Typically, I'll come up with an idea and write it down as fast as possible, just making whatever notes I like on paper. Then I'll hit characters - very brief profiles on paper again.

Then I'll leave it. I'll go over it in my head for a few days/weeks etc then when I can't NOT write it down, I'll get to work. I'll open a word doc and do the briefest of outlines.

I often decide to write the opening 10 pages or so before going any further - it helps me get a feel for the idea and see if it's worth taking any further - can I actually write it?

From there, I'll keep expanding the outline until I'm ready to attack the script. 9 times out of 10, the original 10 pages I wrote will change like mad 0 the beauty of developing ideas.

Cool post :)

Jeff,

DON'T GIVE UP!!! Dude, if you've got offers from producers YOU ARE MILES ahead of most of us here. Congradulations! Take the $$ and see where it goes... I would -- if I were in your shoes.

Funny you should mention index cards when I'm staring at corkboard full of them! (My latest sports comedy being built as we speak)
Dude, diss the cards if you want, but IF used properly they do serve a KEY purpose; they let you see your whole story as blocks. I use index cards to represent scenes. Then once on a corkboard I can see my whole story at once.

In my own writing life I've found that outlines are a springboard for the script. Ideas turns scenes played out on 1-2 pages hand written on pages. When I generate enough pages I open a script file. These pages then get written onto index cards. Index cards and the scene pages then turn into a story outline.
My story outline lays out a path for the story to take. Now I do often times devieate off my outline's path, but it's like my security blanket. What can I say. Dude, I'm like the Linus in the word of today's Charlie Brown story tellers. Damn it I like my security blanket! I need my outline. It give me the confidence I can pull a story off.


So Scott, back to your question; how do I prepare to write a screenplay? Simple, it's all about building up enough critical mass so that I have the confidence BEFORE I ever type in a word in Final Draft that I can pull it off.


Jeff, I hope this helps. Don't give up.

- E.C. Henry from Bonney Lake, WA

It's all in my head. Plot, characters, backstory and camera angles for artsy action and scenes. But realizing my current illustrating abilities are lacking, and would hinder me from creating my ideal quality comic/graphic novel. I have since deciding that the outline, structure and words need to be my starting blocks.

I've become comfortable with outlining several pages in Word, and then dividing into 3 somewhat balanced acts, then plotting the scenes in each. After reading Ryan Condal's interview and how he spoke on structure I was very intrigued by that, and Galahad was such a good read. So I've been teaching myself to set that up first.

I do a lot of handwriting in a journal. This seemed a little crazy at first; I've been using computers since I was in the third grade. I was a little ahead of the curve, but I imagine that people younger than me are used to typing everything out.

The problem with typing it out on a computer is that you start editing yourself too soon. Heck, even when you begin, you need to come up with a name for the file. And typing out something like "And what if the good dude and the bad dude totally fought on a hovercraft?" and saving that just seems stupid. So you start thinking of the characters names and descriptions and scenes and start trying to shape everything way too early. But in a notebook, you just scribble it out and keep on writing. It's not a big deal to write out something like "And the dude should get a job as a bouncer, like Roadhouse. Nah. That's stupid. How about a yoga teacher." and just keep going instead of slipping into revision mode. One of my scripts started out as two words. "Space Ninjas." If I had gone straight to a computer file, I would have decided the story was stupid and thrown it away before giving it a chance.

When I get enough I start working on "the document." I call it an outline, so I guess it's an outline. I write that in a text editor. Similar to handwriting, if I do it in a word processor I'll start goofing around with formatting and fonts and layout and headings instead of just writing the damn thing. That has character bios, a brief synopsis, logline, some backstory, etc. But the heart of that is a big long treatment. That ends up being about 50-60 paragraphs. I figure each paragraph is a 'scene' even if they take case at the same location.

Even when I work on the outline, I'm still doing a lot of writing in the journal. Trying things out. Working through them. For me, it's important to actually write the thought process out. I'm probably superstitious, but I feel like I'll lose a lot of stuff if I just do the stare out the window method of writing.

After that, I put the 'treatment' portion of the 'outline' into a word document and format it in manuscript format (12pt courier, double spaced, one inch margins) so I can take a red pen to it if I need to, and print it out. That's usually about 20-30 pages or 5-8 thousand words.

Then I start writing the script. The rough draft is a vomit draft. Just write out two pages of the treatment a day and finish in two or three weeks. Still plenty of running through ideas in my journal with a pen as I do that.

First I think about it. A LOT. Then I write an outline of the story. Then I do character bios.

Then when I'm ready I do the notecards. I write linearly, too, so the notecards aren't about shifting things around. They're about segmenting the story into sequences. Each notecard is a sequence.

