Melissa Donovan has a very good article on whether or not writers should “write what they know” here.
Kate George drew my attention to this article on the six-stage Hollywood plot structure. Hollywood movies go in distinct stages, with a specific percentage of the story time devoted to each stage. The details are here. Her blog is here.
Best wishes from Down Under.
Richard Snow Writer 
Hey Richard! Thanks for the mention. Hope the writing is going well down there at the bottom of the world… I’m struggling to get my word counts in, but I’m writing until I can’t keep my eyes open any longer so I guess I can’t do any better than that!
It’s a pleasure. Actually its hard down here because the southern hemisphere is upside down and we have to hold onto the ground to stop falling off into space. Makes it hard to write at the same time.