Learning

Scriptwriting continues, with three screenplays at different stages. In each, I have learned a technique I will be definitely sticking to in future.

I completed the outline of one script today, which I’m very excited about. The story intrigues me and I want to tell it well. The next script is a rewrite, following a first round of feedback from beta readers. It should be a leaner, more focused rewrite. Lastly is a screenplay that I am currently writing from a completed outline, page by page.

Each screenplay, at their different stages, has taught me the importance of meticulous planning. As I write the screenplay pages from the outline, I find that I have not planned it well enough: my pages meander. The script rewrite planning is at treatment stage and the story needs to be completely ironed out before I start rewriting the screenplay itself.

The experience of these screenplays has seen me change my approach to writing. Normally, with an outline complete, I would go straight to writing the screenplay. Now, I want to go one planning stage further and write a scene by scene plan. Here, I can work out precisely what’s happening and where in the screenplay. I can also summarise how a scene is going to progress in itself.

Planned storeys

My hope is that all this preparation will make the act of writing screenplays more focused: often, I have got lost in a scene, not knowing where the conflict is or where it fits into the wider story. The meticulous scene by scene plan, be it on a list or on index cards, can greatly assist on this.

In any case, I have learned this by writing scene plays day by day, page by page, scene by scene. The practice is making the process better, if not perfect.