The Screenwriting Process: Where to begin, and how to proceed.

Isaac_Brody

Isaac_Brody

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I thought it’d be useful and enlightening to talk about the writing process. Feel free to add your own process to this list. Here’s mine.

1. I'll usually get an idea and write it down first as a short summary. Sometimes I'll break it down into three acts, I'll talk it out with a friend, ask myself what's interesting about the idea. Usually I'll try and see if the idea has legs before I progress.

2. Then I'll write out the script as a rough short story. Sometimes I'll even put in lines of dialogue.

3. Sometimes I'll start writing, and try to bang out ten pages or until I run out of steam. I find it necessary to go right in to get excited about the project. I also find that immediately starting gets me to that wall, that point when I need to go back and figure out all the background information.

4. I'll usually do character bios at this point, going moderately deep with the main characters. I don't like to spend too much time on bios since I find they tend to sap my excitement for a project.

5. Then I'll do a rough outline of the first draft. If I have the energy I tend to figure out the ending at this point, the point I'm trying to make, etc.

6. Writing. At this point the writing tends to go in spurts. Some days are good with about 5-7 pages, other days are 1-3 page days.

7. About a month into the writing I start to get lost in the forest and I'll have to read everything up to that point. Rereading the beginning tends to reignite the fire and helps focus things more.

8. The "This script is a piece of poo poo stage" I'm tempted to rewrite things but I force myself to keep going until it's finished.

9. Rough draft finished. I give myself a few days. Sense of elation.

10. Restless Stage. Time to clean up that rough draft. Fix spelling mistakes, grammar, do some rough trims and general cleaning.

11. Copyright the work.

12. Send it out to get feedback from close friends and readers.

13. 2nd, 3rd, wash, rinse, repeat, a serviceable draft. The work is never perfect, but it's good enough at this stage.
 
That seems like a pretty good process. Much like many people I follow much of the same progression. Though poo poo part comes earlier for me and I ususally have to fight through that to get to the rough outline.
 
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From my springboard (character, what if, line of dialogue, etc.) I figure out the ending and work backwards. I am a firm believer that the ending is 75% of the story. The audience is far more forgiving if your movie ends well after starting slow, rather than awesome 80 minutes and a crap ending.
Write story out in prose (sorta treatment, but more artsy) as fast as I can. Gets the tone and story beats out. You can find real gems this way b/c you're writing subconsciously, paying less attention to 'rules and logic'...just letting everything tell you what to write (more organic).
Put it away for a bit to get distance, objectivity, sharpen sword to kill yer babies.
Go over it in passes: story, structure, story holes, etc.
Have a rough outline of scenes, lines of dialogue, sequences, etc. on notecards put in order of where they "belong" in your story. I like notecards b/c they give you a map when you get lost, but can be reshuffled if you want to zig where you had planned to zag in the orginal. Always good to let yourself the freedom to explore in the actual writing of the story if it feels right.
Finally, purchase hours of music and a pair of good studio monitor headphones. I recommend Sennheiser HD 25-1 (Europe model) or some other type that shuts off all outside noise. I know others need to work differently, but I can't write anything without music of some sort going.
 
I get the story idea and write out the premise so I can come back to it when I have time. I figure out the opening and ending then give myself a few key points. I then start making bullet points (which will later become scenes) to move along the path to my key points and ultimately the ending. 80-150 bullets later, I write the screenplay. I basically have all the scenes and then I get the characters talking to each other.

This may sound simplistic but after a lot of writing I have found that this is a method that works for me. It allows me to write very quickly, once I have it laid out. I've tried outlining...doesn't really work (although you could probably say that what I'm doing IS outlining) for me. Hate the 3 x 5 cards. I've done the treatment thing and only use it now when someone demands one of me. It's all a matter of finding what works for you...this works for me.
 
For me cards don´t work neither. Having made up the basic idea I going from scene to scene in Microsoft Words. Each scene represented just by few words. At that point everything is very flexible, still, 99% is happening in my imagination and is not fixed on paper, yet. So I can swap scenes, change them, skip them very easily. When I´m in the right mood it´s like the story is finding it´s path by itself. When everything is fixed, the scenes, the plotpoints, the main events and characters, I´ll go in the details until I have got a complete and well working treatment. I only start to write dialogues when I´m sure the story is well, but VERY WELL fixed.
 
The way I usually like to write is to get a full story outline down. Characters/Backgrounds/Motivations/Events and then flesh those out, filling in gaps along the way.
 
What I do is develope my characters first, actually I write down the subject, you know the tagline of what the story is about in one sentence, then I do my character bios, I find when I do the bios it let's my story stretch.. after I do the bios, I go into the treament, then begin writing the actually screenplay, ACt 1 2 ect.. then clean up the first draft, second draft and the final product... it's a long process but worth it..

And Isaac great idea about the copyright first than have friends read it, I usually have friends read it for feedback incase I need to fix any small things, but I think the copyright is the way to go first...
 
LoC & WGA(e).

Do only them. Either or both are fine (although LoC is MUCH better, but slower)

Do not do the 'poormans' thing.

EJ
 
omar_ said:
How are you guys copyrighting your scripts? poorman's copyright?
Click to expand...

