Mike, do you have any scripts up? I'd be happy to give em a read!

Doing a previous outline is the best method IMO. Each scene of your script must move your story forward; that´s impossible to do if you don´t know exactly where you´re going.

If you "just write", after you figured what´s your story about, you´ll have to go back and cut a lot of irrelevant stuff.

The more pre-writing, the less re-writing.

I make up the plot first, though I never write it down.  It stays in my head where I can still play with it while I writing.


Phil

I have to have a written outline in front of me before I write one word down of my script.  That way I know where my characters are at the beginning and how they will change at the end.  I even know what important aspects of dialouge to include in certain coversations and how much to build up when a character is about to die or go through a big situation.

But, an outline is just a structure.  My things get changed as I'm writting because I see better ways to show something or I have a new idea that pops in my head.

You should always have a rough outline to guide you.  Something that gives you a general idea of where you are going.  It's like driving.  If you don't have a final destination in mind, why are you even getting into the car in the first place?

Taking that analogy a bit further, consider the outline like a roadmap for your character's journey.  You are not chained to it -- if you come to an interesting side road, by all means explore it and see if it takes you someplace good -- but you should always have a clear idea of where you hope to end up.

Driving around aimlessly, making it up as you go, seldom generates a good story.

Quoted from dogglebe I make up the plot first, though I never write it down.  It stays in my head where I can still play with it while I writing. Phil

I do the same, but I don't think up a plot, I dream up one.  Most of the things I write are dreams I've had.

I've done it a variety of ways. Sometimes I have a general idea of where I'm going and just "drive," as Bert put it. By doing it this way, I am able to watch my plot unfold like watching a movie and force the creative juices to wiggle my way out of corners I'd never get myself into otherwise. Genesis of the Mutation was written this way as well as Vengeance and The Soul Keeper, though those two have undegone extensive revisions since then.

Sometimes I plot out the entire story by scene by scene fixing and tweaking this and that as I go along so I have a bird's eye view of the whole thing before I begin. I don't tend to do this too often, but I did do it for The Initiation of David as well as the episodes I wrote for Guardians. These two methods work well for action plots that drag the character along with them.

Lately, I've actually worked out the individual characters and the plots they will follow throughout the story. This works best for character driven storylines and is what I used for Jagged which follows six characters through six individual and intertwining plots. I also used it for Old Friends to keep everything together, although I like that whole story less and less. More and more, I am preferring this over the other methods because I know what all the characters are doing and it forces me to keep them all active throughout the story.

Overlapping these methods is a decent way to write so your action plots are laid out and your characters are all tracked. As you write, writing from the hip becomes easier, but above all else, read what you write like you're watching it on screen and decide whether what you're writing actually works or if you'd think it would look stupid on screen.

Quoted from Mr.Z If you "just write", after you figured what´s your story about, you´ll have to go back and cut a lot of irrelevant stuff.

This is very true, but I like to write the irrelevant stuff even if it means I'll end up cutting it.  Because the more you write, the more you know your characters.  Even if a lot of scenes get cut, you have the memories of those scenes, and those memories can only help you know your characters.

Quoted from Alan_Holman This is very true, but I like to write the irrelevant stuff even if it means I'll end up cutting it.  Because the more you write, the more you know your characters.

That´s also true; I do it but in a different way. I write the "irrelevant stuff" during the outline process. I write every idea I come up with (good, bad, very good, very bad) and then I choose the best ones for my script. So when I reach "cutting time" I have to deal with a 15-20 page outline instead of a 90-120 page script.

A lot of suff gets lost in the creative process but it helps to know my characters.

I don't think "pre-plotting" is absolutely neccesary. Stephen King never does it and, well, enough said. I'd say it's a matter of personal preference.

Personally, I don't care for outlines. I think they take all the fun out of writing and I've never had a problem with rewriting so I'd say they're not for me. I'm always coming up with new ideas so even if I did write an outline, I'd constantly be changing it.

When you write as you go ideas sprout more than when you are really trying hard to think of an idea. That is how it is for me. I can never think when I'm writing ideas down, but when I just write them down as I go it feels more full.

That is my preference.

The big secret behind how I plotted Banana Chan is what follows.  Anything else I've saaid i a cover story.  The year was 1999, and I was 18 years old, and I suddenly found that I had developed a crush on a girl who was 14.  The age difference made me decide against telling her about the crush until she got older.  In the meantime, I got hooked on a radio show called COAST TO COAST A.M., which I listened to as I slept.  They kept talking about Armageddon and Y2K, so I kept having dreams about situations in which it was up to me to rescue that particular girl from situations that involved the end of the world.  Except there was a twist.  In each of the dreams, I'd try to rescue her, but it'd end up that she'd always be the one who saved me.  The situations would develop as such:  I'd see that she's in danger, so I'd try to rescue her, but it turns out that I misinterpreted her situation, and she wasn't actually in danger, so I put myself into danger accidentally, and she'd be the one who saves me ... she'd save me like in the OASIS song Wonderwall which I was addicted to at the time, which had the lyrics, "maybe you're gonna be the one that saves me."  Well anyway, those situations in which she saves me were part of the dreams, but chunks of the other parts are what I mixed together to develop the plot of Banana Chan.

While I don't think it is absolutely necessary to write a long, fleshed out outline before you start a script, I do think you have to atleast have a concept of where you characters will be at the beginning, middle, and end of your script.

Of course, unless your Stephen King.  

Pre-plotting occurs whether you write it down or not. It is doubtful that Stephen King just starts writing one day without any clear concept of where he'll end up. He probably just has the story in his head and writes it down. It's a common enough practice.

The reason you write it down is just so you don't forget what you've come up with. Even when I've written stuff "off the cuff" I still had an idea of where I was headed. I could have written it down in an outline if I wanted, but usually when a story is good enough, I have the whole thing in my head making an outline a waste of time since I'd just end up writing the story complete anyway.

I've been browsing around looking for a new thread, new topic, something fun to read...

So, how about this... Does anyone have a fun, or funny situation as a writer to share with us? like Something amazing happened to you and inspired you to write a script...

It would be interesting to find out what the story behind the story, in details. What inspired your best work? What was behind it? A woman? A man? A picture? A song?

And please name your script so we know what you're talking about.

Ayham