Based on a quick discussion among writers -- what's your knuckleball? The little trick you use that seems to have made life easier, smoothes your process, but as far as you know isn't widespread.
For me, it's The Overwrite. For a long time, I outlined in a two column system on yellow pads. I still do, when roughing the ideas out and brainstorming.
But when I have something approaching a movie or episodic plot and is time to get down to the beat sheet, I fire up the screenwriting software and type the numbered beats (each no more than a sentence or two each, usually) directly into the blank script. Separating the four segments of the movie, or 8 sequences depending if The Monarch swings that way, and renumbering each cleanly.
Then, I overwrite the beat sheet. As the script progresses and real scenes get written, the document transforms into a Frankenstein hybrid of script and outline. But ... for whatever reason, this is a powerful psychological tool for me; I never write a script into the vast void of the blank page, rarely face the grind of that mocking drop-off. I'm just detailing out the movie as it already exists in rough form, the physicality of the single combined document somehow making a subtle, purely arbitrary difference from a blank script screen to the right of me and a scrawled outline to the left.
Your mileage may vary. In the Comments, please, your knuckleballs.
63 comments:
Two specs ago, around my third up-til-four-A.M.-I'm going-to-finish-the-damn-script-this-week night in a row, I felt like I was crashing out with tiredness 15 pages from the end. So I quickly wrote a scene beat by scene beat list of what had to happen to get to the end. Sometimes it was only three or four words, sometimes it was a line of dialogue, but it was my rough guide to the end of the film. The next day I was able to pick up where I left and finish the script with no trouble, when normally restarting is a complete bitch.
On my last spec, I used this technique all the way through, writing full scenes or half scenes when I could and then just skipping over the holes by putting in a brief description or whatever dialogue I knew to bridge gaps. This helped me write a full 118 spec in five days, which is about a fifth as long as it normally takes me. It sounds kind of similar to your way actually, John. Works well though.
I generally think I'm close to done when I can't possibly hate what I've written any more than I do. But when I know I haven't got it yet I like to take as much time as I can spare away from what I've got and then come back with the notion that I'm the poor sod who's inherited this pile of junk, and I'm for damn sure going to be the one to fix it. Odd that the weary resignation of an editor would be such an effective way around a block, but there it is.
It helps if you're not the sort to be overly impressed by your own cleverness, either because a) you're smart enough not to be distracted or b) you're just not that clever to begin with.
I outline pretty heavily and, although I don’t always stick to the outline, feel better for having one.
Also, I devise a soundtrack in the early part of writing/ later stages of outlining, burn that and tend to listen to it immediately before I begin to write. (I find that it helps me into the world I’m building.)
The single most effective outlining tool I know is telling your story out loud, off the cuff, without notes, to other people. (I talk about this at length in my first book.) Practically everyone is a better storyteller out loud than they realize. I find that when I tell a story out loud, and I hit a bump and can't remember the next step, it's because the next step doesn't really come logically. Sometimes I find myself making up a different next step on the fly. And so on.
I don't edit. Not 'till I reach the ending.
After I'm done with the "Zero Draft," then I can go back and screw with it, changing white into pale and things like that. I know writers who agonize over every sentence, and if that's how you write, good for you. But I seem to enjoy writing more than them.
A technique simmilar to your Overwrite was recomended to me recently, and I've found great success with it as well.
I boil it down to the concept. Then I sit back and brainstorm a list of scenes, characters and dialogue bits that all relate back to that core concept.
If it doesn't relate it isn't in the script.
When I stall out in the netherworld that can be Act 2 of an issue (I write comic books) I write the final scene of the issue (usually the cliffhanger moment) and then work backwards toward the sticking point in the story. Call it the Transcontinental Railroad approach -- pushing the story from both sides.
Totally different writing style, but I do this when writing scientific journal articles (yeah, i'm a physicist). I write an outline/storyline, then pop in some figures then start writing stuff out for real between the points. It goes hybrid for awhile and then as I'm satisfied the points are addressed I delete the original point form stuff. Voila, I'm left with a paper for submission... ha... I wish it were that easy!
Cool blog by the way... I find it interesting what people sometimes end up doing "after" physics. :)
While I'm by no means a pro writer, whenever I do something creative what I like to do is title it out to get me started. I break everything down into titles for every page scene shot what have you. Some are witty some are movie titles or a sound effect KRACKOOOM for instance.
That way I've got at least a page of stuff from which I can build on.
Page 12: When Harry Met Sally
Means I'm working on a romantic page between unlikely characters and that I should play up the funny stuff. It gets me thinking about what should go into it, and it has the added bonus that when I have to do something else it makes things easy to come back to.
