Creative writing works when the writing creates. The act of writing to invent character and narrative is the most powerful way to make an original story. So if writing, in and of itself, is a highly effective way to develop a successful script, why are we told to plan what we will write before we ever start actually writing?
Scriptwriters are often advised to make an outline of their script before they start writing. They are encouraged to follow a formula which will ensure their script will be well-received by the marketplace. If a writer has no experience, they are directed to take classes, read books, listen to podcasts, watch videos and hire script consultants to learn how to prepare and write their script.
This advice scares writers and often gives them their first taste of anxiety around the process of writing a script. Writers are told you can’t simply start typing and telling a story inspired by an idea that they love. This damages their faith in their natural ability in storytelling. Suddenly, there is a right way and a wrong way.
There Are No Rules In Writing A Script
Anyone who tells you there’s a certain way to write a script is wrong. There is no one way to do it. Some people tell all new writers to use an outline before they start. Others encourage you to read a book and follow a formula——-you can find several spelled out in books on Amazon. Are they wrong?
No. You can follow their suggestions and will most likely be able to complete a script. Is it your best effort? I don’t think so. Why is that?
A Different Place
Writing a treatment, a beat sheet, an outline—-even stack of notecards—-comes from a different part of your heart and mind. It’s you thinking ahead to what will happen in your story. It’s a projection of how the story will play in the future when you sit down to write it.
When you write a scene, when you describe a character taking an action or express the dialogue between people in your story, you are in the moment of the story. It’s happening to you right at the very time it’s present for your characters. And in this moment, you are living it. You’re there.
When we are in the moment, we are closest to the truth of our story. We are tied to our emotional memory. We are writing directly from our own lives.
When we write from the truth, we become more original. Our stories taken on different paths compared to what we had in our plans. Writing a script takes on a life of its own.
Try working on an outline and then write a scene. You’re still writing words on the page, but it doesn’t feel the same. It comes from a different place in your body.
Writing Is Not Hard—-It’s Hard Work
So you’ve sat down to write a script without a plan and the story goes in all sorts of directions. You create new characters, a lot more than you imagined when you discovered your idea and started to write the script. You’ve come up with so many twists and turns and your script is alive with the unexpected.
But it’s also a mess, because it’s a rough draft, and you’ve launched every idea in your head onto the page in some form or another. You don’t have an ending, you don’t know where it’s going, you’ve written yourself into a corner.
So what. Whatever time you saved by planning the hell out of script has been surpassed by the wonderful elements you found while you were writing your script. Take those wonderful things, sit down with another blank page, and begin to rewrite.
The fastest way to a successful script is taking longer to write it. Don’t shy away from rewriting your script. Don’t fear the labor of writing. You wanted to be a writer. Why micromanage an outline to death to ensure you write as little as possible?
You want to write efficiently and fast? Go ahead and create your story from your plans, and your script will awkwardly contain the story you chose before you ever wrote a word.
But sit down with the white space before you, and discover your script when you write, and the gold you will find will reward you for all the pages it took to get there!
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I am currently working on a screenplay. Recently I joined a group and today I deleted my work from their site because they wanted me to write it using their programmed guidelines. Their reason being ALL screenplays have to follow a set of guidelines. I have one question: what is to prevent your company from taking submitted screenplays and giving them to a well known director or producer? I am using one of my own books,”Rosewood The Early Years” as a guide for my screenplay. Can I submit only one part of the screenplay to get a feel of how it will be accepted?
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Well put – serendipitous happenings are the stuff of life so they should be in stories too.
Even more weirdness happens when you share the writing.
Thank you!
No. Write the book.
Then the script will write itself.
Give it a try!
I love this.
I always thought it was a problem, specific to me. Every time I plan and write I actually end up shelving the idea simply because of lose of attachment to the original story and its flow. I love to just draw the picture in my head, then sit down and write only keeping in mind; how the script should end and maybe a few turning points.
This has helped me do a lot of my work.
Pleased that you put creativity at the heart of the writing process. It’s the bit ‘structuralists’ gloss over. I’ve tried the ‘structuralist’ approach and what it does is turn your idea into a formula and everything turns out feeling the same. For me, writing is an adventure. That’s the emotional energy I get. If I start off trying to fit a story into a structure I quickly lose enthusiasm and energy. Might as well be an accountant.
i have a software, before that i had a notebook and a pen. so i’d go out and watched people and ideas would flow, then i’d work my story into the script software. i just got divorced, and then got hit in a car. so in order to finance myself i wrote… i wrote so many scripts but haven’t sold. um sighs, i don’t use blueprint or sheets, that for me comes later, it stops my writing, and my flow of ideas. i don’t write as much because i haven’t sold, and someone is using my electrity. i feel electrity as i write, therefore i became a bum, thin bum. just write. use all that stuff later.
Richard S. I’ve got to agree with your observation. Years ago, I paid strict attention to the structural approach of writing and wrote a lot of carefully parsed, unreal junk that was stiff as a plank and just about as interesting.
I now let it flow – basing my characters on people I’ve known, observed, disliked and loved in my life. I write and let it flow. The results? I really like the work. It’s a road trip for me, not worrying about driving without a map but very aware of wrong turns and schleppy stories in my story line. RT.
I’m a playwright attempting to make that transition to screenwriting and I can say the two are not alike. We playwrights focus in creating a exciting dialogue to captivate our audience whereas the action appears to carry the audience in screenwriting, both strive for the same achievement which is winning the audience heart. I have never used an outline in writing plays, I simply see each step in my mind, i only write a synopsis of my main characters. Now i wonder if i should use the technique of an outline vs imagery? I wonder if the majority of screenwriters use a set format? Is it a right way or is it okay to take a left and get the same results? I’m learning as I’m writing but would it make more sense to follow what the norm do or just take a class?
I would write a story. Then I’d write the synopsis of the story. When I discovered they would match each other i’d have a winner.
Winner? Did you sell, get an option agreement or win major, notable competitions?
I find that my story expands, contracts and changes direction over the course of writing it. I take long walks with my dog and mentally think through things and have revelations that I have paper to write down because I’d otherwise forget them. I think a plan is a good start but only at an extremely high level and open to significant change.
Pfft! I have NEVER used an outline. Ever. If you give a writer one word and they can sit down and create a whole world around it then you’ve got something.
I write the logline first(heart of the story). To get ideas I observed life around me…My characters are names from people I met along my Journey. I write by hand better than typing, then I type it after.
“Writing a treatment . . . comes from a different part of your heart and mind.”
Absolutely. Carl Jung said, “In each of us there is Anʘther, whom we do not know. He speaks to us in dreams and tells us how we look to him…”