Then I put them up on my bulletin board in pretty colors and don't usually look at them again until I get stuck. They're there to keep me on track.

I'm big on pre-writing.

1. Logline-- re-write it several times, thnk about the concept & story for a long time.

2. Notes-- jot down random ideas about char's, theme, events etc

3. Worksheets-- i don't hear too much talk about these, but I fill out pre-made questionnaires (that i made up) with every script. They help jog my brain & keep me organized. You ask the same Qs about char's, setting, theme, plot, etc every time you write a script, so why not have them written out beforehand? It's a time saver.

3. Sequences-- I use the Seq Method. I segment my story into 12-14 big chunks. Really helps with pacing. Using this method guarentees your story turns every 8-10 pages. I rewrite these several times.

4. Outline-- I outline the events (beats) in each seq & scene before I write the action & dialogue. I rewrite several times.

Oh... I don't use index cards either. Tried them yrs ago but found them awkward & not really useful. I use a Word doc (which I print out) to work out the plot/outline.

Since i write using the seq as my main guide, each scene is tied to a particular seq. There's usually no need to movie individual scenes around. And every story i've written so far has been linear.

No paper, no pencil, no cards... I've tried it all. They work. They actually work really well. But they don't work great.

For a recent spec I tried using a TAPE RECORDER. Just hitting the red button and spilling every thought that came from the initial concept.

For me, this was a GOLDEN discovery. I'd heard of using a tape recorder, but it seemed... well... too easy. And it is -- you're just doing exactly what you do BEFORE you outline and write everything down. You're just thinking ALOUD.

So once I've got everything from my head into all of these various cassette tapes, I sit down, find my tape labeled "#1" and hit PLAY.

From there, it's like there's someone else in the room just FEEDING you a story. Plot points, scenes, dialogue, even characters are streaming from your own voice that you don't even remember coming up with.

It almost feels like stealing someone else's story... Which makes me feel like a thief and rebel... And that's kind of exciting for a writer.

When I come up with an idea, I write it down or copy the article that sparked it, and then file it in a folder on my laptop or jump-drive depending on where I am (currently my jump drive has 73 folders with 169 files – I’ve put related folders and files in a single master folder, i.e. my Espionage folder has an additional 17 folders and 23 files).

Then I let the ideas gestate. Periodically, I review my folders, reread articles and ideas and add notes or other ideas as necessary.

Once I have a “real story” (beginning, middle and end) that I’m going to pursue I begin my research. The research goes into a folder under the master idea folder. Along the way, I continue to make notes on anything that crosses my mind during the process, from personality traits and ideas for secondary stories to timelines and trivia that may be related to the story.

At some point during the research phase – usually when the story has coalesced sufficiently – I begin to work on an outline using a monstrous form (120 columns x 180 rows) that I developed as an Excel spreadsheet.

It starts with The Rack (Dan Decker, Anatomy of a Screenplay) as an overall header and proceeds with subsequently more detailed outlines finally finishing with Michael Hauge’s screenplay structure as the footer. In between I’ve assigned blocks to represent Save the Cat’s basic 15 and more advanced 40 scene cards, Scott’s Narrative Throughline, the 8 Sequence Structure by Ryan Condal and the basic Contour structure developed by Jeffrey Alan Schechter. As much as possible, I’ve evenly divided the various sections into a 120 page format.

After filling out (as much as possible) the form, I get writing, abandon the form and any sort of outline I may have previously had by the end of the second page and start down the path to rewrite hell.

I like to start stories from real life events and people. Sometimes you read about someone doing something interesting, so I look at that. I examine the interest or even the people carefully. From every angle -- looking at there links, associations with people and the world they live within. There character as well.

Then ideas for a narrative start to spring out. In this way you also get to see the idiosyncrasies of people and the worlds they live within.

In one instance I took myself to a beach town and literally interviewed with tape and camera in hand over 1500 people relating to a subject. I recorded everything. Then watched the recordings and just wrote about the people their experiences and relationships.

Google, lots of 5x8s and no sleep for a week. I probably spend more time on WikiPedia than writing the script - OK that's a little exaggerated, but I have gotten degrees in things in my movies.

Maybe that's why I don't do period pieces. :-)

I just write on paper. Ideas and thoughts, the stupid ones, the good ones, things that contradict each other. Just get it all out there. And then I handwrite a treatment. And then type it up. These things all change with every pass. Once this has coalesced, I do some sort of outline. Character profiles, environment profiles, theme ideas are all useful things as part of that mad idea pile you start with.

As a person who thinks better when thinking aloud this is excellent advice!