The Real First Draft: Creating
November 26th 2006 03:07
So, hopefully you now have enough tools to grab the basics of scriptwriting. You have a story idea, you’ve written an outline, you have character notes, and you have the basic script formatting in your head.
Open your word processor, and… begin. Just start. Oddly enough, I find this to be one of the toughest steps. A lot of writers, myself included, will go through all sorts of ‘avoidance behaviour’ rather than actually get to That Moment. Fold socks. Mow the lawn. Tidy the entire house. Twice. Get something from the shops. Anything! And it’s made doubly weird because when you actually sit at the keyboard and Begin… most of the time it just flows out of you, usually because of all the preparation you’ve made. My advice, then, is just force yourself to The Moment. Whatever it takes, get yourself to pena and paer, or typewriter, or word processor.
Right now, this is the Creating phase. Don’t be too critical of dialogue or scene direction. This draft is for you, and you alone. Hemingway said the first draft of anything is shit, so if you know that going in, aware it ain’t gonna be an Academy Award winner, or even a Sundance winner, then it frees you up to write anything.
Some points.
Just blast it all onto paper or screen. You can never be entirely sure what you need, to make the script ultimately readable for third parties, so just get it all out. Later, in the editing process, we’ll cut that stuff back, probably to the bare minimum, but you need it there to know what’s important.
If you get to a scene in your notes or outline, but you can’t think how to start or end it, skip it. What I do is insert a stub, something like:
“[JOHN HAS TO GET THE ARTIFACT FROM THE MUSEUM, BUT JANE IS TRYING TO STOP HIM]”, and move on. Not only is the writing momentum maintained, but I’ve found that what you put in after that can inform what you need to put in the skipped scene. Matter of fact, I can’t believe how well that’s worked in the past.
You may find your characters don’t fit, or want to change the plot. Stop for a brief think. If it’s a strong character, is their evolution going to significantly change the plot, and for the good or bad? If it’s for the good, alter your outline, revise what you’ve written so far and move on. If it’s a good character, but they move the plot in a direction you don’t want to go, save that character for another project (or even the sequel!), and substitute another character that will shape the plot in the way you do want to go. Some writers say, “oh, the characters ran away with the story”, and sometimes this is a good thing, and sometimes not. As a writer, as the creator, you have to impose discipline on them and the plot.
Keep going until it is Finished. It’s the easiest thing in the world to say, “this is too hard” and stop. You’ll see all sorts of obstacles, all sorts of dead ends. Put in a stub and work around them. I’ll tell you why. William Goldman, in his book, ‘Which Lie Did I Tell?’ (essential reading if you want to work in Hollywood), tells the story of George Abbott, a Broadway theatre producer. One day, he came backstage during rehearsals for a musical, to find a bunch of dancers standing around not doing anything. He sought out the choreographer, who was looking desperate.
“What’s going on?” Abbott asked.
“I can’t figure out what they should do next”, the choreographer replied. Mr Abbott’s reply is engraved on my soul:
“Well, have them do something! That way we’ll have something to change!”
So keep the script going, doesn’t matter if a scene or two suck. At he end of the day, the goal is to have something finished. Because you can change it. You can’t change the unwritten word.
And the sense of accomplishment you’ll feel in actually finishing it will drive you on to the next step, Editing. Which will be the subject of the next post.
If you have any questions, put ‘em below, and I’ll see if I can come up with a convincing answer.
Now – get to it!
Open your word processor, and… begin. Just start. Oddly enough, I find this to be one of the toughest steps. A lot of writers, myself included, will go through all sorts of ‘avoidance behaviour’ rather than actually get to That Moment. Fold socks. Mow the lawn. Tidy the entire house. Twice. Get something from the shops. Anything! And it’s made doubly weird because when you actually sit at the keyboard and Begin… most of the time it just flows out of you, usually because of all the preparation you’ve made. My advice, then, is just force yourself to The Moment. Whatever it takes, get yourself to pena and paer, or typewriter, or word processor.
Right now, this is the Creating phase. Don’t be too critical of dialogue or scene direction. This draft is for you, and you alone. Hemingway said the first draft of anything is shit, so if you know that going in, aware it ain’t gonna be an Academy Award winner, or even a Sundance winner, then it frees you up to write anything.
Some points.
Just blast it all onto paper or screen. You can never be entirely sure what you need, to make the script ultimately readable for third parties, so just get it all out. Later, in the editing process, we’ll cut that stuff back, probably to the bare minimum, but you need it there to know what’s important.
If you get to a scene in your notes or outline, but you can’t think how to start or end it, skip it. What I do is insert a stub, something like:
“[JOHN HAS TO GET THE ARTIFACT FROM THE MUSEUM, BUT JANE IS TRYING TO STOP HIM]”, and move on. Not only is the writing momentum maintained, but I’ve found that what you put in after that can inform what you need to put in the skipped scene. Matter of fact, I can’t believe how well that’s worked in the past.
You may find your characters don’t fit, or want to change the plot. Stop for a brief think. If it’s a strong character, is their evolution going to significantly change the plot, and for the good or bad? If it’s for the good, alter your outline, revise what you’ve written so far and move on. If it’s a good character, but they move the plot in a direction you don’t want to go, save that character for another project (or even the sequel!), and substitute another character that will shape the plot in the way you do want to go. Some writers say, “oh, the characters ran away with the story”, and sometimes this is a good thing, and sometimes not. As a writer, as the creator, you have to impose discipline on them and the plot.
Keep going until it is Finished. It’s the easiest thing in the world to say, “this is too hard” and stop. You’ll see all sorts of obstacles, all sorts of dead ends. Put in a stub and work around them. I’ll tell you why. William Goldman, in his book, ‘Which Lie Did I Tell?’ (essential reading if you want to work in Hollywood), tells the story of George Abbott, a Broadway theatre producer. One day, he came backstage during rehearsals for a musical, to find a bunch of dancers standing around not doing anything. He sought out the choreographer, who was looking desperate.
“What’s going on?” Abbott asked.
“I can’t figure out what they should do next”, the choreographer replied. Mr Abbott’s reply is engraved on my soul:
“Well, have them do something! That way we’ll have something to change!”
So keep the script going, doesn’t matter if a scene or two suck. At he end of the day, the goal is to have something finished. Because you can change it. You can’t change the unwritten word.
And the sense of accomplishment you’ll feel in actually finishing it will drive you on to the next step, Editing. Which will be the subject of the next post.
If you have any questions, put ‘em below, and I’ll see if I can come up with a convincing answer.
Now – get to it!
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