Good Evening Everyone,
After getting halfway through writing my Delivery Driver slasher script: The Reaper's Affiliate. I realized just how baffling the process of outlining a script is to the screenwriting process.
Outlines have been essential in keeping me on task while writing/re-writing my scripts. Especially since working on my script during the work week for me is scribbling in my "Notes" section during lunch.
However, it takes so much effort to create a document to organize your story before one even writes the script.
I have found it the most helpful in pushing through writer's block.
Like when I'm stuck on narrative logic, scene specifics or generally lost on what to do next. I break out my outline into a flowchart.
If I need to conceptualize an idea I want to use in my script, I create a "Scratch Paper" section in my "Notes."
Here I use this space to "logic out" my thoughts into an organized list. That way I can simplify and convey my ideas when I come back to writing my script.
I'm curious what your thoughts are on it. How do y'all outline scripts?
Let me know in the comments below. Thanks for reading and have a great day!
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A corkboard with index cards and https://prewrite.com/
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Completely agree. Outlining shows everyone (yourself included) that you take this job seriously.
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I make dot points. I write to my future self. I’ll put questions in the list. When I know the characters well. When I have empathy for them. When I know them as real people I’ll start writing.
For example I am working on something. I have a dot point that reads “Rob isn’t the sharpest tool in the shed - that is unfair”. I don’t delete notes. They were valid as I thought them. They serve a purpose. Even if they are unfair.
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if you want to write for tv, outlining is a must. Start practicing now.
https://twitter.com/GennHutchison/status/1427690408100851712?s=20
And if you want to write feature film assignments, outlining is a thing you do before you write the script. Bosses/corporate employers want step by step, micromanage
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Nash Peterson yes for the real craft it's essential for keeping track of so much story information as it gets created with so many different nuances and elements and connections;
I use sketchbooks, storyboards, spreadsheets, notes docs, pads of lined paper, wall collages, vision boards, pretty much whatever I feel like bringing into the process, post cards up on the wall, beat sheets,
I also employ a scalable granular system that from the top down goes
Acts (3), Sequences (12), Segments (36), Scenes (Master Scenes/Pages) (108),
"Shots" (Scene Headings) (approx. 150-200+).
Not that rigorously but that's the basic "dry-dock" that gives me room to design and build a jet ski or an aircraft carrier or anything in between!