We’re running two-part series on outlining by Screenwriters Network member chidori. The previous article covered Idea Generation. All members are welcome to submit articles on relevant screenwriting topics! Learn more about joining or submitting an article.
I’m quite loose with this but some sort of foundation is mandatory for me. To that end I will plant some tent poles.
Opening
This is the opening scene or first few minutes. If it’s a horror with an opening scare, I’d describe it here. It’s not the opening image which you may have seen in some screenwriting books. If you want to do that, all good but for me, writing the script, it’s about the opening feeling or promise. Getting across the tone and what to expect.
From A Killer Love Song:
A girl running through the woods. A masked man slow walks after her. But wait, she’s getting away! Deftly jumping over rocks and branches, not a stumble in sight. Masked man grunts and starts to fast walk. The girl finally trips! Instead of falling face first she rolls and is back on her feet running. The masked man swears under his breath and starts sprinting in chase.
From this I am wanting to show that it’s a typical slasher movie but things aren’t going to be cookie cutter typical. There is a show of humour and the tone of the humour to expect. It’s not going to be Scary Movie type jokes, the characters will be taking it seriously even if the audience gets to enjoy a laugh.
End of act 1
Quite simply, what is going to push us into act 2? It needs to be something “big” in impact but can be small on screen. In A Killer Love Song when the characters discover a dead body and it’s clear there is a killer about, that pushes us into act 2.
Mid-point
What is going to shake things up? Is it a twist? Is it turning everything up a few gears? What is going to give our story another spark of life? This can be small like the end of act 1 but I prefer something usually bigger, something that gives a new perspective to the story. To promote myself again (surprise): In A Killer Love Song the mid-point is discovering the identity of the killer. This puts everything that’s gone before in a different light and brings about new questions to be answered.
End of act 2
For me the difference between the end of act 2 and the actual end can be difficult to split. Putting this tent pole here forces me to overcome that issue (or not completely ignore it). What I tend to aim for then is an end that’s not an end. I’m rather put off when films end and then manage to carry on for another 20 minutes. In A Killer Love Song everyone left alive learns who the killer is which pushes the story towards the final act showdowns.
The end
Usually I have this worked out from my “mind work”. I may have to change it a bit or I may have had an even “better” idea (be careful it’s not tricking you by being shiny and new). Having this end to aim towards is another way to avoid going off-piste (or if you’re more common like what I am: screwing up). And because I’m sure you’re desperate to know! The end of A Killer Love Song is the final girl is who we thought but not what we expected.
With this scaffolding in place I will then go from start to finish writing in a sentence or two for a scene/sequence. Sometimes they’ll be big scenes that will require pages to write and others can be that minimum 1/8 of a page. I go from start to finish without looking back. A little bit of a fib there. I will go back if a set up is required or if there’s an idea sparked from the latest idea. The general rule however is never retreat. Sally forth until the end is reached.
Do you have the time (to listen to me whine)?
Because a sentence could be seconds or minutes of time, I need a way to keep track of where I am roughly in the temporal soup. To do this I’ll add a number in brackets at the end of each line. The minimum I’ll use is 0.5 to indicate half a page. If the scene will be shorter than that I’m not worried because it’s only rough and mental arithmetic is not a strong suite. Doing this and totalling at my tent poles, I get to make sure my act 1 isn’t going to be 60 pages (even if I still have to fight to get to 30 pages or lower. Damn you first act 1!). I also get to see that my act 3 is short (nearly always) and my mid-point isn’t so midding (page 70 doesn’t count no matter how hard I try).
You got a page or three
By the end of this process I should have anywhere from a few pages to around 10. It really can vary but because I’m using rough times I know I have enough to start writing. I’ll take a couple of passes through the outline, adding bits here and there. Making sure I’ve not made any massive logic errors. Just making sure it (mostly) ties together.
I can’t see for the trees!
With up to 10 pages of outline I find it difficult to see the story from a distance. If I can’t do that I might miss some major problems so I’ve recently taken to copying that outline to a spreadsheet. Here I may refine again, even make a second draft outline. Another useful thing I can do from this wider view is colour code each scene/sequence. In the screenshot below you can see scares (red), tension builders (green) and funnies (blue) easily.
Obviously, if it’s not a horror you can change to whatever you need. Doing a hero’s journey story? Colour code your steps to make sure your path is true. On a recent pilot I followed two families so I colour coded them and could see clearly how much time each was getting where. And as a fancy extra, I take those rough time estimates and total them up to see act times without mental asthmatic (means I get to keep my socks on when I go past 10).
You may be wondering the obvious question, why don’t you start in the spreadsheet? I could, of course but only being able to see a few of the previous lines (I zoom in like a boomer) means I’m not tempted to go back. I can concentrate on filling that black void ahead of me. (It’s not my heart, sadly. I can never fill that black void.)
Improvements and suggestions
And so there you have it. How I currently outline. All of the above is a work-in-progress so if you have any improvements or suggestions please do pass them along on the Discord. If you’re not evolving then you’re dying! (Did I steal that or make it up myself? It was probably already done by The Simpsons…)