What is your outlining process?

[writinggirl]

I'm working on outlining a short I plan to write (it's one of my first screenplays!). I have plenty of snipets, such as the opening scene, ending scene, and a few major scenes in between. I know what the message of the story is, and how everything's supposed to tie in together. Despite all of this, however, I'm having trouble with the "glue" that holds all of these ideas together. I'm having trouble arranging everything into a nice flow that makes sense. I would use the standard 3 plot point, 5 plot point, or 9 plot point structure as a crutch during this outlining, but I know some say that only leads to formulaic writing

Thanks for any advice!

[Ronaldinho]

Re: What is your outlining process?

I'm an eight sequence guy.

But ...

I have a specific approach. Think of your story like a google maps image, where you start way out, and slowly zoom in.

Okay, you know where your story starts and ends. Write those down.

Now I "zoom in a little" and try to define my second act (i define my second act via a single dramatic question. You may define yours differently). I come up with a new question for the third act. Write those down between your opening and ending.

Great. That lets me zoom in a little more. What's my characters status quo? What's the inciting incident? Do I have a midpoint?

Got all that stuff? Fantastic. Zoom in a bit more. Can I fill in the second and third act sequences a little better? Looking for 5-7 "steps" to get me from the end of the first act to the end of the film. Each one should be 10-15 minutes of screen time.

Got that? Great. Zoom in a little more. Now take each of those sequences and fill it out with 4-5 scenes.

Viola! Outline!

I'm not always quite this linear with it. When I think of a great setpiece, for example, I'll stick it in aproximately where I think it belongs, until the time comes to develop that sequence, then I'll massage it in.

[writinggirl]

Re: What is your outlining process?

I'm an eight sequence guy.

But ...

I have a specific approach. Think of your story like a google maps image, where you start way out, and slowly zoom in.

Okay, you know where your story starts and ends. Write those down.

Now I "zoom in a little" and try to define my second act (i define my second act via a single dramatic question. You may define yours differently). I come up with a new question for the third act. Write those down between your opening and ending.

Great. That lets me zoom in a little more. What's my characters status quo? What's the inciting incident? Do I have a midpoint?

Got all that stuff? Fantastic. Zoom in a bit more. Can I fill in the second and third act sequences a little better? Looking for 5-7 "steps" to get me from the end of the first act to the end of the film. Each one should be 10-15 minutes of screen time.

Got that? Great. Zoom in a little more. Now take each of those sequences and fill it out with 4-5 scenes.

Viola! Outline!

I'm not always quite this linear with it. When I think of a great setpiece, for example, I'll stick it in aproximately where I think it belongs, until the time comes to develop that sequence, then I'll massage it in.

Awesome! I never thought of it in a "zoom in" fashion. Very interesting

[SirByron]

Re: What is your outlining process?

Use Scrivener's outlining tool. Outlining will be a JOY!

[EdFury]

Re: What is your outlining process?

I don't outline. I work with a lot of people who do and it works for them. It doesn't work for me. I find they stifle creativity when I'm actually writing the script. I have a solid logline going in. I know my rock solid first ten pages going in. My main characters, who they are, (although I have discovered some great characters as I write). And my rock solid ending. Then... it's an adventure to tell a cohesive fun or scary or exciting or funny story to get to that ending.

I'm not advocating my way or any other way. One of the reasons it's so essential to write a number of scripts is to use each one to find your own best methods through trial and error. That's also the way you find your own unique storytelling voice, IMO.

[nativeson]

Re: What is your outlining process?

Diggin' the zooming analogy. I go from general to specific as well (After having beginning, ending, and a few other set pieces floating around in me noggin'). I believe in going where the story takes you, but only within the framework of the general outline. Screenplays are like big (creative ) puzzles.

[Jon Jay]

Re: What is your outlining process?

Having had a few shorts made, even getting paid (bizarre, huh?) I'd say just write the script, see how it feels, where it sags, where it doesn't make sense. Get a trusted pair of eyes to read it and give good notes.

Assuming we're talking about 15 pages or less, you'd be quicker just getting a draft done rather than spending hours making it work in an outline then still having to convert that into a script.

NB: features are a whole different kettle of cod.

[Madbandit]

Re: What is your outlining process?

My outlines are basically essays, the paragraphs are numbered.

[Ronaldinho]

Re: What is your outlining process?

One other thing, just to mix it up. I totally get why some people don't outline, but I feel like my writing's made a big jump lately from what some might call excessive outlining.

I don't do it all ahead of time. But rather, having roughly marked out a sequence during the outline stage, before I write it I'll open a new document and outline it in more detail.

And I also do this with scenes. A really simple scene I won't, but something with any action, or that's more than a page or so, and I'll outline the scene. Basically, just writing down what happens in five to ten lines. Maybe I'll include a snippet of dialog I want.

When I heard the scriptnotes episode where John August talked about writing out the rough version of a scene, I realized that's what I was essentially doing. And let me say, the results have been really really good.

Because what I discovered for myself is that while I could write my way credibly through, say, an action scene, and it might be a pleasant enough read, if I went back and looked at what I wrote there wasn't a lot of meat in the sandwich. The actual substance of the action scene - the reversals, the "why" of the outcome*, etc was thin, even if the surface was great.

By outlining complex scenes first, I make sure that what actually happens is really cool - and then I write it in a good way, and the result is a much stronger scene than if I had written a scene where the writing was good but the substance was a little more predictable (which is what I was getting before).

*This is one of those things that's really helped my writing lately, making sure that there is a reason that I can articulate WHY the hero wins (or loses) a given action scene. A lot of the time in my earlier stuff - and stuff I've read - the hero wins because he's the hero. But identifying a specific reason (even if it's something simple like: he's just tougher than the other guy) has helped make my scenes much stronger and more specific. Sometimes it was there anyway (just based on instinct) but surprisingly amount of the time it wasn't, and being conscious about it has really helped.