How I Plan to Write

When we see a writing piece published, or a script made into a film, or a blog/article posted, it's often hard to remember the process that writing piece went through. The planning stage is one of, if not the most important part of writing. And lucky enough for me, one of my most favourite stages. I never go into a script or story without planning ahead, and in the few occasions that I have, they didn't turn out...quite how they should have. So I'm going to explain how I plan my scripts. I'm currently working on two different projects: one of pure fiction, and one that's based on true events. While both projects will finish as two fictional scripts, I do approach each one with a different mindset.

My Fiction Feature Film Idea

My first project that I'm currently working on it a feature length film called "My Headaches Told Me." This is an idea that I've had swimming around my head for about a year now. How I always start my idea process is by thinking of a interesting character and what situation they are in. For example: a hockey player who wants to figure skate, a highly respected CEO who's about to go off the rails or a modern day witch stuck in the past of witch trials. The character is always my lead in, and once I have that, I can start to ask myself what crazy situation can I put them in.

For my current idea, I started with a fortune teller. Fortune tellers/psychics/mediums have always been an interesting industry to me. I've spoken with friends about the possibilities of ghosts and psychic powers, and it is one of those topics where we'll never know the answer, but it sure is fun to debate. So now I have my character and move onto the next step: what is their situation?... What if she's a fake? Is she successful? Do people believe her? What will happen to her? What if she suddenly gets real powers? And ta-da! I have my concept. A con artist fortune teller who gets the real power of psychics thrust upon her. Now here comes the tricky part: what is the conflict? In this case, my fortune teller shall be involved in a murder case, and due to her premonitions giving her "insider like" information, she accidently makes herself the prime suspect of the case.

So after I have my concept, I need to start my outline.

That can be overwhelming with such a small detailed idea. So if I'm struggling, I like to stick to "The Hero's Journey." I have a template for myself with each step in the hero's journey outlined, and so I can begin plotting out potential ideas with post-it notes. It's a quick and easy way to jot possible ideas down, and if I realise it doesn't work? I just throw that post-it note away.

After I've worked through the step by steps of each box on the template, I'm left with this. A full basic outline of what happens in my film, set to the hero's journey. I've also colour coded the post-it notes so I can see where my A-plot and B-plot take place in the timeline. I find this method super easy and fun, it doesn't take long and by the end I have a film. After this step is where the hard part comes in. The detail.

From here, it is more of a conventional way of planning. I'll begin with a more detailed step by step outline. It'll be just like my post-it note template, but instead, I'll write it out on google docs. There I can change these vague bullet points that I have into a more detailed description. I'll let my mind run free with the story, as I already know where I'm going and I have more room to explore the finer details. I no longer have to worry about if things will make sense, or what my characters have to do to progress the story, as I've already got that sorted out.

After my step by step outline comes my scene by scene, a split up version of my outline. Here is the "in-between" of outline and script. I figure out specific scene locations, make transition scene and have script action written. I do like the scene by scene process. I make myself a template on google docs, that allows my scene by scene to look like a script format, and then I can start to see it finally coming together. Which will only leave me with one step left... the script writing.

My Based On True Events Idea

My second project that I'm working on, it a collaborative piece. Alongside that, the story is loosely based on real events that me and my writing partner have gone through, making the planning process a little different. The working title is "A Series of Firsts." It is a series of short stories about the journey of a new couple, and their adventures. Straight away, this idea manifested in a very different way than my other projects. This came from a want to write, but with no inspiration hitting, my writing partner and I turned to real events in our lives. This is also a great way of idea creating, as true events can lead to realistic and relatable stories for an audience to connect to.

So with my idea in place, the planning had to begin. But I couldn't just use my template to create something that would be based on true events. Having concrete story beats can either make your life harder or easier. In this case, a story based on a couple's journey, can have a natural story structure to it; from the introduction, the happy start, to the climax of a big fight and then a resolution. So the planning around real events in this case were easy.

First we came up with our main story beats. Since this feature film idea was an anthology of stories, this was simple: "The First Glance, The First Word, The First Date..." and so on. We had somewhere to begin. Now was the outlining, to fill in the details of these steps.

Outlining for this piece required knowing when to stick to true events, and when to take creative licence. Not everything in life is story worthy, and so some things have to be cut or tweaked to make it more interesting. Luckily for me, my writing partner and I knew what parts were essential and what could be cut.

Making our way through the outline, we would come to parts that we have no real life knowledge on. Nothing to base the story around, and so comes in the original creative story structure. Having to fill in the gaps with a made up narrative in a way that makes sense structurally. For example: The First Fight. This part in the anthology is a much needed conflict in the overarching story, but neither of us has anything to base this on. And so we had to refer back to other story structures such as the hero's journey.

By the end, we have a full outline and we can make a move on our scene by scene and then the script. But it is definitely a struggle to work on a piece that comes from true experience. It requires thought and debate on what is important and what isn't, and learning to let go of "what really happened" for the better of a story. This project is a first for me on using real life events, so it's a challenge, but it definitely won't stop me from writing pieces like this again.

My Final Thoughts

The planning process is one that I put a lot of work into, and a stage that I take a lot of enjoyment in. My only downfall with my planning stage, is the risk of burning out before I even reach the script writing. Sometimes I require a break between planning and writing, and sometimes the excitement stage is strong throughout the whole project. But in either case, I value my time for planning, and will always take a step back to plan again, if I need to.