Well anyway I keep on putting it off saying I’ll start writing when I get alot of money to go to school for it or when I have free time to myself and fewer things to worry about. That will never happen so I’m finally deciding to start it back up.

The real problem with me, though, is that I don’t really know the format(s). I don’t want to write this entire screenplay and then it’s useless because no one wants to deal with it being improperly formatted. So I have to study formats now and of course all of these ideas are ready to burst out.

So anyway, I need to focus on not getting distracting and starting something new. I guess I just wanted to get this off my chest.
Great advice Phil.

I write a paragraph off the seed then…I don’t even think about scenes, character, plot. That comes after…

I ask myself five questions:

1. Does the idea have enough juice worth plotting and following through to a complete script?

2. Is this concept appealing enough to compete in the marketplace.

3. Is this an idea I really love? Sometimes I’m not sure so I give it one month to think about it.

4. Does the idea depending on the genre. A horror film, scrare me, a comedy make me laugh, or drama, get me emotional.

5. The most important of all. My audience, would they spend money to see this?

Until I have a Yes to all five. I won’t even start an outline.

~
I wrote until I got to my hellified scene. A *lot* of words are involved though, so I thank you for the *backtracking* tip. I’ll simply backtrack through what I’ve written and trim the fat.

Thanks Phil.

The other thing to think about is character consistency – it’s sometimes the case that you have to change your characters’ makeup in order to allow certain things to happen. (Which can be difficult if you have very clear ideas about who they are.)

That’s another reason why I always recommend starting with the end of your story firmly in mind – if you know more or less where your characters are going to end up, you have a much better idea of the rail tracks you are going to set them on during the story.

When I finally found a way of getting the characters and narrative there into that room, doing those things to each other, it worked very well.”

~
I’m writing a script presently that I believe is very good (of course) and *I’m trying to get from point A to a scene that I know is powerful as hell*.

So what steps did you take to get to that hellified scene Phil?

When does instinct become cliche too? It’s one thing knowing what works, another avoiding the obvious.

Would you recommed this approach too for stories already started? I’ve got 3 million unfinished stories (maybe a bit of an exaggeration) and whether these could be revived.

Great advice about having a “use elsewhere pile.” I’ve agonised over scenes that were funny but didn’t fit – and so I distorted the story to make sure it was in there!

How do you know what to include? It’s complicated, and a lot of instinct:

Know your genre, and the world of your story – scenes outside this should probably be put on the ‘use elsewhere pile’

Try to assemble a pool of characters you want to include in this story, and see if you can populate the scenes with them. If you can’t, then either you need new characters or the scenes belong to a different story.

But if the scenes feel like they belong, then just go with it and try to invent the story you need to get them in there. I once spent a week wrestling with a story, trying to get from point A to a scene that I knew was powerful as hell, but I couldn’t work out how to link in.

When I finally found a way of getting the characters and narrative there into that room, doing those things to each other, it worked very well.

As for the perfect running order for an album, does that include bonus tracks which are usually dodgy techno remixes?

I’m quite enjoying being more strict about the images I’m choosing to write up as potential scenes. Other more vague ideas get noted down elsewhere for later perusal.

I suppose the emergence of the narrative should be more organic. Take your four most powerful ideas and let your mind sequence them and find the common thread – that thread is the first version of your plotline.

In some ways, I suppose it’s like a band creating the perfect album track order. There might be one or two excellent songs that are reserved for later use, just because they don’t fit in with the overall feel of the album.

I’m going to read through my latest attempts at this and look at the ‘catch the breath’ moments. This, it seems to me, is a beautifully simplistic yet effective way to think of these scenes.

Like Jess, I also find the problem of images being disparate and then find myself forced to try and link them together somehow. What’s the cure here?