I could have some unsealed envelopes stashed around which I had previously sent to myself, which now have a postage seal on them. I see your script. I like it. I replace your coverpage with mine, put the script in one of my envelopes and seal it. Now my envelope seal pre-dates yours. I make a movie using this script, you sue. In court I will win. In the unlikely event that you win, all you get to say is "I WON".

Copyright is now 45$ (just went up from 30$ at the beginning of July). Should you have it copyrighted, and I steal it then the balance is all the way in your favor. I will almost definitely lose and since you have copyrighted it, I will have to pay damages. Always copyright. It's there to protect you.
 
Wow, y'all are organized....I like to just come up with some characters I like and let them create the situations. It's easier if I've worked the characters out a bit beforehand, of course--that's why I like writing series or re-using characters.

I admit this "method" takes a while, but I'm not a high-volume writer in the first place.
 
Organize everything.
Ive gotten through 4-5 feature length scripts. My problem is I've thrown them all away/deleted them all because I didnt like how they turned out.
 
I suck at writing stories from scratch ... by far my biggest weakness... I probably don't give myself enough time to hash things out and try and make it work before scrapping the idea...

I need to start making a real effort to write just for the sake of writing, even if it's crap ...

Thanks for sharing your workflows... it's good to see how others work through the process
 
Copyright the Moon?

Copyright the Moon?

With the advent of the Internet it makes no sense to waste postage and mail a script to yourself (ever hear of mailing an empty envelope and stuffing it later when someone else comes up with an idea? Crooks abound, laddies). Domain names would be one way (they are date and timestamped for all the world to see).

My scripts have been shared with others (I'm not afraid of my ideas being stolen - like a man accused of murder, if I am in the company of hundreds of people during the time of death, I have an alibi. If everyone knows my script idea for years before someone else comes in and claims it for their own, I have witnesses. They come in real handy during the civil trial) ad naseum.

But, if you must (even though the words you write are "copyrighted" when written) spend the 45 bucks and copyright away. If you believe in your project enough, that's very little money (just don't go out to eat one weekend or give up beer for a week or two).


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My process has changed dramatically from one scriptto the next, but the best stories have always evolved out of my struggles with other ideas.

I spend a long time thinking about a story, envisioning the characters and key plot points in my mind. Then I try and create a great logline from the idea. If I have to change something in order to make the logline great, then I will. If I can create a good high concept premise for a movie, then that makes writing the script that much easier.

Often I will write a treatment and beat sheet, and then jump into the first draft of the script. Once I have finished the first draft I sit on it for a while, and then I compare it to the logline. Is the movie I have written an adequate rendition of the logline? Is it better, is it worse?

Then (and I have only yet done this once, but need to do it with more of my scripts) I go back to an outline, and reshape my script into a more solid product: refining stuff, developing subplots and characters, heightening the conflicts and obstacles.




I guess the most important thing I do in the process of writing my movies is the imagining of my script as the movie I want it to be, though I have never completely succeeded in writing the movie of my dreams. That is what future revisions are for, and I am never satisfied with my current drafts.

Some people seem to have problems where they write a mediocre movie, and think it's great. I have never really had that problem. If I write a mediocre script, and most will be mediocre at first, I know that it is mediocre. I am very critical of my work. Not to the point where I throw everything out ever 10 days or anything like that, but being critical has always allowed me to develop okay ideas into great ideas.

However, I will admit that some of the stories I originally thought were "great" concepts have really just seemed like cliched, rip-offs several years down the road. That is why I do not like to be that attached to any of my scripts. A writer needs to much more than his ideas, and he or she will always find new ideas for movies. Though some of my scripts might be based on better ideas than some of my later scripts, the later scripts are invariably superior, because they show a much more mature story arc and boast infinitely stronger 2nd acts than my earlier scripts.
 
Like others, my process is similar, because it works. However, I do like to take various breaks for "communication" between my ideas.

I almost always start from a key scene or philosophical concept of sorts (the latter works far better, but I take what comes). From there I am spending a fair amount of time germanating on characters for this story/world, researching the world, and basically hooking stories and scenes to the story spine that way. Once I feel like I have real momentum, I start into writing the "treatment" - I use quotes because this treatment is exclusively for my own reference, just a non-stop, basically unformatted list of "things that may happen" which I would never show to anyone else.

Right now my characters are either having their own lives, or they aren't. If they aren't, I stop to work through backstories, motivations, hopes and dreams, and all that. If they are (that is, if my characters are organically coming to life through the treatment) then I'll keep moving along.

This is the big "So what?" moment, usually. I'll review everything I've done and ask myself that question. Is this story unique and interesting? Does it have gravitas? Would anyone else care? Is the answer is no, then of course I'll try to ask for some advice, see if I can find a solution. But if that doesn't work then the whole idea may go in the closet. I have a LOT of ideas in the closet. Sometimes years will pass and I'll suddenly realize exactly what I need to do to make a story completely work. I've rarely experienced a shortfall of ideas, so this isn't a problem for me. For someone working solely as a professional writer, this might be a big problem indeed. I'm sure at some point I'll find out.

The writing? The writing is easy. When I'm in the flow, I can easily knock out 10, 15, even 20 pages a day. Getting a first draft done is rarely a challenge once it's come this far.

Re-writing... well, that's another story.
 
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