So the last year or so I've been wanting to spend my downtime writing but somehow just couldn't get into the mood.
Let me say that I'm not a writer but a director who likes to write sometimes, but usually I write the first draft and then someone with more experience does the writing.
But I've had a couple of ideas that I've been wanting to write and I just could not get in the right mood.
Lately I've found a new way of getting the work done.
I usually create an outline to a degree and then try and start to write but I always get stuck at something and then I stall there.
But this time I did something different. I wrote all the scene names and under the scenes I wrote a short description of what I wanted to happen and I did that right up till the end.
Then I just went from the beginning to the end and expanded.
First the action and then the dialog.
I'm really happy because I actually got the first draft done in a week and a couple of days.
So I'm interested what do you guys do to write or make it easier.
I'm especially interested in people who are not foremost writers.
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Hi Vital - I block my scenes out, divided into 3 acts. Usually a short paragraph describing the action in each scene. I used a board and index cards (pictured), but now I use the beat board on Final Draft. I can do a split screen with the cards and my script, and it takes up less space.
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Well, I'm a writer who hates directing :) Can we find some mutualness?
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Talk about a picture that paints a thousand words! Literally! I wish I were as well organized as you are!
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Jerry - that's old school...I use it and it still works for me. I've also used post-it notes stuck on the studio window. Whatever works for you is the 'right' way.
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Doug - I love the board and cards and it took me a while to get used to the virtual board; it was a matter of space for me. I will admit, the virtual board isn't as much fun as the cards
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The solution of understanding why it worked what you did could maybe a "Film Courage" lecture: Conceptual writer/mind [versus] Intuitive writer/mind --- you can't use both at the same time!
Watch from 11:29 -- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hZgWw5juPJ8
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Seems like you've got it figured out! I like the notecards on MovieMagic but I just use Excel to plot the story out. You can put as many variables as needed into the columns.
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I am a scriptment guy. I call it my Dot Point stage.
I’ll put questions in the document and hints to myself like “we need to demonstrate sorrow”.
Just realised I use “we”.
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Thank you guys for pitching in.
Jerry Robbins oh wow that's cool. I like to do some things analog and it's a good idea. I'll try to find a way how to do it so that I don't have to use so much space which I currently don't have.
@Kiril Maksimoski we should definitely connect! I don't hate writing I just have a director's way of doing it.
@ Rutger Oosterhoff I think you're on to something thank you. I think I'm more of a "conceptual" and it was put nicely that the characters I wrote have never been organic. Because they literally were not and a way I have always found to deal with that is to partner up with someone who gives my characters life.
@ Juliana Beckett thank you. Well I have never actually used excel for something like this because I don't think I'd get any writing done that way.
It's interesting because when I was a kid we lived in Africa and I never had any problem but when we moved back to my native country problems in school developed. After sending me to a bunch of learning specialists they figured out that I was a rare case of person who uses not one half of the brain predominantly but both. Also why I'm nether a lefty or a righty but both. They figured out that I am both technically inclined and artistically. Which is consistent to what I've found in my life.
But what I'm trying to say is that I think that this reflects in my writing as well since I have stories I'd like to write but they might not be coming out exactly the way I'd want because I get hung up on the technical part also. Need to work on that.
@Craig D Griffiths very interesting. I've done that myself but later on when I was rewriting a screenplay. I just put questions and built a character around it. Thank you for reminding me.
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Vital Butinar, what you describe is effectively how I write. Scriptments changed everything for me. I suggest you take a good look at Scrivener which fits this development method particularly well. Also check out PreWrite.
Here's more on my system which might work well for you.
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That is great Vital, a great team is a powerful thinktank, and you can get each other out of possible tunnel vision!
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Notebooks. cheap notebooks. pens and pencils. I like this method because I don't feel trapped in the software of the screen. Lists. I make lists -- sequences, actions (your method is strong), scenes, pieces of dialogue --- without regard for shape or where things fit. Just let 'er rip. Then with all your bounty begin to shape sequences.
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Vital, that's the way I do it, too!
I call my version an "outline/scene list," in that I try to describe how each scene's supposed to play out. Any sort of dialog I really, truly want to put into the screenplay I'm planning out goes into the outline/scene list as well. And while I'm building the OSL, I also do research on the world I'm trying to construct with that screenplay. (For example, when I was working on "Pixie Dust," I went online to learn as much as I could about the school "Pixie Dust" depicted, the University of Minnesota-Twin Cities...especially the school's campus life.)
Gotten myself to where I don't want to launch an actual screenplay until I've developed an OSL beforehand. (And even when I'm actually writing the script, I continue to hit Google for extra research...anything to help make things lifelike and believable.)
Once the script's FADE IN-FADE OUT boundaries are determined, I run it through Prewrite for further fine-tuning.
Great post, Vital! All the VERY BEST to you!
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Thanks @CJ Walley. That was a nice read and I checked out PreWrite looks interesting.
Like I said I'm not exactly a writer but I try to put down on paper the film I see in my head.
It is right @Rutger Oosterhoff. I like working with teams because it makes everything a lot better in the end. More ideas and more stuff gets done well.
@Douglas Glenn Clark that's really interesting. Myself I kind of go between analog and digital all the time. I do stuff digitally then at one time I make notes and of course lose them and then make them digitally again.
@Jim Boston well I had the story in my head so I just wrote the outline with scenes and a short description and then started expanding.
It's interesting because I get to a point in a couple of scenes where I get stuck a little but by doing this I can move on to the next scene and still get some work done. Where when I was writing from start to finish I would get stuck and that's it.
So this way at least I get more done before having to figure out all the stuff.
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I consider myself to be primarily an author - prose and literary fiction, but I woke up one day with a movie in my head and I'm in the process of writing the screenplay. And by "in the process" I mean I am literally learning the mechanics of how to write a screenplay. That said, I am approaching it pretty much as you have lined out. It lets me flesh out my story while I figure out how to make it a movie.
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@Kelli Lightfoot oh that's cool and yeah it helps me too. I've started writing a couple of things but never finished because of this exact reason because I always got stuck. But with this one I'm just flying trough the first draft.
When I finish this one I'll go back and try the same way.
Good luck with your screenplay.