I'm in the same boat as you Gary

I try to keep writing and not let it hold me back. Hopefully something will come to me and I'll go back and fill it in... hopefully

Mark

John August says he likes to write the first 10 pages and the last 10 pages first - or something like that.

Personally, I like to write my script in order. I outline extensively and in a lot of detail just so these kinds of situations don't happen. If I'm stuck, it's almost always in the outline stage and not in the actual script-writing.

Quoted from Dreamscale IMO, skipping way ahead is not a good idea.

I don't know, Jeff. It worked pretty well for Christmas Story...

Quoted from Mr. Blonde I don't know, Jeff. It worked pretty well for Christmas Story...

Yes...yes it did.  If that works for you, go for it.  But, you know, your CS is a very different and unique script.  It wraps itself and is all interconnected.  You could write any of the first intermittent scenes, because there's really no "order" to worry about.

True, but it was written backwards. I say as long as you know your story, you could skip around, scene to scene, and never be lost. Of course, it has a better chance at coherence if it's written front to back.

Coherence seems to be over rated, as most of Hollywood's movies are far from coherent.

Well, I don't know about it. If anything, they're too straight forward. But, you know what? I'm sure someone on this site (maybe) has that script that's going to completely revolutionalize Hollywood and obliterate 100 years of by-the-numbers dreck. Thing is, they're sell it for low six-figures and have a script doctor brought in to "Hollywood-ize" it and we'll have to wait another 100 years.

I can dream, can't I?

Quoted from Gary in Houston How many of you write out your scripts in the actual order of your outline or how it progresses in your mind?  I'm just curious because I'm stuck on one scene near the beginning of my script for the 1+6WC and just can't get past it, meanwhile, I know exactly how I want the last 20 pages or so to end, plus there are two or three other scenes that I know exactly what I want. I'm thinking, ok, write those scenes now while they're fresh in your head and then come back to the scene you're stuck on, but it just seems weird to me--writing backwards in effect.  Anyone else write this way, even if it's just occasionally? Gary

Oh, my dear new friend, Gary...

You are speaking to the gal that everyone here knows, spills out garbage very willingly, only to get to the gold. Even if it's only Fool's Gold.

This has got to be what writing's all about for some people. Not everyone, but some.

I write backwards and sideways and upside down and with a little luck, I will eventually come to an outline. I'm not worried about doing that once I HAVE IT...

But GETTING IT, that's another thing. I think we know when we get it.

Currently, I'm writing everything that wants to spill on the page for Enter Your Problem. I'm writing on blue school-lined paper, I'm typing in Final Draft and in Word, I'm up at night and scribbling what I forget the next day in "some book" that I can't find. Oh, here it is!  

This must be the challenge in getting the story that wants out, OUT.

Keep going back to characters and their motivations. Keep going back to questions. Keep asking them. Even if it doesn't work out, you aren't out anything. You will have learned a great deal even if it doesn't show up on the page.

Sandra

Ideas become treatments.
Treatments become outlines.
Outlines become index cards.
Index cards become "place holder" scenes in a vomit draft.
Then keep rewriting until all the place holders are replaced.

I got a little stuck with the one I'm working on now.
I wrote a couple scenes out of sequence. Then floundered some.
But a producer colleague suggested I try the idea as a TV pilot.
And boy, has that freed me up and helped me explore the characters.
In turn, that'll help me go back to the feature and refine that narrative.

Whatever will keep me writing, that's the "system" I'll follow.

E.D.

I've never done an outline... jotting notes down as idea's come to me is as close as I come to an outline.... but the question at hand; I usually write organically. I get an idea of where I want the plot points to be and how the story will end, in my head, then I just write and let the story guide me on what ever path it wants to take me in order to get to the end(sometimes that leads to a different ending)... because of this, I can't jump ahead... I always think action - reaction... one foot in front of the other. However once I've written scenes down, I usually get ideas on how to better improve the scenes prior.

Good luck with it, keep hacking away.
Best,
-Kev