Black List writers on the craft: Story Prep (Part 6)
“Structure is so important in visual storytelling, and your structure lives or dies by your outline.”
Over the years, I have interviewed 50+ Black List screenwriters. Over the next four weeks, I am running a series featuring one topic per week related to the craft of writing.
This week: What aspects of story prep do you devote the most time and focus to?
I often say this: There’s no right way to write. Every writer is different. Every story is different. Going through these interviews, I doubt there is an area of the story-crafting process where this statement is more apt than in relation to story prep. As we will see this week, there is a big divide between Black List writers who embrace working up a comprehensive outline and those who take a considerably less formalized approach.
This week, I’ve been presenting an array of takes from Black List writers about outlines. On Wednesday, we heard from writers who have an active aversion to outlines. Thursday, we learned how some writers work from a minimal ‘preliminary’ type of outline. Yesterday, we focused on writers who embrace the idea of working with an extensive outline. Today, we zero in on writers who have a comprehensive approach to story prep:
Michael Werwie: “I like to start with a log line, and I’ll work for a while to get it into the best shape possible, so it actually conveys a complete story. I’ll break that into three sentences which represent the first, second, and third acts, basically a log line for each act. Then I’ll break each act into a beginning, middle, and end, and just keep breaking it down until I get to the actual scenes. I keep breaking everything down into their smaller component parts, to the point where you can structure the beginning, middle, and end of the scenes themselves. That way you can see the dramatic rise and fall of the action on a micro level and a macro level.”
Jeff Morris: “I think quality prep work makes writing the script much easier. This isn’t to say I spend an eternity prepping. But if I do the work before I type Fade In, my writing is more focused and I know what I need out of each scene going forward. The way I sort of work is this. After I come up with a concept and a logline, I try to figure out who my main characters are going to be and what kind of arcs I want them to have. Next, I’ll figure out what the theme of the script will be. Then I plot the story out. This usually takes me about a week. Then I go off and write the first draft as quickly as I can just to get it out of my head and onto the page. The real writing and finessing comes during the rewrite stage.”
Stephany Folsom: “Once I have my pile of research, I start outlining. I go into crazy detail in my outlines. You have to have certain things happen at certain points in the script or the story won’t work. Structure is so important in visual storytelling, and your structure lives or dies by your outline. Once I have a solid structure in place, I can go to pages and put all my focus on the emotional arcs of the story. I’m like, “I’ve got the setup and the payoff and the plot all taken care of in my outline,” and I can be in the moment when I’m writing the scene, and concentrate on making my it resonate on an emotional level.”
Daniel Kunka: “Every script I write, I start with a treatment. I open up a document and I just brain dump the idea. What’s the concept, who are my characters, what are some set pieces and plot. I just get everything I can about the idea down on paper. Then I spend some time writing out the beginning and the end of the movie. I’m not usually as concerned about the second act. I want to make sure I have a sound first act, that I know where my characters start and how the action starts. Then I want to make sure I have a very strong end of the first act, that there’s an active decision that starts the second act and drives the rest of the script. Then I focus on the end. This tends to be broader strokes, but how is the action going to dovetail, where are my characters going to end up, what’s the climax of the story. Once I have that written out — usually anywhere from eight to fifteen pages — I’ll start writing actual script pages. The second act I leave a little bit to self-discovery. I probably know a few things that have to happen, but as long as I know where my story and characters start and I know where they end, I’m confident that I can find the middle as I go.”
Eric Heisserer: “I outline with note cards. I have a cork wall that I use and abuse regularly. I tend to split it into two groups, sometimes three. One will start the spine of the story and will map out the main narrative engine. The other part will be the flotsam and jetsam I feel are germane to the story. Sometimes it’s photos from magazines that I’ve cut out. Sometimes it’s lines of dialogue that I come up with while I’m at the grocery store. Sometimes it’s headshots of actors when I start to cast the story. At some point I reach a critical mass where I have enough of the structure down and I have typically an intimidating amount of flotsam and jetsam on the other half of the board. I pull all that down and collect it into one document and begin the process of writing my first draft from there.”
Then there are writers whose goal for story prep is not an outline, but something more ‘literary’:
James DiLapo: “I actually have a tendency to write my stories as novellas first. I wrote “Devils At Play” that way before I wrote the script it. I recently finished one for “The Odyssey.” After I write it out that way, I go back and structure it more clearly in an outline.”
Carter Blanchard: “I’ve come to the point where I write a pretty detailed treatment. The thing I’m working now, it’ll probably be 15 pages long, the treatment I’m going off of. I usually start with a conceptual image or scene idea… “Glimmer” is a great example. The videotape in the safe deposit box. I put that down on a card, stuck it on my board and that’s going to be the beginning of act two. You build around that. Next, what immediately pops into my head for this story? Introducing the characters, having some of them go back in the past and some of them staying here. Who are the two main characters to stay here? It’s going to be a boy and a girl. Okay, so they’re going to fall in love… That all goes on cards. Then come up with some wish fulfillment stuff. It would be cool if they go to Yankee Stadium in 1977, etc. Just start writing down all that kind of stuff… and the plot points that come out of necessity… and a structure starts to evolve. At the end of the day, I can fill up half the board and get the rest of it down in another day or two and then go over it and make sure that it works. Then I’ll write it in long form, read the treatment. There will be lots of obvious flaws. Then I usually go back and start a new board with fresh cards, post all the stuff that I know works and pull the rest so there are new blank cards to fill. I might go through that process two or three times.”
Takeaways:
- Whereas some writers find extensive story prep creatively restraining, others benefit from it, giving them confidence as they type FADE IN and allowing them more freedom to explore the nuances of scene-writing.
- Outline. Treatment. Novella. It doesn’t matter as long as it facilitates your creative process.
For Part 1 of the series on story prep, go here.
Part 2, here.
Part 3, here.
Part 4, here.
Part 5, here.
Next week, another in our series featuring Black List writers reflecting on the craft.
