A Little on Outlines

This blog needs some photos.

I’m working on the outline for this latest feature. And already, I know I’m going to mess up my story in the outline. I’m getting through the basic events okay, but the information I’m putting on the page is a mess. I’m just trying to create enough excitement in this phase to get from page 1 to 120, but there’s no organization in what I’m putting in this document. I’m basically word-vomiting all of this information, which tracks the momentum of the story yet somehow feels very haphazard. This was the way I wrote my last screenplay, and it’s been so long since I created my last outline that I forgot how scatterbrained I am in this particular part of the writing process.

The goal is to go in after I nail down the plot and add the emotion to this movie, and I think what’s stopped me in the past is that organizing pages and pages of thoughts has seemed intimidating as hell. But I just have to dive in and do it, and right now I don’t feel intimidated. Right now I’m like, “please let the execution of this story be better than last time”.

I’m not sure if I’ve said this before, but I feel like if I can nail down a process for how to execute my ideas and turn them into complete, coherent, viable stories, I’ll be one step closer to being ready for this industry.