Wow, fantastic response. So encouraging. I've always felt that while outlining and story planning have their usefulness, they also tend to kill the joy of writing the actual script. Which for me, when the writing's any good, is always an act of discovery. Thanks.

Ted, there's something I remember reading with Neil Simon who said he tried to outline, but every time he did, the characters were (figuratively) 'jumping off' his yellow legal pads. To paraphrase his summary: "Why would I want to work out the story beforehand? I want to discover it and be surprised as I write."

Thank you for taking time to answer my question.

Scott, your response is ironic since, as a high school drama teacher in NYC, I am currently directing the Neil Simon classic, "Lost in Yonkers." What a great play.

At this point, I just need to have faith in my own process, instead of trying to outline to death. One of my playwriting instructors noticed this early on and told me I'm just one of these guys who write in order to discover the story. He said it's not bad, it's just who I am. And that the flip side of this is I'll be doing a lot of rewriting on the back end to hone the story down to its essence. So true.

Thanks again...

Ted, sounds to me you received some solid advice from your instructor. As I'm prone to say, "There's no right way to write." One implication of that is each writer must discover their own way to write. And as your prof noted re your process, it's not bad, it's just who you are.

BTW, major props to you for the work you do: HS teacher. In my view, all teachers should get double their salaries -- teaching is that important to individual students and society as a whole.

I hope "Lost in Yonkers" is a big success for you.