wildstriker
Active member
Does anyone know what a story outline is and how do you go about writing it?
What is a story outline?
- Thread starter wildstriker
- Start date
j
Veteran
Check this out, it's very helpful as an overview:
http://www.skillset.org/film/business/#
See Scene 3-2
That might be what your asking about.
http://www.skillset.org/film/business/#
See Scene 3-2
That might be what your asking about.
Ted Spencer
Veteran
I don't think it's a particularly formal thing. They're mainly used by the writers themselves to organize a story/script idea before writing the script proper. I myself use a sort of outline/treatment hybrid; a simple Word doc where I try to tell the story of the script in as minimal a way as possible. I don't use any script conventions like INT - DAY - JOHN'S APARTMENT, or much of any dialog unless it's essential. It's not in strict outline format either (e.g. topic headers above sub-topics above sub-sub topics etc.). Paragraphs divide scenes, or more often scene sequences.
The main idea is to get a sort of 'bird's eye view' of the story through a simple and brief although inclusive narrative - all the major narrative and thematic ideas are covered. I'm working on one currently for a short that will be 10-12 minutes, and the treatment is about 2 pages. The bird's eye view afforded by its brevity enables me to see the whole easily rather than having to wade through many pages of script. Thus I can make big, fundamental changes at this stage without having wasted hours on formal writing. Using a word-processor also is hugely convenient because I can cut, paste and copy freely, and save multiple iterations if I want to go back to a previous version.
It's a modernized hybrid of outline, treatment *and* the tried and true 'index cards/bulletin board' method for freely non-linear scene and idea manipulation.
The interesting thing (at least for me) is, in spite of its simplicity, it's by far the hardest part of the writing process. It's where every idea can be tested, and where many of them fail. The ease of revising, and of seeing what's wrong in fact makes this the place where the real writing (the underlying story) happens. Once I'm satisfied that it's really really good, then I write the script itself, which tends to go like greased lightning by comparison. By then I already know the choreography - all I have to do is...
Dance!
: )
The main idea is to get a sort of 'bird's eye view' of the story through a simple and brief although inclusive narrative - all the major narrative and thematic ideas are covered. I'm working on one currently for a short that will be 10-12 minutes, and the treatment is about 2 pages. The bird's eye view afforded by its brevity enables me to see the whole easily rather than having to wade through many pages of script. Thus I can make big, fundamental changes at this stage without having wasted hours on formal writing. Using a word-processor also is hugely convenient because I can cut, paste and copy freely, and save multiple iterations if I want to go back to a previous version.
It's a modernized hybrid of outline, treatment *and* the tried and true 'index cards/bulletin board' method for freely non-linear scene and idea manipulation.
The interesting thing (at least for me) is, in spite of its simplicity, it's by far the hardest part of the writing process. It's where every idea can be tested, and where many of them fail. The ease of revising, and of seeing what's wrong in fact makes this the place where the real writing (the underlying story) happens. Once I'm satisfied that it's really really good, then I write the script itself, which tends to go like greased lightning by comparison. By then I already know the choreography - all I have to do is...
Dance!
: )
john threat
Carbonite Member
I found it helps me write scripts faster.
I drum out an outline as said , which is the story in broad strokes, from beginning to end if possible, but not always with all the fully realized sub plots.
I throw in a list of main characters, and boom. Then it's time to rock.
Script time.
Nervous
I drum out an outline as said , which is the story in broad strokes, from beginning to end if possible, but not always with all the fully realized sub plots.
I throw in a list of main characters, and boom. Then it's time to rock.
Script time.
Nervous
I think it's really idiosyncratic (if we're talking about an outline you write primarily for your own use). I tend to alternate between in-format action and dialog and short-medium paragraphs of descriptions. If there are influential images, I pin those up or print them in with the text. Some sequences are annotated with particular musical tracks (the music and images aren't for inclusion but there to hopefully evoke a response that I can distill and convey with text later). Usually it starts with isolated scenes, isolated lines, character concepts or settings, kind of strung together more-or-less in the order they first seem to relate, or at least the order they come up. That gets dragged into the form of thematic emphasis and plot structure to move through the various elements that are there.
Like I said...idiosyncratic. If you are writing an outline to hand out at a pitch there are more conservative forms to follow, which you shouldn't have trouble tracking down on line.
Like I said...idiosyncratic. If you are writing an outline to hand out at a pitch there are more conservative forms to follow, which you shouldn't have trouble tracking down on line.