“The writing is the easiest part of it. The trying period is the period of conceptualization, followed by research. This prewriting time can take anywhere from six months to ten years. But once I know everything there is to know about my characters, the actual writing of the script switches to automatic pilot. It makes no difference whether the script is for TV or feature–the writing period is the same: five pages a day, seven days a week. That’s it. Nothing magical. You just sit there and keep typing.”
– Stirling Silliphant (In the Heat of the Night, Charly, The Poseidon Adventure)
I am realizing this now, having recently switched from an approach where I would just start writing, to one where I am making an effort to follow steps like yours (Scott).
I normally get an idea and get so excited about it that I want to write the script immediately. The end result is mostly disappointing and I move on to the next idea.
The hard part is having the patience to take the slow approach, write the idea down, take the time to develop characters etc.
However I do find that jumping right in is working for a spec tv pilot I'm working on.
Trellick, man you sound like me. I get goosebumps with an idea sometimes and when i start writing nothing.
Now I try to get the grunt work and ammunition ready beforehand and man does it make a diffrence.
"If I had eight hours to chop down a tree, I'd spend six sharpening my ax." ~ Abraham Lincoln
Of course, with that ax in hand it is pretty tempting to just start chopping!
Same here.
In my case, it has been focusing on the Moral Premise that has enabled me to outline a new script from beginning to end in about two days.
Entire characters, scenes, dialouge… it just kind of all wrote itself.
It was actually a really weird thing. Never happened before.
Agreed that researching, breaking the story and figuring out characters is the hard part. The first draft is easy. The other part that he left out that I think is hard, maybe not as hard as the prewriting, but still hard, is the rewriting.
Going over and over and over, trying to make it better, not totally sure if the ideas are playing, trying to sub the text, dramatize the dialogue, visualize the story, tighten, tighten, tighten.
Love it, because you've got something to work on. Hate it, because changes can change a lot, particularly when you've sweated out the pages, rewritten and polished.
But yeah, first pass at the first draft, sort of writes itself, as long as you let it.