Wonder if anyone else has a similar issue. My putting together of an outline is quite solid (using "fantastic" in the subject line for emphasis - I'm not perfect by any means) and gives me quite a bit of confidence. I have such a great vision in my head with my outlines. Tonight, for example, I wrote a scene-by-scene outline on notecards for most of my first act and it was great. I see it so clearly in my head and know what I want on the page.
Yet then something strange happens. Despite all my outlining and confidence, I can't seem to properly develop a scene. I wonder if it's just overthinking, but it's really rattling me. For example, my scene has a conflict in it between two characters. But as I write, my characters talk and can't seem to get to the conflict.
For example, in a current scene I'm writing, two characters are sitting down having a discussion. One recently attempted (and failed) at suicide, the other is his boss. The boss has a daughter who committed suicide, to be revealed at the end of the scene. He's taken a personal interest in his employee due to this, but his employee does not see it that way. He wonders why such an interest has been taken in him. The scene starts with awkwardness, dissolves into an argument, and by the end the boss has a heart attack and dies. My inciting incident for the rest of the story.
But I just cannot get there. I can't. The characters sit and talk, but it all feels so fake. So phony. Nothing feels natural between the two, and I can't get into the conflict at all. The more I try to push the characters into it, the more I feel nothing rings true.
Many other scenes feel similar to this. In addition I'm worried about page count, how a reader would respond, how my characters still are not developed enough despite quite a bit of work on them (or perhaps not), etc. My script should be renamed "Beating Around the Bush" because that's all I feel like is coming out of me.
Long story short: I can't develop a scene without it coming off as forced and untrue.
Anyone else has an experience or success story with this?
Yet then something strange happens. Despite all my outlining and confidence, I can't seem to properly develop a scene. I wonder if it's just overthinking, but it's really rattling me. For example, my scene has a conflict in it between two characters. But as I write, my characters talk and can't seem to get to the conflict.
For example, in a current scene I'm writing, two characters are sitting down having a discussion. One recently attempted (and failed) at suicide, the other is his boss. The boss has a daughter who committed suicide, to be revealed at the end of the scene. He's taken a personal interest in his employee due to this, but his employee does not see it that way. He wonders why such an interest has been taken in him. The scene starts with awkwardness, dissolves into an argument, and by the end the boss has a heart attack and dies. My inciting incident for the rest of the story.
But I just cannot get there. I can't. The characters sit and talk, but it all feels so fake. So phony. Nothing feels natural between the two, and I can't get into the conflict at all. The more I try to push the characters into it, the more I feel nothing rings true.
Many other scenes feel similar to this. In addition I'm worried about page count, how a reader would respond, how my characters still are not developed enough despite quite a bit of work on them (or perhaps not), etc. My script should be renamed "Beating Around the Bush" because that's all I feel like is coming out of me.
Long story short: I can't develop a scene without it coming off as forced and untrue.
Anyone else has an experience or success story with this?