The Story

cannon

cannon

Active member
I always seem to start my scripts by writing a narrative story. I'll write down some key points I want to focus on (my beginning, middle, and end) then from there let my creative juicies flow.

Once I have my story finished (after all the re-writes), I write it into proper script format.

What is everybody else's method of writing the story?
 
In my process I typically start with a strong opening, my mind then goes blank and panic ensues.

I have tried working with an outline first, but it isn't as much fun.

Chris
 
I get this whacked out idea or scene in my head, slowly fill it out a bit, and see if it might hold water. Then, I have to figure out what happened to get to that point, and where it leads to. If I can develope the characters in the original idea, you can build a story around them... sometimes.

Bottom line is, you don't need to start at the beginning. Especially the way a lot of recent films start at the end, go to the middle, then go to the beginning. 13 Monkeys is a prime example.
 
Well, you obviously need to know the ending because you can't get there if you don't know where you're going. Then it's nice to have intermediate goals (plot points and mid point, if you like) and of course a starting point.

I use these to start a few pages of bullets which correspond loosely to scenes. When I have the whole thing laid out, I can start writing. I just keep moving forward from bullet to bullet until I reach each intermediate goal and finally the ending. Of course the bullets always seem to evolve as I move through the project. It's always fun to see the finished screenplay then go back and compare it to the bullets I used to create it, just as it is to go back and look at previous drafts to see how the screenplay has grown and matured.
 
Agreed, Blaine...

though I have traveled on a few creative road-trips without a road-map (outline) - or even a destination (ending) in mind from time to time.
Sometimes thems the best journeys. Sometimes.
 
CallaghanFilms said:
Agreed, Blaine...

though I have traveled on a few creative road-trips without a road-map (outline) - or even a destination (ending) in mind from time to time.
Sometimes thems the best journeys. Sometimes.
Click to expand...
Those are the trips I save for writing non-screenplay stories and novels.
 
CMessineo said:
In my process I typically start with a strong opening, my mind then goes blank and panic ensues.

I have tried working with an outline first, but it isn't as much fun.

Chris
Click to expand...

Been there done that. I feel your pain.
 
Start drinking...heavily and the grab a pen or a computer or whatever's around and see what happens. OK, so I guess a rough idea of the key beginning, middle and end isn't a bad idea. :)
 
Caffeine

Caffeine

Drink three cups of coffee before you go to bed. As you're watching the ceiling with your eyes the size of saucers you'll be surprised the creative stuff that come into your head. Pick one of these thoughts, give it a little slack and see where it takes you, storyline wise. You'll often find that it takes on a life of it's own.

The only downside to this technique is that you can forget a lot of the twists and turns that came to you so easily as you thrashed around in your bed.

The last time this happened to me I though up a story about an American in World War II London who is taken out of jail by the British intelligence with a deal to go to France to find the heavy water (as in needed to make nuclear warheads) that was hidden there by the French intelligence before they got overrun by the Nazis. The only guy in the world who knows the location of the heavy water is the number one French spy and hero of the French people. Unfortunately, he is in prison.

The deal for the American is to find this hero and get him out of France before the Nazis realize who he is and what he knows. They pick the American since he is legendary in the intelligence world and he was recommended by the number one British intelligence agent right before he was mysteriously killed while in France on the very same mission. So there's a mole in the French intelligence to deal with as well.

I think you get the idea.

Oh, yeah, make sure you don't have anything planned the next day cause you're gonna be real tired. But, hey, no pain, no gain.


Cruise
 
I start all over the place. Just depends what idea I'm starting off of. As a director sometimes I've written a script based off a visual style I wanted to try. Sometimes I've got a cool, unique high-concept. Sometimes I've just got a single scene in my head that I structure an entire movie around (sometimes that scene doesn't even end up in the script).
I don't know where my scripts are going recently before I start writing. If I plan it too much my scripts are too plot driven for my own taste recently.
 
I always start with a scene and build everything off of that important visual image or images. Then i proceed to drink heavily and smoke lots of dope (jking). But i always seem to get stuck on character development, so most of the things i write are very visual.
 
I just try and question and hone the premise - always thinking "Is this project worth while moving forward with...?".

Once that's done, I'll try and create a logline that captures the premise in an exciting manner.

Then scraps of an outline and dialogue and character all come and go, until I pannel-beat the outline into something more of a classic three act structure form...



EJ
 
There are no rules to writing. I agree with that.

I think everyone should develop a unique strategy and workflow that is personalized for them.... I tend to stick to a workflow that is somewhat like this....

STORY (basic idea of what happens, what its about, characters, settings, etc and I often do not start at the beginning but sometimes I do, its good to be open and flexible)

TREATMENT (this is in short story form, not too much dialogue, setting details, character traits, etc 20-70 pages "usually")

1ST DRAFT SCRIPT (everything condensed into the proper format, dialogue fleshed out and what have you, not overboard with camera direction)

FINAL DRAFT OF SCRIPT (the fruit of all that labor)


so yeah, I often start out as if I'm just writing a story. I find that when I do it this way, the ideas just pour out and I can get them outta my b-b-b-brain quicker and on to the paper. Once my brain is drained I go back over all that chicken scratch and start pulling elements out to get them ready for the script.

and for some bizarre reason I get pretty much 99% of my ideas for shots and stories while I'm driving.... just always has been that way
 
yeah. sometimes

mind you, I'm going directly from my brain/gut right onto the paper with NO filter or buffer.... sometimes it just flows and it gets a little wordy and sprawling but I like to at least let it all come out

I then go back over all them words with an exacto knife and start carving, my treatments are informal, with a lot of weird details and camera direction and random thoughts.... I just find that this way helps me better.... I'm also kind of OCD, in that, if I dont right some RANDOM POINTLESS detail down, I'll start to obssess on it and it will prevent me from making progess..... I'm trying to work on this :beer:
 
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