques.