Screenwriting Process - Ten Steps to a First Draft
November 21st, 2008
The initial idea:
a) Once you know the apotheosis - the seminal insight the hero has - then you can build your story up to and beyond that point. Knowing the hero’s apotheosis allows you to decide what the hero’s restrictions will be and how to overcome them (atonement with the father). Knowing the hero’s apotheosis allows you to decide the hero’s inner resolve and actions upon the enlightenment (ultimate boon).
b) Writing about what you know gives you the insights and intimacy that will add richness and differentiate your work; writing about what you don’t know is a good idea if the topic inspires you enough to sustain you through the research until you do become insightful and intimate with your subject; your passion with the idea must sustain you through the long hours of writing and the arduous process of selling your work; people have much more applicable tacit knowledge than they realise, for example, your experience of office politics could contribute to a story set in the White House.
Use the broad Hero’s Journey to expand your idea into a broad step outline. Here characters and situations will begin to emerge. Flesh out multiple ideas to increase the certainty of committing to an appropriate one.
Use the detailed Hero’s Journey to expand your idea into a detailed step outline. Start a file with the relevant number of sections and begin collecting research (newspaper clippings etc) that will add value to each stage of your step outline. Build the step outline until characters and situations have distinct form and substance.
Write out each stage of your story in a few paragraphs. If you use the detailed Hero’s Journey then you will have anywhere between 51 and 106 paragraphs. Here, write first and edit later (separate creative from critical thinking). If you need input from other people, do not show them the whole story - simply show them a stage at a time and give or take options for improvement - this way their help will be more useful and they can avoid having to be diplomatic or nice.
Do the above until you have a coherent story. You know you have a coherent story when you can list each sequence and know its purpose. This is a useful method of analysing plot at a glance.
You will get to a point when you need to write out each stage fully in screenplay form (format), explore the situations and characters within and their dialogue. Allow each stage to occupy its natural length and space. Good (free) screenwriting software and examples of screenwriting form can be found at BBC Writers Room. Professionals use Final Draft. Do not rush to this stage - ensure that your story is well developed beforehand - once you commit words in screenplay form, the emotional attachment to them and resistance to critical evaluation both increase. With a well developed story in hand, it is not unusual for it to (almost) effortlessly roll out in screenplay form.
Allow yourself time to incubate on your work so far. You have written a significant amount of your screenplay but now you want to be able to judge its logic and the scene quality from a distance.
The words-on-paper first draft:
If you have written less than a full screenplay, then write out each stage more fully in screenplay form and make each stage richer. Try and make each stage a story and an event in its own right. You will instantly know what to do with some stages but will still need to incubate until you achieve insight with others. Your focus should be on the quality of each stage rather than length. It is better to add extra sequences than unnaturally expand stages in order to reach length (some more backstory, for example, or examine the detailed Hero’s Journey for more ideas). The more screenplays you complete, the easier it becomes to push a story out to the required length (between 113-120 pages).
If your problem is cutting down material, then you have to learn brevity. Given that the total length of a screenplay should be no more than 120 pages, decide how long each section should be and reduce each stage to that length, making sure that you retain value. Dividing 120 by the number of stages in your story is a useful benchmark, but often some stages are naturally longer than others, for example, in the Hero’s Journey, it is not unusual for the Road of Trials to be longer than the Apotheosis.
Another period of incubation will be required until you are able to review your work objectively. Rewriting, cutting and pasting etc will be required. You will move onto second and third drafts.
You will begin to explore selling opportunities, whilst continuing to polish your work and moving onto another story. If you have existing credibility within the industry, you will explore selling opportunities at the idea or treatment stage. Decision makers do read work so the higher the quality, the more likelihood of it being pushed further. But how long do you wait? How many times do you incubate and rewrite? Will it ever be perfect? Your decision.
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The 188 stage Hero’s Journey and the FREE 17 stage Hero’s Journey and other story structure templates can be found at http://www.managing-creativity.com/
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Kal Bishop, MBA
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Kal Bishop is a management consultant based in London, UK. His specialities include Knowledge Management and Creativity and Innovation Management. He has consulted in the visual media and software industries and for clients such as Toshiba and Transport for London. He has led Improv, creativity and innovation workshops, exhibited artwork in San Francisco, Los Angeles and London and written a number of screenplays. He is a passionate traveller. He can be reached at www.managing-creativity.com
Tags: Heros Journey, screenwriting
