Hah! I am at this very moment struggling with my first attempt and going through all of that. I'm halfway through a class at UCLA Extension and my story, although I've been kneading it for some time, is harder to craft than first thought. We are in the middle of developing our 'scriptment' which I think this is a fine way to spot the holes and weak spots, as well as those that look like they might work.

What timing. I think I'll print this one out and tape it to my wife's forehead.

Thanks

There's a concomitant mantra to this one: "Trust the process." A story needs what it needs to come to life. But that forward energy, to keep pressing on toward the end, is critical. That's why I always tell students, even if they LOATHE prep-writing, at least know your four big plot points: Story's beginning, end of Act I, end of Act II, story's ending. If you are really locked down on those four, then there's a pretty good chance you should be able to find your way to FADE OUT.

I never really thought about the story points I need before I start writing.

Mine are

1) Beginning
2) Event that propels Act 2 (end of Act 1)
3) Midpoint
4) Event that propels Act 3 (end of Act 2).

I generally don't have anything specific thought out for the ending. I find that if I do, it limits the characters. I wind up writing for the "solution" rather than letting the characters find their own story. I only have the vaguest inkling as to what the ending will or could be.

As I am writing, I also know -- there is a missing story beat that I will need to find between 3 and 4. There is something that I never saw. Something that only the process of the characters on their journey will reveal to me through the writing process.

This "missing" beat along with #4, usually gives me enough clues as to how the end will wind up or collide.

On a side note -- The beginning (#1) is usually the last thing I come up in pre-writing, before I start writing. And it's the first thing I write in the actual document. Generally, the beginning is a microcosm for the entire movie.

James, I know writers who share your approach -- they don't WANT to know the ending because they want their characters to surprise them. As I've said before, there is no right way to write, every writer must figure out what works for them. However, in a classroom setting with aspiring and even novice screenwriters, almost the single most important plot element is the ending. With an ending, a young writer will at LEAST know where they're heading to, so no matter how much they get lost in writing Act II, they can always target the ending.

I think it's fair to say, too, that writers evolve. I used to work out every scene, beat for beat, before I typed FADE IN. Now I don't. It's way much more now about finding the characters, digging into them to find out where THEY want to go.

GREAT post, Scott.

- E.C. Henry from Bonney Lake, WA

"I never really thought about the story points I need before I start writing."

Haha, I worded that vaguely...

It sounds like I'm saying I don't think about the story points before writing :p

What I meant was -- I have never given it much thought on this topic.

Oops. lol.

I do need sign posts. Particularly for features. They are invaluable for traversing 100-110 pages of content.

That's what I get for thinking out loud~ Or on the blog response :p

Thank you for this post. I'm with Millar, and will be printing it out and, well-- no wife, but I'll tape it to my dog's forehead. He's usually staring at me as I write anyway, so that should work out fine.

Millar and Naomi, no problem with you taping the post on your wife and dog's foreheads (respectively) -- just don't use duct tape! ;)

Great post, dude.

I have a shorthand I use for the same thing . . . FTF, which stands for: Finish The Fucker.

So true. I have made the mistake so many times. I've dived into the writing phase too fast. This never turned out well.

Hopefully I have learned my lesson.

In my current project that I've so far (78% done of first draft) not met any of the problems I've had before.

A beatsheet and goals for every character in every scene, no exceptions. That was my trick. And dicipline :-)

I've dedicated my blog to this process:

Desiree, you might get a kick out of screenwriter-director Paul Shrader's approach to prep-writing, extremely thorough and analytical. I posted about it here and here.

Excellent -- and for me, auspicious -- post. Thank you.

For the first time, I'm doing the prep work as thoroughly as possible. Surrounded by outlines, index cards and assorted hoo-ha. Not at all fun, but I think I'm beginning to see the entire thing much more vividly. I know it'll help me press ever onward, especially that at this point in my story (and in my writing) I'm heading into Uncharted Territory.

Scott,
I wrangled with scripts for 15 years and continually ran into the conundrum you describe. I chalk most of it up to being in my 20's and having little to no patience with myself nor the tales I had to tell. There are screenplay corpses strewn across my landscape because of it and it's quite sad, really. I killed valid movies because of twentysomething ADD.

I'm working on my first novel and I'm wringing every aspect out before even beginning on that distant waystation called Chapter One. It can be a little maddening (minutia like the color of a character's toothbrush...ooooh, riveting!) but it's all necessary and will cause a most glorious event... a completed first draft.

You do quite a service here on this blog and it's much appreciated, to be sure.

Thank you for the links. They were really interesting.

I definitely agree with you on "doing the hard work up front gives me more room for creative thinking in my page-writing process."

This is an awesome post. Without a doubt, getting through teh first draft is the hardest part of writing a screenplay. I have found that it's invaluable to have someone to answer to, so you do the work. There are a lot of "boot camp" type places but one of the coolest ones I have found is the Film Connection, www.film-connection.com. They offer one on one mentoring which is teh best way to get a screenplay finished.

Mediawarrior, I've never done a boot camp per se, but anything that forces a writer to gut it out all the way through the first draft is all right by me. Thanks for those links!

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