Screenwriting : Things you do when outlining a script by Maurice Vaughan

Hi Maurice,

I use PreWrite. It's very powerful and intuitive way of outlining. You can flesh out characters, track emotional beats and add visual imagery to anchor scenes.

Kind Regards,

Eoin

Thanks for sharing, Eoin O'Sullivan. I might check out PreWrite. From your comment, it sounds like a useful tool.

I think I saw something about PreWrite on Script Revolution.

Maurice, use whatever works best for you. I'm old school, so I still use 3x5 cards & Post it notes on my window. I have the latest FD so I'm stumbling around with its system.

Thanks, Doug Nelson. I think Word works best. I've used it for so long. I edit my outlines a lot, so I would have to keep starting over with index cards.

Hey, Wally Wu. Thanks for sharing. I do some of those things. The heavy lifting is done during outlining.

Thanks, Wally. I'm working on a Horror/Comedy feature script this weekend. I've been trying to write the script for a while, but I couldn't figure out the story. Have a great weekend also.

Hi Maurice, I use Scenarist app when working on scripts. It's very handy and simple, got sections for synopsis, cards, previous research, and some other tools might be very helpful. Besides it's 100% free!

Wish you luck!

William D. Tolkien

Well, to be fear, I did write shortscripts and full lenght features by hand :)... but it really hurts

I use the Beat Board feature in Final Draft, color-code the stories of a few main characters, and review how I am tracking the story of each character. I want to avoid spending half an hour on someone so that the audience forgets about the rest of the story, and at the same time, I don't want to bounce back and forth between story-lines so the audience can't keep track of who is in this show, where are they, and what are they doing.

Hannah, using their beat board and script notes within the software is new to me so I'm still stumbling around with. If/when I figure it out, it looks to be a good asset.

I do dot points. It is like writing the story in crappy prose. But the dot points makes it easy to find things.

Dot points like a bullet list, Craig? If so, I do that in outlines also.

Depends how well the story is worked out in my head. Sometimes I go great details divided in chapters and sometimes it's plain text on word doc. Needless to say, outlining a short script does not require a great deal of exposition as feature...

My story begins as an outline on yellow pads, coz the color yellow stimulates the mind. My outline is the map of the script until my characters write out the first draft. During rewriting, many scenes will need to be cut out or added to allow the story to be tighter for the Development Readers.

I personally use Michael's Hauge's 6 Sequence to get myself started (I usually do multiple outlines, especially if I'm in "the zone" until one feels right). Then from there, I'll make a mood board that follows the outline and also a Spotify playlist of songs that match the outline and tone that I'm going for ( originally I made them for kicks but I found out that if I'm listening to the playlist, it helps jog my brain when I'm out and about).

I highlight in yellow the scenes I'm not sure about and could be scraped. There are also the parts that could easily be moved in the story. I highlight those in green. So far, that's it.

Thanks for sharing, everyone. :) Maybe your comments will help writers outline their scripts.