My Screenplay is a Zygote

A few posts ago, I mentioned that I was going to try writing a screenplay. Well, so far so good. I picked up a copy of The Screenwriter's Bible by David Trottier, which has turned out to be indispensable. It answers every question I had and then some. Even if you aren't looking to write the next great American movie, there are lots of cool things within that can help with any kind of story.

One of the things I particularly like is the character chart which lists all of the important things characters needs to stand on their own two feet, and I think something like this can come in handy when trying to answer all of those questions you need to answer before you start writing. I wish I had something like that when I wrote my thesis, which was a fictional novel.

Trottier suggests writing a three paragraph synopsis of the plot before you type even one letter of the script. After thinking about it, I think this is a pretty good idea for anyone writing anything of length. I was skeptical but did it anyway, and let me tell you, problems emerged right away, making it easier for me to figure out what you need to fix before things get way out of hand.

Another thing I like is using index cards for each scene. While this is especially helpful for a movie script, it can definitely be helpful if you're working on something that may not follow a traditional story line. When I was writing my thesis I had an outline that was pretty detailed, but I can see the benefit of really thinking each scene out that you have in mind. Of course as you write things change, but if you have definite scenes you know will be there, I think this can be really helpful.

So far I'm at the index card stage with about fifteen. I'm sure I need more, so I continue to think about pacing, breaking up scenes with dialogue, etc. What's really cool is that now when I watch a movie, I pay more attention to the way the scenes fit together, even though I think I have been doing that subconsciously for a long time.

I haven't been frustrated at all, which is a very good thing. I'd get frustrated at least ten times on any given page when I was writing prose. That being said, I haven't really "written" anything yet, but I feel like writing a screenplay is more in tune with my strengths.