Can You Pat Your Head and Rub Your Stomach?
I can't. Been on deadline and can't seem to blog at the same time. Wrote the first draft of a cable movie - and they needed it in 3 1/2 weeks. And I did it. Pretty much didn't do anything else.
What did I learn?
On deadline the structure rules. And your outline is key. Without a defining blueprint, you'll go 100 miles an hour into every tree in the road. My own detailed outline saved my ass and kept me on track and on target.
Writing as always is a revelation, even to yourself, as you write. And I discovered those moments when the outline didn't work - because the reality of the world I created demanded a different scene, or different connecting tissue.
But because of the outline, that only happened twice in 110 pages, so that taught me a lesson about the outline.
I'm now writing a new piece, with a very ill defined outline. Smart, right? Particularly after what I just went through? I'll see if I prove my own theory.
Why not write a more detailed outline before I start this new piece?
Because it's a ton of work. It's essentially writing the entire movie, without writing it yet, but putting all of the creative juice, fire and work and etching it into a stone shorthand anyway.
Jeez, after reading this I think I better revisit my new outline...
I will answer the questions posted here on the last post in the next day or two, thanks!
What did I learn?
On deadline the structure rules. And your outline is key. Without a defining blueprint, you'll go 100 miles an hour into every tree in the road. My own detailed outline saved my ass and kept me on track and on target.
Writing as always is a revelation, even to yourself, as you write. And I discovered those moments when the outline didn't work - because the reality of the world I created demanded a different scene, or different connecting tissue.
But because of the outline, that only happened twice in 110 pages, so that taught me a lesson about the outline.
I'm now writing a new piece, with a very ill defined outline. Smart, right? Particularly after what I just went through? I'll see if I prove my own theory.
Why not write a more detailed outline before I start this new piece?
Because it's a ton of work. It's essentially writing the entire movie, without writing it yet, but putting all of the creative juice, fire and work and etching it into a stone shorthand anyway.
Jeez, after reading this I think I better revisit my new outline...
I will answer the questions posted here on the last post in the next day or two, thanks!
posted by Phil | 2:57 PM
7 Comments:
Oh, so outlines are a ton of work, you say? ;) Congrats on meeting your deadline!
Glad you're up for air. Take a breath.
Yes congrats on deadline and mighty outlines! re. your idea of crushing the hero to become reborn as a new kind of hero-
Can you explain double reversal?
And how it might fit in this?
Next question:
The stories that seem to arrive "fully formed" and are a breeze to outline - do they turn out differently from the ones that take much, much longer to hatch and write?
That "easy story thingy" currently boggles my mind. I'm not worried about writing a potential suckfest, not at all. I don't go back and forth. It comes together so easily. /: boggles
The complete absence of anything to worry about makes me wonder if I should worry about not worrying. Oh je.
ggwo7: i'd be glad to explain double reversal, except I'm not sure what it is. Is it something I wrote about here, or from another source?
am: well, nothing is ultimately "easy" and even the easy ones hi some brutal wall at some point and you want to change professions. But every marathon runner hits the wall too. it's normal. I suppose a better word is FLOW. If you feel a lot of flow and energy for a story, good sign. If it fizzles and burns after act one of your structure all the time - somethings wrong at the outset, the seed form, the orchestration of characters, or desire of hero, or conflict (or lack) in his environment and attention needs to be put there. but if you don't have flow, you're in trouble.
Check my blog out:
http://scriptradar.blogspot.com/
How true when you're on a deadline! I'm on a deadline myself right now and I keep finding myself wandering off the beaten path of my outline. Once I realize it, I simply pull back the reins and lay out my index cards... Yeah, I still use 'em.
Unk
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