Monday, February 19, 2007

To Outline Or Not To Outline...


That is indeed a commonly-asked question.

I’ve just finished another draft of my outline.

ANOTHER DRAFT?

Yup. In fact, it’s a rewrite - one that I thought was going to be a quick script fix, since the script placed in the semifinals of Nicholls.

Oh, how stupid and wishful.

I’ve been procrastinating big time these past few weeks because I knew, deep down, that I was going to have to pull up my sleeves and get to WORK, WORK, WORK.

I spent most of the morning working on the latest outline. Being enrolled in Writer’s Boot Camp, I’ve been using a nifty little screenwriting tool called the 3-6-3. It’s a form of sequencing.

At first, I resisted this tool like a virgin on prom night - but, hey, you can’t stay closed forever.

I’ve tried a bunch of different ways to outline - and I still go back and forth between different outlines. I’ve even combined the 3-6-3 with a method taught by one of my teachers at NYU. Some gals like to keep their options open.

Okay, enough sex metaphors.

So, what I thought would be a quick fix to the third act of my script, had me killing off the second lead of the script and introducing a completely new opponent. Oh, how fun.

But the great thing about all of this is that I was able to test this out in a one page outline (yes, one page - nifty little 3-6-3). I didn’t have to write pages upon pages upon pages - you get the point - only to discover on page 80 the story was not falling into place.

There are still some weak spots I need to work out, but, again, it’s easier to do this in a one-page format than 100+ pages.

Back to WORK I go.

3 comments:

MaryAn Batchellor said...

Outline. No question about it. Outline.

funkmaster_29 said...

What is the 3-6-3 method? I've heard people mention it before and I've always been curious.

Thanks!

funkmaster_29 said...
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