outlines

Saving now for future use

Maximum Z creativeness, creativity, encouragement, ideas, inspiration, outlines, pitching, screenwriting, script, story, writing ,
Behold! Filing cabinets of the 21st century
Behold! Filing cabinets of the 21st century

When was the last time you looked through your idea file?

You know the one. That desktop folder or flashdrive where you keep all those random thoughts and story ideas you’ve jotted down over the years.

You do have one, right? If not, you really should start one.  It’s easy. Just write stuff down, hold on to it and never get rid of it. Never.

Chances are a majority of these ideas probably won’t make it past the logline/story concept stage, and it’s even more likely you’ll have forgotten about them after a relatively short time. But don’t let that stop you from constantly adding to the file.

Each idea is a good reminder of the potential you saw within that story. Why else would you have written it down?

It’s also a nice little ego boost/confidence-builder to be reminded of your own creativeness. “I don’t remember coming up with that.”

I’ve mentioned many times about being ready when someone asks you “What else have you got?”. This guarantees you’ll have something ready to go, even if it’s just a couple of sentences that take all of ten to fifteen seconds to pitch.

You never know what’s going to work. That throwaway concept you came up with years ago could end up being your next project.

So the next time you take a break from whatever it is you’re working on right now, open up that file and see what’s in there. You might be surprised, intrigued, pleased or even thrilled.

The possibilities really are limitless.

The story behind the story

Maximum Z antagonist, backstory, Black List, characters, conflict, guidelines, loglines, monsters, outlines, plot, protagonist, rewrite, screenwriting, script, setup, Star Wars, story, storytelling, structure, writing
Figure out how it works before you start, or things could get messy
Step 1: Figure out how it all works

A slightly altered holiday work schedule has resulted in more hours on the air, which is always nice, but less time cranking out pages, which isn’t.

So I make the most of the handful of minutes between reports with the always-reliable working on an outline. This time – the monster script.

Despite knowing the general playing-out of the story, there was something that wasn’t clicking. Most of the items on my mental checklist had been checked off.

Most. Not all.  What was missing?

It took the constant back-and-forth between the opening sequences of the two previous outlines to make me realize what it was: I’d never fully established what happened before the story started.

Not knowing how everything came about was preventing me from moving forward. I had to create this world before I could write about it.

Think of the opening crawl in STAR WARS (“It is a period of civil war. Rebel spaceships, etc. etc…”). It establishes what we need to know. Without it, we’d be too busy trying to figure things out.

Using that as an example, I worked out my own version of the opening crawl. It won’t be in the actual script, but it’s a pretty solid foundation for setting things up – a better realization of how this world works, what the antagonist wants and how that can be accomplished, the challenges the protagonist faces, just to name a few.

The work on this is far from being over, but developing this really helped. Some important blanks have been filled in and I’ve got a firmer grasp of how the story works.

Time now to start the latest version of the outline and see how it goes.

-Regarding the recent release of this year’s Black List. There appear to be a handful that sound pretty good, but the rest don’t really do much for me.

No doubt they’re all extremely well-written (why else would they be on the list?), but a majority don’t have that “Read me!” vibe. It probably doesn’t help that the writers are not the ones providing the loglines. I suspect that would make quite a difference.

Seeking the feng shui-ness of your script

Maximum Z characters, editing, feedback, outlines, plot, problem-solving, proofreading, reading, rewrite, scenes, screenwriting, script, spec, story, storytelling, structure, westerns, writing
A place for everything, and everything in its place
A place for everything, and everything in its place

Got some great notes for my western spec. Some of the suggestions involve significant moments I hadn’t considered – now I have to figure out where these should take place. A daunting task indeed, but also not too challenging.

It’s one thing to plot out a story, but knowing how to do it effectively is a little more complicated.

You can’t just throw stuff in there and hope it sticks. Information has to be doled out appropriately so it not only fleshes out the characters, strengthens and advances the story and the plot, and most importantly, keeps the reader/audience interested.

If you’ve put together a solid outline (as you should before moving on to pages), all the help you need is right there in front of you. Take a look at how your story develops. Do things happen the way you want them to, and do they happen when you want them to?

As you work your way forward, are you seeing potential opportunities for where something could be added or possibly changed? Would that scene from way back near the beginning work better somewhere later on?

Once you find somewhere that scene could go, is it a good fit within the flow of how the story’s developing? Does it keep that forward momentum going while providing us with some kind of necessary information?

Take the time to figure these kinds of things out. It may be frustrating now, but once you work your way through it, you’ll have a better script and wonder what it was you were so worried about.

Being realistic in a work of fiction

Maximum Z action, genre, outlines, plot, research, rewrite, science, screenwriting, script, spec, story, Superman, writing
You're upset about the scientific inaccuracies in a comic book movie about an alien who can fly?
Some people were actually upset about the scientific inaccuracies in a comic book movie about an alien who can fly

“The monsters attack.”

This simple line in my action spec outline was the catalyst for a major thought process that continues to grow by leaps and bounds.  Questions are being raised that demand answers.

In creating this world, not only do I have to develop the story you’ll be following, but also fill in a lot of details about the world itself – which just happens to have monsters in it, which leads to more questions.  It never occurred to me to consider subjects such as biology, geology and the laws of physics as they apply to monsters (all of which play a part in the story).

“But it’s just a story,” some might say. “Don’t worry about stuff like that.” But it’s exactly the stuff like that that makes the story better, plus it shows I’m taking this seriously – even if it does involve monsters.

I’ve always had an intense dislike for writing that takes the easy way out in explaining something, or does it in a very half-assed way.  It makes it seem like the writer didn’t care enough to do a little more work.

It’s very important to me that not only are the events of the story based in reality, but the setting is as well.  This is something I strive for in everything I write – no matter what the genre.

The more detailed you can make the world of your story, the more believable it’ll be. But be careful not to overdo it – too much detail creates confusion. Just give enough to make ’em say “Yeah, that makes sense.” or “I can totally see that happening.”

Now it’s back to my research on which metallic alloy would be the most effective for killing monsters. So far, tungsten carbide seems to be the frontrunner.

Find a tone and stick with it

Maximum Z characters, comedy, creativity, feedback, jokes, mystery, outlines, protagonist, rewrite, scenes, screenwriting, script, story, storytelling, tone, writing
Something in this seems a little out of place
Something in this seems a little out of place

I used to dread getting feedback. It always meant having to go back and rewrite something.

Fortunately, I’m well past that and now appreciate how necessary both feedback and rewriting are.

Feedback makes you learn to value the necessity of hearing how somebody else interprets your work, and more importantly, how to be objective when it comes to really understanding what they have to say.

While working on the outline of my mystery rewrite, I looked for opportunities to put in an occasional joke (read: cheap laugh).

The problem, according to my top feedback-provider, was that the jokes, while understandable for their intent, were totally wrong for this kind of story. They make my protagonist come across as an idiot and the action comes to a screeching halt each time. And since this is more mystery than comedy, they shouldn’t be drawing attention to themselves like that.

There were other notes besides this one, but this one really struck a nerve – in a good way. I’ve been working on rewriting the jokes to make them a better fit within the context of the story, rather than have them be glaringly obvious and out of place.

As you create the world of your story, you have to make sure all the elements combine to make a believable scenario. This goes way beyond the story and the characters – take everything into account.  If something seems out of place, fix it or get rid of it.

And if you’re not sure, that’s what feedback is for.