Question: How do you approach prep-writing?

A question from Jeff which I though was worth its own post:

This question is for Scott and, I guess, anyone who actively is writing scripts… hence, all of you.

Pre-writing. What processes do you folks utilize that works for you? I began as a die hard notecarder, moved over to a full-blown outliner, and eased my way into the late Blake Snyder’s Save the Cat system.

At times, I’ll use all three and then some… any means to get the damn story out. If I thought it would work, I’d even try taking a hacksaw to my skull to release the story trapped within but I hear that method has a few downsides…

I’m at a strange crossroads. After swearing this stuff off (I made a lengthy comment about that a few months ago), I’ve had a handful of micro-offers come a-knockin’ on my door. Nothing HUGE, mind you, but one producer in particular waving actual deceased presidents my way… enough that I’d be a moron not to at least entertain the notion of taking the work.

(an amusing side note: the month after I gave up scriptwriting, I literally had three offers for work come barreling in… all deals I tried to put together months (and years) prior. I guess you can run but you can’t hide.)

So what works for y’all? The notecard thing has always struck me as a tad bogus. I’m pretty much an A to Z storyteller so the idea of shuffling scenes around would just bring everything down like a, pardon the expression, house of cards. I was a rampant outliner in my 30’s and this seemed to work but this sometimes led to my stories becoming a bit too rudimentary.

Are there any bits of software out there that you folks have had success with? What I’m asking here is, ultimately, a pre-writing ORGANIZATIONAL process.

Anything to keep our kitchen from becoming a morass of restaurant placemats coated in character arcs and plot-point riddled Walgreens receipts, y’know?

Any help in this department would be greatly appreciated. Thanks!

There are two parts to the screenwriting process: What you do before you type FADE IN and what you do after. Jeff’s question is about the first part — prep-writing.

So rather than me blather on, let’s hear from you: How do you prepare to write a screenplay?

Comment Archive