My writing process is pretty disorganized, but I find that it works best for me. Before I can really do much of anything, I have to have a destination (very rarely do I have a full story in my head before I begin writing). It could be just the idea for a scene, a specific emotional response I’m looking for, a nifty cliffhanger, a resolution, anything really.
Once I have that, I’ll write it on a piece of paper, longhand. Then I’ll just start jotting down scenes or bits of dialogue underneath. It doesn’t even have to be related to what I’ve already written down, just whatever pops into my head. Then I’ll start linking things by drawing a line from on sentence or paragraph to another. It’s messy, but it feels organic to me.
This helps me to see gaps in the narrative, where the holes are. Once I can see the holes, my mind starts working on filling them, either with bits I’ve already written down or with completely new ideas. These new ideas usually lead to variations of my notes up to that point so I rewrite everything in approximate order on another piece of paper. Then I’ll start adding more details in the margins and repeat the process until I have enough to start working on the script (comics/fiction).
I look at it like tossing dozens of mismatched clay shards onto the floor, then carving them and shaving them until they fit together into a nicely polished vase (or ashtray as is sometimes, unfortunately, the case). It’s sloppy, but it works for me creatively. I guess it’s less of a knuckle ball and more of a five-finger scroogie. It’s ugly, but it gets the job done.
One quick note on environment. Like most everyone else here, I too use music to help get me in the right frame of mind, but I also find that I write better in confined spaces. My dream writing office would be a laptop with a good set of speakers inside a 4X4 windowless closet.
I've found John's "Overwriting" trick very useful in writing legal briefs -- a five-sentence outline to start with gets slowly expanded upon, adding little bullet points under each one the more times I go back over it, until finally I'm writing a complete sentence around the bullet point and then getting rid of the bullet altogether. Helps alleviate the terror of missing a crucial part of your argument when you're running up against a filing deadline.
Of course, it's also a little deceptive. I never can judge how much one of those little bullet points can get teased out until I stop and realize I just blew four damned pages on a minor little point -- but at least I got it down on the page and have the option to edit it out later.
I don't write screenplays (yet) but a couple of the things I do when I write narrative may apply.
Like Absinthe, I know I'm getting close to finished when I absolutely, positively, completely and utterly hate what I've written and know that this is the One Thing That's Going To Finally Expose Me For The Faker That I Am. When that happens, I know I'm almost there.
If I get stuck somewhere, I'll just wait for a phrase or an image or something to come into my mind, and as soon as it's there, I'll just skip ahead and write that bit; once I know where I'm going, I just have to fill in the gap to get there.
Finally, I'm with everyone else who relies on music. I have no idea why, but certain types of music are extremely important for me, especially for weekly deadline stuff. It's like my brain hears The Dresden Dolls and knows that it's time to write Games of our Lives, or hears Boingo Alive and knows we'll be working on a narrative non-fiction essay about high school today.
When I finished Getting things done by David Allen, I started to apply some of his thinking to how I write -For example, one of the general principles in GTD in keeping cleanly defined lists in order to stay organized. I decided to apply this somehow to my notes, which are always a rat's nest. After rereading my notes, I discovered that I write four different types of entries in my notebook:
1. Questions - "why does character x do this?"
2. Ideas - "maybe character x does this because of reason x"
3. Research Notes - either relating to craft or a topic
4. Next Actions - "debug outline" (next actions is a GTD term/concept)
I then rewrote my notes, giving each type of entry it's own page. The "Next Action" page is key, because it keep me focus on making progess. I'm also using this classification when I'm dictating into my microcasette recorder on the road because it makes transcribing my notes much easier.
The episodics I enjoy, those that actually have characters and themes (rather than those that are trumped up rehashes of DRAGNET (which was GREAT for what it was, but really (and I even LIKED Law & Order at the beginnning(really. I did.))))) are easy to write.
I'm generally so invested in the show I'm speccing that I'm like a walking series bible. Writing an episode is like running a good sprint.
SELLING a spec tv script? Well, I'll keep you posted.
Features are more of a marathon for me.
Prose is cake. Comics too.
For all the writing, whatever the medium, I generally "watch" the whole thing in my head, over and over until it looks right. Like a movie I'd pay to watch. Then I start typng.
Knowing the structures of the different disciplines is key, however, as the inevitable beating- whether by editors or by producers, will certainly hammer that first draft into a new shape.
