Progress makes me happy

Finally, finally, finally! got some work done on my script again yesterday. I started writing a movie script back in late June during the wind down period of actually having to go to work. I actually generated the bulk of it rather quickly but hit a point in the creative process which is the actual work part of it.

Let me see if I can explain. Generally speaking, ideas are no big deal to come up with. Everybody comes up with ideas for stories, mostly when you're not thinking too hard about it. It's like those 3D puzzles that don't look like anything until you relax your vision and then, boom, there's the sailboat. If you sit around trying to think of ideas, nothing. If you walk around talking randomly, they can flow like water.

The trick is taking this general idea ('Wouldn't it be cool if this happened, then that, and it ends like this?') and turning it into a tale that holds together to some degree. Not everyone can do that. If they could, they probably would. I'm not saying I have any great talent at this but I've managed to do it before, to completion, and I guess that counts for something.

I generated the general flow for the movie in about five minutes. Boom. I wrote most of the last third/half/not sure of the exact math/whatever first and then went back and did most of the rest. My use of 'most' is where the work comes in. You see, the generation of most of the script has been all the creative, fun, making stuff up as I go part. The work part was outlining what I already had, seeing what I needed to add and making sure that the stuff I reference as having happened near the end, is referenced or happened in the beginning. Otherwise the audience goes 'huh? did I miss something?' and gets all distracted.

I didn't do the outline part until yesterday, about two months after I'd generated the bulk of the text.

'Wouldn't it be easier to outline it from the beginning and just check off what you've done?'

Probably. I'm sure some people work that way. I'm sure at some point I might work that way. In general I try not to do too much paperwork on the structure of the story I'm going to write. I prefer to mentally generate the basic idea, come up with a couple scenes in my head, and start writing it, working it out as I go. If I have something written down that dictates the flow of the story, I feel I'd be tied to that.

This doesn't mean that I never generate background material for a story, essentially write down stuff that's not meant to be scenes from the story itself. I just did that this past week for part of the novel I'm also working on, in an effort to work out the motivations and timelines for the characters involved, trying to make sure it makes sense so I don't have to rewrite a bit of stuff I already wrote. It's just that I've seen others work hard at building all this background information for stuff, writing histories of worlds, and get so wrapped up in that part of the process that they end up not writing anything because they burn out all the creative juices for a project. I've already mapped out multiple sequels to things in my head before. Sometimes it kills your interest in finishing what you're working on because you want to start on the fun part of the next story, rather than do the work parts of the beginning story. It can be a distraction.

Been awhile since I actually rambled here. That was fun! I'm not going back and reading it so hopefully it makes some sort of sense! :)