outlines

Start with the ending, work backwards

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Working on actual pages for the action-comedy spec has been quite an experience.

Up until a few days ago, I was writing only what I had for each scene in the outline, focusing primarily on “what’s the conflict here?” and “does this move things forward?”

However, two things kept nagging at me.

The first was that I got to what the outline lists as around page 40 or so, meaning just a few more pages to that page 45 twist. Except it’s actually on page 30, so more fitting for an end of the first act.

That leaves me with two choices: stick to the outline as it’s written, or come up with additional scenes to flesh things out. The most likely plan of action is to adhere to the former, work my way through the whole thing, then go back and apply the latter.

But that leads me to the second issue: I haven’t finalized exactly what the ending is. Maybe a more appropriate phrase would be “I have a few ideas for what it could be, but haven’t fully decided”.

Don’t get me wrong. I didn’t go into this with no ending. It’s just a little vague, and solidifying it would probably be the best course of action.

As much as I would love to keep moving forward with pages, there may be a short pause while I figure out what all of this is working up towards and then reverse engineer my way back to where I am now, or possibly even all the way back to the beginning.

This is still a first draft, so anything and everything is worth trying. There’s one idea in particular that’s especially appealing, so I might tinker around with that and see what happens. Setups and payoffs are already being considered.

Also important to keep in mind – the ending has to really emphasize/showcase my protagonist’s arc, and how she’s changed. Everything she endures over the course of the whole story has to come to the perfect conclusion. Challenging, but not impossible.

I was looking through all the notes I’ve been jotting down for this story, and there are a lot more than I remember. Some I don’t even remember writing, so it’s very cool to have all this material from which I can pick and choose what works best and where it could potentially factor into the story.

It may even be time to break out the index cards, and that’s saying something.

Not writing? What does that mean?

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Had a great catch-up call with my manager this week (still gives me a charge to be able to say that).

As part of our respective “here’s what I’ve been up to”s, mine included work on the two rewrites and the slow but steady progress of the first draft of the action-comedy spec.

He responded with “That’s really great. Some of my other clients will say ‘Oh, I haven’t written anything in two weeks,’ so I’m really glad you’ve been keeping at it.”

Keeping at it? To me, any day where I don’t write anything is a wasted opportunity. Even if it’s just one page, a few scenes in an outline, or just a few attempts at a better logline, I’m one of those writers who has to write something. It’s hard-wired into my system to do so.

I’d rather write something already knowing I’ll have to totally redo it as opposed to not writing anything because “I’m just not feeling it”.

My manager added that ideally each of his writing clients would have an arsenal of scripts (at least 3-4) ready to go, and not be “some one-trick pony with a single script to their name. What do I say if a producer asks ‘What else have they got?’ and the answer is ‘nothing’?”

Quick aside about writing the action-comedy spec: It’s going to need a ton of rewriting when the draft is done, and the outline remains incomplete, but writing a few pages a day has been exhilarating. I’m doing my best to keep each scene tight and to the point. Tempting as it is to go back and tinker, I’m forcing myself to stay focused on moving forward. Fixing and fine-tuning is what every following draft is for.

A lot of writers I know are very productive and prolific, some even cranking out a few feature scripts a year. I’m definitely not one of those, but still happy with my output.

I find it astonishing that a writer wouldn’t feel compelled to write. Something. Anything. Not that you should be chained to your desk until you see the results, but you get the idea.

I’m one of those writers who can’t not write. I love doing it, and to paraphrase Dorothy Parker, especially love having done it.

Heed the words of Mamet

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A few more pages added to the first draft of the action-comedy spec. So far, so good.

With a little something new added to the mix.

Each scene has been an exercise in “write it, go back and tighten it up.” One scene that was originally 1 1/2 pages was trimmed down to around 3/4ths of a page without sacrificing anything.

What really helped was really adhering to writer David Mamet’s guideline of “Get in late, get out early”.

I’ve written before about my tendency to overwrite, and the scene in question was no exception. I initially put it together how I thought it should be, but it didn’t start as late it should, and took too long to get out. So anything that didn’t absolutely need to be there got cut.

The result – a tighter, faster scene that makes the same point.

As an experiment, I attempted to write the next scene with that mindset from the get-go. Start late, get out asap. Even with a little editing and tweaking as it was being written, this one also turned out nicely.

I’m sure every scene after this won’t be written as smoothly, but it’ll definitely help, possibly even speed up the process. Possibly.

Another detail that’s been incredibly helpful is to just write what I have in the outline for each scene. Nothing extra. It’s getting easier to resist padding it for the sake of padding.

A variation on the Mamet quote could be “Get in late, get to the point, move on to the next scene”.

It’ll definitely take some time to adjust since this is the way I’ve written for so long, but I like the results so far. Will do my best to stick with it from here on out.

First step taken

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After some delays, I returned to the outline for the new action-comedy spec. Still a ways to go, but I’d forgotten how much stuff I’d come up with. There’s a lot to work with.

Despite the overall incompleteness, I decided to try something a little different. Something I’d never consider doing at this stage.

I started on pages. Just to see how it read, what could potentially stay, what could be cut, etc.

Since this would be considered the vomit draft, this is all about getting stuff down on the page and focusing forward, rather than writing, going back and rewriting, and so on and so on.

Full disclosure – one day after the first two pages, I thought of ways to improve them and did a little tweaking. I like how it turned out, but am sticking with a “head down, keep writing” approach.

I may even go so far by writing what I already have in the outline, stop at a certain point and finish the outline, or possibly (gasp!) taking a total pantser approach and just write and see what happens.

But that’s not something to worry about right now. I’m just enjoying the writing, as it should be.

Little changes = big results

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I’d been struggling with the rewrite of the fantasy-comedy spec. I identified a few things that could probably be cut and where some repositioning might come in handy, but there were still a few details that were proving difficult.

So I did what any sensible writer would do: I shifted my attention to another project. Naturally, I’d still return to this one every once in a while, trying to find a viable solution.

Since my usual approach wasn’t working, (helpful tip – don’t try to force ideas. Let ’em happen naturally) I decided to try the tried-and-true “go for the hard turn”. Same objective, much different route to get there.

“Rather than THIS, how about THAT, which still gets us to THERE?”

The spark had been lit. Definitely some potential here, but with some reservations. How much would this drastically impact the story? This was already a major rewrite/overhaul project, but I didn’t want to get away from what appealed to me about the story in the first place.

I mapped things out, looking for scenes and story details that could be changed just enough to make a difference but also not sending things too off-course. Found a few things that matched that criteria and made the appropriate changes in the outline.

I usually stick with the outline until the entire story is ready, but I wanted to give these new ideas a test run to see if they worked on the page. I cranked out a few pages – while also keeping in mind the guideline of “keep it tight!” (i.e. Don’t go for the flourish; just write what needs to be there).

End result – pretty good. It’ll need a little more polishing, but I’ll deal with that later.

There are a few more story details that need work, but I’d say this is a good start.

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Just 2 weeks left on the crowdfunding for my short film SHECKY. We were very fortunate to hit our initial goal and are now working towards a stretch goal. Every $ goes towards post-production, and whatever’s left over will help get the short into some film festivals.

There are several tier rewards, including a new one that includes a personalized video of me telling you a terrible joke (which is on theme for the short).

So if you’re a big supporter of indie filmmaking, the telling of terrible jokes, and the overall screenwriting community, I hope you chip in to help this project reach the finish line.