I’d recently written about my need for extensive planning with my screenplays. Right now, I am outlining one screenplay, scene by scene; while ironing out the treatment of another. But interesting things are also happening with the third screenplay.

This screenplay is outlined, but not to the point of a scene by scene list. Writing has been slow and meandering at times, with my having to fill in blank spots that I should have ironed out in the planning. But every now and then a revelation comes up in the process of writing that I didn’t expect: a plot turn or line of dialogue that I didn’t imagine; the story coming alive as I write.

This is not how I’d like to write in future. The hope of writing something interesting, rather than planning something that I want to write, isn’t an ideal prospect when working on a 90 page screenplay. But these moments of revelation have been pleasantly surprising.