Planning

KishaN said:

Roughly how long does a person spend planning there script, and what other things do you need to do before writing the actual script it self.

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It's the same how long is a piece of string question. As long as it takes. Some people dive right in, some people write up a treatment and take a couple of weeks to collect their thoughts, some take years.

There are no rights and wrongs, just whatever works for you. It's the finished product that counts not the process of making it.

There has been related discussion a bit earlier:

http://www.absolutewrite.com/forums/showthread.php?t=49137

I am sure that there are other threads here that will help answer your question. A quick use of this forum's archives/search engine will turn up some good material, I have no doubt.

Yep,

depends.

Depends on if you need to do research or not and how well you need to know your subject.

My first script was on the wild horses of Australia and I had to do loads of research for that. I spent weeks studying everything about Oz, looking at maps, talking to people and searching down various orginizations. I spent two weeks in a National Park with wild horses and hours on the phone with rescue groups. I actually read through an entire Dinkum Dictionary. I read several Aussie novels, watched Aussie news casts on the web.
I did everything I could to try and understand the country and its people.

During this time I was keeping script notes. Writing down basic plot ideas, toying with scenerios and characters, playing with how the awesome location pictures I was getting from contacts could be used, and then working out the really core needs of my script.

It was almost three months before I felt that I really had everything orgainized so that I could write real pages.

I had a fantasy script that once I had my two main character's names I just started writing. In two weeks I had a 100 page rough draft.

Other scripts have been somewhere between the two.

Every writer is different, so, don't try to hold yourself up to someone else's standards. Quantity doesn't matter squat if it all stinks.
Give yourself some time to understand the craft and work at a pace that you find comfortable.
BUT, do try to work on something script related a little each day.

I think it all depends upon the person you ask. Unfortunately I am a procrastinator, so I tend to keep putting things off which REALLY gets in the way when writing.

I will say this though... My first script took about 2-3 years to write. When it was finished it somewhat resembled a script. My next script, I semi-outlined in a notebook, wrote down dialogue, thoughts, ideas of scenes, timelines for 1st, 2nd and 3rd acts. Anything I could that pertained to the story. That story took me about 2 months to finish once I started. I flew through it and it came out wonderful, IMO.

My current story is taking longer than I wanted to, but so far it's all notebook work, outline and that type stuff. But I am ready to go on it now and just "officially" started putting it into final draft this weekend. So hoping I can knock it out within a month or so.

Biggest tip I can give you is read scripts from movies you know very well. Get familiar with them. Don't expect much from your first script and prepare to rewrite over and over and over. Be willing to through away anything, just keep multiple copies.

yeah the best answer is as long as it takes. If you know exactly what you want then it should take a few weeks or months to actually write it without having to bother with an extensive outline or 5 binders full of notes. If you have a rough but great idea that requires genre specific research you could find yourself watching related movies and reading scripts and taking notes and outlining for years before you write your story. If you don't care about writing a masterpiece and just hope to make a sale with a quick knockoff ripping off last year's most popular teen sex comedies you should get it done from outline to final draft in two or three days.

Talk to dclary about that last one

I confess it worries me when my written-in-3-days scripts are no better and no worse than my written-in-3-months or written-in-3-years scripts.

-Derek

I can create something in a few hours that might be good, but I know it's nowhere as good as it can be if I took my time. But that's just me. I have depth

wild horses ...

Scripter1 ... (sorry to momentarily hijack the thread) ... you wrote a screenplay on brumbies? Where is the MOVIE?!

Wish I'd been around then - would have loved to help. I'm on east coast Oz but one of my mates here is the HORSE QUEEN!

Ly

I spend about a month or so thinking about the idea before I even sit down to write a brief outline.

Re Wild Horses

I used the Guy Fawkes Massacre as a set up for the story.
It's about a wildlife photographer who goes out to Guy Fawkes National Park to do a story on the horses and she gets caught between the Rangers trying to exterminate the animals and the herd.

My research took me to Coffin Bay and the Pony Society there took me out to the National Park for their yearly round up.

During my research I found out all kinds of neat history about the horses and so the script is a blend of historical facts, recent news events, and fiction.
The facts are directly tied to the story and of course revealed visually so.... they are aren't as "lame" as they sound.
(I hope.)

I have a contact near Guy Fawkes who has sent me loads of pictures but I wasn't able to get out there.

Regarding planning and how long, I'm STILL working on this script.
Now and then.
I think I've "finished" it like five times.
Because I was dealing with real events I've had to plan more and work harder on this script. I couldn't just let the story take me where ever it wanted to go.
A tough job since this story is also my very first script.

whistlelock said:

I spend about a month or so thinking about the idea before I even sit down to write a brief outline.

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I think that some refer to this as 'gestation' - quite a normal and desirable part of the process, I think.

I've just completed a screenplay based on historic events. Kept to the history line but focussed BIGTIME on giving my characters real conversations. Also invented many situations not within the chronicles because the chronicles are BORING!

Character, character.

Oh, and KishaN? Planning can be done while you're writing or, in the case as above, once you've mapped out sequences and who's who or ..... around the kitchen table over a couple of days.

Request the Muse to hang around; bribe, cajole, beg, love, listen.

Ly

I had a similar experience to Lizard on my last screenplay. I used to plan and plan and plan and never write/finish anything. So on this screenplay, even though it is a period film, I just wrote it from the beginning with very little planning. The key was I actually finished the screenplay. Planning can easily be a procrastination tool.

When it comes to research, you can usually slug something in and check on it later. Last night when I was writing I wondered -- did they have pens in 1780? I just slugged in fountain pen so as not to break the flow of writing and then looked it up later (and it would seem they were probably still using quills) and went back and fixed it.

I'm often reminded of people who used to write for Star Trek. You didn't have to know about flux capacitors or whatever. It was the standard on the show for the writers just to write [technical jargon] and then there were people (Star Trek technical jargon experts) who would fill that in for you.

Planning is important, but don't get hung up on it.

zeprosnepsid said:

I'm often reminded of people who used to write for Star Trek. You didn't have to know about flux capacitors or whatever. It was the standard on the show for the writers just to write [technical jargon] and then there were people (Star Trek technical jargon experts) who would fill that in for you.

Planning is important, but don't get hung up on it.

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Probably somebody will point this out, but flux capacitors are from Back to the Future. I think in Star Trek they were more worried about finding Dilithium Crystals.

God, I get hung up on the small stuff….

Don't get bogged down on research or tech jargon or specifics.
The story is a story and should stand on it's own, even if you take that stuff out or leave it blank.

Get the story down first, your beats, plot points, main conflict and sub plots...

Then, as you write the script, you look up specifics or just leave aplace holder for later.

Case in point, when I was writing about a battle scene in India in the 1890's, I got to the line "He pulls out a (weapon). I then opened up a browser and googled victorian rifles. I then typed He pulls out his Martini-Henry and fires.

I was writing I wondered -- did they have pens in 1780? I just slugged in fountain pen so as not to break the flow of writing and then looked it up later (and it would seem they were probably still using quills) and went back and fixed it.

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Hehe ... same but 1854 ... PENCILS!

KishaN said:

Roughly how long does a person spend planning there script, and what other things do you need to do before writing the actual script it self.

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1]About five years on average. Counting the two years you thought it was actually any good.

2] Read a lot of scripts.

Rainy Night said:

Probably somebody will point this out, but flux capacitors are from Back to the Future.

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Yup. I was trying to be funny. The internet does not do me justice =)

We here

at AW do not have a sense of humor that we are aware of.