I don't write ANYTHING down before I start writing. I just let the idea rattle around in my brain and slowly accrete detail. When I feel it's reached critical mass, I throw it all down in a two week splurge. I find the work I do this way feels more spontaneous and flows more oganically. It also keeps the work interesting for me personally. I feel like I'm writing things as they're happening rather than slogging through a batch of pre-designed instructions.
The only screenwriting I've done so far has been for 48 Hour Film Project films, so I can only say that "dawn" is when the damn thing must be finished, otherwise I get no sleep and then Bad Things Will Happen.
Reading this blog, as well as these comments definitely give me good input, though. Thanks much.
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So, the thing with writing down the story outline and then replacing each beat with the script... you're saying that's not the way everyone does it? It's hard for me to imagine writing a play any other way.
o, the thing with writing down the story outline and then replacing each beat with the script... you're saying that's not the way everyone does it? It's hard for me to imagine writing a play any other way.
You know, as weird as it sounds, the act of replacing sentences in the SAME PHYSICAL SPACE makes a marked psychological difference with me, as opposed to doing the same -- writing off a beat sheet -- but in two different documents. Odd, I know.
That's the thing, it hadn't occurred to me that it was odd. I write that way too, and never gave it a second thought.
I also usually write the scenes out of order. I often have a clearer idea of how to script scene 3, say, than scene 1, so I go ahead and do that first. The fully-scripted portions gradually accrete, and the "then a miracle occurs" portions dwindle away, until it's a script. Then I go over it and smooth the whole thing out.
This works well when writing as part of a team... you can farm bits out to different writers and then fold their contributions into the framework as they arrive.
I had no idea I was quirky.
to write a novel:
1. choose story axioms and prelibations;
2. construct characters and design character circuitry;
3. design the fictional world;
4. plot the story;
5. write complete manuscript;
6. reconstruct plot outline and background material;
7. rewrite/revise and do final edit;
The knuckleball is in step 6, where the discrepancies between the products of step 1-4 and the manuscript produced in step 5 are too obvious to ignore. Resolve discrepancies by rewriting/revising according to the new plot outline and background material.
Of course, I suppose it's possible that step 1 is a bit of curveball...
Along the lines of an entry that Jane Espenson made on her blog, when I get stuck on a scene, I go back to “what the scene is really about”, i.e. how it relates to the theme of the episode. I also write down what the scene’s main character wants--the motivation or subtext, if you will--and why he or she is having trouble getting it.
Then I change everything else.
So, for example--don’t worry, nothing specific enough to sue over follows--if I were writing an episode of Eureka with the theme “compromise is a necessary part of any successful relationship”, and I was stuck on a scene in which Jo wants relationship advice, but she’s having trouble opening up about her personal life, I might change it from Jo and Carter in the Sheriff’s Office to Jo and Beverly at the Inn, or Jo and Allison at Global, etc.
I find that changing things up in this manner helps spark my creativity without getting me too far off track.
HTH – M
P.S. I’m with Evan; I didn’t realize The Overwrite technique was quirky. Although I do save the original file and do The Overwrite in a copy.
I lie in bed in a half-asleep stupor imaging the whole chapter/scene/whatever until I have it.
Then I get up and write it. It's a little bit like remembering my dreams, though. I have to make sure it's embedded in memory or I might lose it.
get fired up on codeine and whisky and then sit at my apple lap top and type away, whilst following a structure thingie I downloaded from the internet.
I tell you this much.
I'm a director also, so I can guarantee this script will be shot.
go in peace
doom
xx
When writing novels, I'm fond of finishing a day's work in mid-sentence. Right in the middle, and if you do it right, you don't even mentally commit yourself to how it's gonna end.
Then. All night that unfinished sentence nags at you like a needy child. Next day when you sit back down to work again, first thing you do is finally finish that sucker off. Instant sense of satisfaction and reward - and you're right into the writing flow, just like that.
Neat trick. Always works for me.
What a neat thread. Such great responses. I lorem ipsum or blank. So I write, I dunno, something coherent and just leave hash marks in it that I have to come back to. Like:
## didn't have enough money for the toll. He turned to me in the (something light/eerie) with an inquisitive look on his face that just made me want to smash it with a hammer (redo this). I dug in my pocket instead for the thirty-five cents, practically flung it at him. He smirked and we drove on. (Make this last less cliche.)
...something like that.
nuts and bolts. character bio sheet for every character, including details never revealed in script. four page synopsis. scene breakdown. script. rewrite. takes me entirely too long, and ends with something so well written it'll never get made. welcome to my nightmare.
fiction. make it up as you go along.
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