your appraoch to scripting

[polkablues]

I don't heavily outline at all.  Usually just a half-page synopsis and a few sentences describing all the main characters.  Then I start writing, and I constantly rewrite while I'm writing.  I'll go back over everything I've written and change things to better fit the overall script.  At the end, with luck, I end up with what's technically a first draft, but doesn't need a lot of revision from that point.

[The Silver Bullet]

Anything else?

I love the way you think I was attacking you. So very pathetic of you. I bet you take this as an attack too.

Anyway, what I was saying was that sure, when you write, your sources of inspiration seep in and make the thing richer, but starting out with another piece of work in mind? I stand by what I said before. To each his own, yes, but it really seems to me as though that could be a pretty dangerous way of starting out.

Of course other works are going to play a role as you write something, but the idea of starting something because of something you read or saw? Okay...

[polkablues]

Anything else?

I love the way you think I was attacking you. So very pathetic of you. I bet you take this as an attack too.

Anyway, what I was saying was that sure, when you write, your sources of inspiration seep in and make the thing richer, but starting out with another piece of work in mind? I stand by what I said before. To each his own, yes, but it really seems to me as though that could be a pretty dangerous way of starting out.

Of course other works are going to play a role as you write something, but the idea of starting something because of something you read or saw? Okay...

Nah... it's like when I write songs, sometimes a hear a song and think "I should write something like that!"  But then I'm not quite good enough at copying and I just end up with something original anyway.  Originality is just copying without the talent to do it well.

[polkablues]

For the sake of avoiding confusion, that last bit was a joke.

[bonanzataz]

last night i went to work on my screenplay (i'm about 83 pages into it) and the fucking computer wouldn't open it, ive tried it on several computers and they won't open it either.  its on a disk, and every other document on the fuckin disk will open except that one, so now i have to start all over.  im pretty strung out.

didn't that happen to the chick from superman when she was writing her autobiography and she went insane and started wandering the streets offering to give out sexual favors?

[SHAFTR]

I have a notebook that I carry with me everywhere and I jot down little notes.  I read some of a diary Spike Lee was writing when he was writing Do the Right Thing, I think I will go with that.  Start a diary so I can read over my thought process for my ideas.

I haven't yet started a script, I have lots of ideas for motifs, shots, etc...everything but a storyline.  It really is unfortunate.  Any suggestions?

[kotte]

I'm the kind of guy who starts with the most important thing and work my self into the smaller bits...

So I start with character. I find the "Excel-approach" fucking boring, you know when you write the characters name and their traits under it like a fucking list. People aren't lists...well we are but with an extra level to it if you know what I mean...

My approach is this: I write a letter to "whomever" from the character. That way I get to express myself as the character and it's more fun. It's a fun and very useful technique to come up with a character. It's kind of like the PTA-technique when he get two people talking...well not really, I mean the letter isn't the start of a film, just to help develope character.

I'm not really sure how to end this but I guess my advice is write a letter to your grandma from a piano playing child molester and see how she reacts.

Chris

[Alethia]

my grandma took it surprisingly well

[Gold Trumpet]

I always liked the idea of first thinking of a pretty simple story that can at least intrigue the reader with  few ideas of meaning behind it. Then I like to work on each individual part; weighing it to see how much I can put into it that would be interesting and was also right for the story. Then I move to the next part and so on. When done with that, I then look over the entire thing and keep on reshaping it a little so it can fit the mold of an overall work better and maybe see how I can make the work more ambiguous so the original ideas aren't observable as being pressed down upon on the reader.

~rougerum

[kotte]

I love this thread...keep it going...

17 replies and 800 registered users. Are we less than 20 people here who actually write?

C'mon...reply you idle users.

[Anachronism]

I particularly like MacGuffin's approach whereby you almost create a collage of inter-associated ideas and concepts that all fall under the header of your screenplay. The two greatest tools that I have yet to take advantage of but that have helped countless thinkers, inventors, writers or directors is to carry around a notebook and a camera. Whenever you have a particularly profound idea or notion, write it down. If you see a piece of life unfolding that is particularly passionate, take a picture. I can't even begin to fathom the amount of original ideas/concepts/events I have logged somewhere in the recesses of my subconcsious that I can no longer reference without the aid of some serious psychotropics.

In terms of what I do as a writer, I normally get drunk and lie down in bed reworking the days events in my head. Once I come to the foregone epiphany on some aspect of life I use it as my catalyst for my screenplay. Then it is simply linear deconstruction from there. You have Point B, now create Point A and Point C. For me I always find an innovative concept or event or even a unique character who is somewhere in the middle of the tension, then I just have to create a backdrop and a nifty denouement. Pretty bizarre undoubtedly, but I will live and die by this method.

[Find Your Magali]

My problem is that journalism is my "day job" and screenwriting is just my often-neglected hobby.

Fifteen years of working at newspapers has put me into a mode wherein I can only write my best stories or columns when I'm under the pressure of deadline.

With screenwriting, I never have deadlines. And I'm no good at self-imposed ones. So, unfortunately, stuff tends to linger sometimes and get stale.

In other words, I have yet to find my rhythm of writing with his "hobby."

[chainsmoking insomniac]

My method is very piecemeal (sp? sorry)...I'll overhear a conversation, or witness something taking place near me, and I'll write it down in the hopes of using it later...I also have a strange way of integrating aspects of myself (be it a certain mood on a particular day, a desire I have at the moment, or conversations I have with others) that sometimes find their way into my writing...when I actually sit down to write something, I often find the characters talking to each other and I just sort of let them do their own thing...very rarely do I have any preconceived notions of where a story will go, because ultimately the character will take me where he/she wants to go and I'm just along for the ride.  Granted, 99% of the time it's total shit and very rarely do I keep what I've written because my personal embarassment is so damned strong I can't bear to look at it again.

[jasper_window]

this has nothing to do with screenwriting, but chainsmoking insomniac, where oh where did you get that avatar?

[chainsmoking insomniac]

Behold the power of almighty Google my friend.