As I mentioned in my last post, I’m happy to report that (as of yet) I do not owe Jordan any of my money.
I’m currently in Week Three of a 6-week period dedicated to writing the script. I suspected that 6 weeks is a pretty intense deadline for a first-time scriptwriter who's writing in their free time, and I was right. That being said, the story is proving to be a TON of fun to create.
During Week One, I outlined the whole overarching story for ALL the books in my new series. That’s right, the whole story is completely plotted in outline form! This is a big step for me. The first time I’ve ever done so much plotting work (or really, this much story work of any kind).
For the last couple years, I've kept a gigantic (and chaotically disorganized) google doc that I'd use to "brain dump" anytime I had a new thought, story moment, or inspiration. I'd use it to keep track of all the little ideas I didn't want to forget (which I totally would, without fail, if I didn't log them in the doc). Using this doc, I began the work of translating it into something cohesive.
For the last couple years, I've kept a gigantic (and chaotically disorganized) google doc that I'd use to "brain dump" anytime I had a new thought, story moment, or inspiration. I'd use it to keep track of all the little ideas I didn't want to forget (which I totally would, without fail, if I didn't log them in the doc). Using this doc, I began the work of translating it into something cohesive.
I used the corkboard pin-up method used by most old-school animation houses, movie studios, and other storywriters. I'd write each story moment in the google doc on a post-it note, and pin it up and see how it fit together. I found it to be amazingly easy to create this way. Nothing was lost track of, story beats were added, deleted, arranged and re-arranged. Then, they were color-coded with the following tags:
- Character’s age (as it progresses)
- Year (as they progress)
- Introduction of an important character
- Important character/emotional moment
- Action beat
- Romantic or humor beat
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There are a couple other tags I used, but those are the important ones. Using these tags allowed me to see how events flowed, if they were balanced, if they made sense. It also enabled me to keep the timeline straight, and plan it out so the character’s age and the dates all worked. I’d rearrange, replace, and brainstorm new story moments on the spot, refining until it all came together. I had a pretty solid little tale plotted, and most importantly, it kept me engaged and excited. Momentum and enthusiasm kept springing forth, the more and more the plot came together.
So, that was all Week One. Week Two was taking this general, overarching storyline and breaking it down into further smaller chunks- which would become a more detailed outline for Book One. More on that soon!
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Your dedication is inspiring, Travis.
ReplyDeleteThanks for sharing this! I'm working on creating a live visual storyboard like this for Vol 2 of Aedre's Firefly.
ReplyDeleteI like what you said about it keeping you engaged and excited. That is key.
I think this step is absolutely necessarily. You're literally looking at the whole story right in front of you. Nice work brother.
ReplyDeleteI'm enjoying following your process. Thanks for the updates.
ReplyDeleteThanks for the kind words, all!
ReplyDeleteI am more of a by-the-seat-of-my-pants writer, for now (we'll see how that goes). But this post did remind me of the usefulness of note cards. I am writing a particularly difficult scene and kept getting stuck. Finally tried using note cards today with all the things that had to happen, which helped me figure out what happened in between, and in what order. So, thanks again.
ReplyDelete@Lithicbee- glad to hear that the corkboard method was helpful for the scene you were wrestling with! It is indeed, a powerful ally...
ReplyDelete