The Writing Week (Vol. 3) part 129 - Pen and Paper, When Tried is True for a Reason

I gave myself a week off. Friday marked a week since I sent the most recent version of my script into the production company that we're working with. (I just heard from my manager today that we're hoping to get notes by end of day tomorrow - and we're hoping the notes are little more than very minor tweaks and finesses.) Any one out there could easily argue that waiting a week before writing again - especially at a time when we're hoping I'll have to go to LA and take meetings soon - is incredibly bad planning. I won't argue with you there. However, I was feeling a little bit like I was running on fumes, and I was having a difficult time cracking the new project open. So, I took a week off.

On Saturday, I started actively writing down ideas for the new script (let's call it the "firefighter script" here on out). Sure, I'd jotted things down here and there, but that was the start of blocking out the time and really making myself work on the new idea. Sunday followed with more work, including a few revelations that helped really crack the thing open. Then today, I spend five hours on a bus heading back down to Arlington, Virginia. In between naps (more than I should probably have taken), I got more work done. The general story arc is slowly starting to congeal; I have a fairly stable foundation for each act and where many of the big beats fall. Soon, it'll be time to put all this down on the computer and get it out to the manager. But not yet.

I'm constantly going back and forth on the merits of writing on the computer versus with pen and paper. Recently, though, I find it increasingly satisfying (and easier) to begin outlining on a notepad, where no blinking cursor can remind me that I'm not putting new material down. To avoid that nagging reminder, I find myself re-typing the same info over and over again - everything I already know being put down in my notes with little or no actual progress coming with it. Pen and paper, though, is so basic. It doesn't actively remind you that another word should follow. Yes, the page remains blank until you fill it, but it's patient. It allows you to work  through your ideas as they come. And when they do come, it's glorious.

One more day with the notebook - I think that's my goal. Maybe by the end of tomorrow I'll open Word and try to make that cursor blink as little as possible. Until then, though, I'm doing just fine without it.

The Writing Week part 52 - Next Project Underway

First, let me just wish everyone Happy Holidays. As the year winds down, I'm finding it more and more important to get a solid grasp on my next project, so as to be able to really make some headway into it in early 2009. When I met with my manager a few weeks ago, I pitched him four ideas I had, and we collectively settled on one as my next project. I've been working on it "in my head" (read: not actually writing) since then, and finally started putting those thoughts down in random order, usually in short bursts of a few cryptic sentences at a time.

The idea, which I won't give away, is a pretty big one. It's not what you would call conventional, per se. There's a lot going on and a major shift in focus and a real whammy of a twist at the end of Act One. For that reason especially, it's been a little tough figuring out where the act breaks should come into play. Now don't get me wrong, a lot of writers successfully work outside the confines of three-act structure. The sequence method - I don't know a whole lot about this approach, but in short, it involves breaking your script into eight sections, each of which is treated as a short three-act sequence, with two sections being in acts one and three and four in act two - seems to be gaining in popularity. But the truth of it is that I haven't tried sequencing yet, and three-act structure is both familiar to me and something that works. If I can make the script work in that context, I'm going to try that first.

Have you ever had an idea that you realize is pretty convoluted and difficult, yet at the same time, you can step back from it and see it as a really basic, simple idea? That's sort of where I am now. (I know I just said it was big and with a major twist, but if i can just figure out how to incorporate them, the rest ought to fall into place very quickly.) My approach has usually been to find my "tent pole scenes," the scenes that hold up the script. There are five of these: the inciting incident on page 10, the twist or push at the end of Act One, the midpoint of act two when the protagonist is either encouraged or beaten down, the end of Act Two that catapults us toward the end, and the final climax/resolution.

I've always found the writing to come easiest when I can nail down those five scenes. From that point on, the outlining and writing is sort of like taking a road trip. You know where you're starting and what landmarks you have to hit along the way. How you choose to go from A to B in between those five sites is up to you, and ultimately one route will prevail above all the others. (Unless, of course, you decide that those five sites do not make sense to go to, and you redraw the map completely.) My big goal for the next few days is to mark those five scenes down on my outline (map). If I can get the story to fit in there, I'll be good as gravy. Smooth driving ahead.

Do you use the Five Tent Pole Scene Approach?