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How I Write A Script, Part 6: Outline

February 13th, 2012 by Scott

Here’s another in a series of posts about how I approach writing a script. Previous posts:

Part 1: Story Concept

Official Screenwriting Blog of the Black List
Part 2: Brainstorming

HOM E Part 3: Research

AB O U T G I T S Part 4: Character Development

S C R E E N W R I T I N G M AS T E R C L AS S Part 5: Plotting

Today Part 6: Outline

C L AS S S C H E D U L E
I start by transcribing the content of the cards into a new Word file called Story Outline.I generally will have written down notes
R E AD E R Q & A and ideas on the cards related to each scene or beat, so that information goes into the outline as well.

T H E B L AC K L I S T [Note: There are many software programs that exist nowadays that are built for outlining.]

The goal here is to create a blueprint with Scene 1, followed by Scene 2, Scene 3, all the way to the last scene and FADE
F R E E & L E G AL S C R E E N P L AY
D O W N L O AD S OUT.The hard work here is to make sure as best as I can that the story tracks and handles all the subplots.A final consideration
is to think about the transitions, how to make each shift from one scene and sequence to the next is as smooth and seamless as
possible.

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Black List
* What is the conflict in the scene?

* How do I enter / exit the scene?

R EC EN T PO STS
Daily Dialogue theme for next week:
Embarrassment
Zero Draft Thirty: Write a Script in a
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That can change in the actual writing of the script – as well as scene order – but I like thinking through my scenes in advance.
My outlines can be quite long. I just pulled out one from my files that is 32 single-spaced pages. But then, I like to throw in
everything I dredge up for each scene: images, bits of dialogue, Internal World dynamics, transitions, and so on.
Okay, now I want you to take a deep breath and realize something: All that — story concept, brainstorming, research, character
development, plotting, and outline — and I haven’t written one word of the actual script. I have found doing the hard work up
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 Saturday Hot Links development, plotting, and outline — and I haven’t written one word of the actual script. I have found doing the hard work up
front — prep-writing — gives me more room for creative thinking in my page-writing process.
Rod Serling on Writing: Parts 1-16
Interview (Written): Matt Charman Let’s me be clear: I am not saying that every writer has to work this way. Each writer has to find the approach that works for them.
(“Bridge of Spies”) For example, Neil Simon eschews outlines:

AR T I C L E S B Y D AT E When I started, I got out the yellow legal pads and I outlined the entire play. Then I started to write the play, and the
S EL ECT M O NT H characters started to want to drift off where they wanted to go. So I pushed them back into the outline, and they say,
We don’t like it in this outline, we want to get on another yellow pad. This yellow pad stinks. So I just kept trying to
AR T I C L E S B Y T AG force them there, and I realized I couldn’t do that.
S EL ECT CAT EG O RY
At this point, I don’t make outlines at all. I make an outline only in my mind. If I can say two or three sentences about
S E AR C H G I T S
the play, then I have a play.
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That’s as much of an outline as I need, because when I write something I want to be as surprised — and this goes
for screenwriting too in terms of the original screenplay — I want to be as surprised as the audience is. If I know
CONNECT everything beforehand, it becomes a job. Just let it happen and see where it takes me.
To ask Scott a question or contact him via email,
click here. Okay, that’s one extreme. Conversely, there’s writer-director Paul Schrader, who is known to craft such extensive outlines that he
can predict within a quarter-page how long each scene is before he writes it. His take:
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Question: Do you still outline it in one page?

PS: Yeah. And then re-outline it. On this one I went right from the outline to the script. But usually, if I have any
concerns about whether the idea is really going to work, I then go into a sequential breakdown.
Go Into The Story
All a sequential breakdown is…. let’s say in an average movie there are anywhere 45 – 55 – 60 things happening.
Follow +1 That’s your outline, the list of things that happen. That’s not the list of shots, or the list of scenes and drive-ups, just
the things that happen. Like, they meet at the Chelsea Hotel, returns to office, make phone calls, whatever.

So you take each one of those items on your outline and make it into a paragraph. So now you’re starting to include
RSS F EED dialogue.

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PS: Yeah. So now, instead of a one page outline, you have about a 15 page, single-spaced breakdown. And if your
idea still survives all of that, then there’s a pretty good chance it ll work. I’ve had idea that have worked at an outline
stage, but died at the breakdown stage.
And when an idea dies on you it is, in fact, one of the best things that can happen. Because you’ve just saved
yourself an enormous amount of time and grief. Some ideas just don’t want to be written. They don t want to be
written by you. Some ideas have fooled you into thinking that they have more power than they, in fact, do. If you find
that out after writing a first draft, you’ve wasted a lot of time and you’ve also lost faith in yourself because you
believed in something and you couldn’t pull it off.
So two extremes. And a writer must find their own approach, there is no “right” or “wrong,” just what works for you.
That said, I do encourage all aspiring screenwriters to try an immersive prep-writing approach, like the one I’ve laid out so far in
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 2012 Spec Script Deals Analysis these 6 posts, at least once. If it works, great. If not, you’re free to track down Neil Simon and kick it free-style with him.
2013 Spec Script Deals Analysis
2014 Spec Script Deals Analysis
30 Days of Screenplays [2013] You can read the complete interview with Paul Schrader here.
30 Days of Screenplays [2014]
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An Argument Against Screenplay Formulas 5 thoughts on “How I Write A Script, Part 6: Outline”
Bitter Truths
Black List Initiatives 1. pliny the elder says:
Character Types February 13, 2012 at 9:09 PM
Conversations With Wilder
Daily Dialogue 2008 If in the middle of a first draft, you find yourself veering in a new direction, because your characters pulled you there, how
Daily Dialogue 2009
Daily Dialogue 2010 do you keep yourself from ignoring the outline you put together?
Daily Dialogue 2011
Daily Dialogue 2012 Do you limit any veering to a scene or two, and then re-putline to get your bearings, or do you just ignore the outline at
Daily Dialogue 2013 that point and follow wherever the muse leads?
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Dumb Little Writing Tricks That Work
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