My Script Process

It starts with scales or noodling.

That's how I think of my script writing process, be it play script or screenplay.

Most artists are interested in other artists processes regardless of medium because they both have parallels. For me I'm always interested in how musicians develop their songs, albums. The "Classic Albums" series of documentaries are always quite fascinating to me. As a musician I can't help but find parallels between playing guitar and writing, the process of working with a chord or scale and trying to find something within it. 

With a script it's slightly different because it starts with an idea, it starts with just rummaging through ideas like I rummage through chords. I'll conceive of an idea and I'll collect it, let it nurture and stick with me or fester because it doesn't feel right. 

This process began when I first wrote "The Five Stages of Baldness," my senior thesis. I rummaged through ideas and the idea of combining the five stages of grief and someone going bald was stuck in there from my friend's experience with baldness. 

I watched a clip of Ginger Baker playing drums in the documentary "Beware of Mr. Baker." Asking him about his process in practising drums he talked about beginning with warm-ups. Then, as he says, "I just play." That's how I feel when writing. After starting off with warm-ups, "I just write." I write anything. 

I just start writing a draft. Typically I'll preface this draft work with a bit of supplementary work via loglines or miscellaneous work. Miscellaneous work might be dialogue I won't include in the draft that indicates character. For the tentatively titled "Against Sparta," I wrote fake newspaper articles that helped develop the world and before the first draft I had a couple of short stories. 

After having an idea of how the story plays out I start writing, with a focus on dialogue primarily. That draft is awful and I rarely show it to anyone. It's usually inconsistent because during that draft I start to already think of what might be happening, where to take it, and just like I might change timing or tempo in a song I start changing it around. 

Then I journal. I always journal because journals are the ultimate sounding board for drafting and for ideas. I start taking down possible ideas for the characters, what to do. The original draft of "Against Sparta" actually had a male protagonist, but journaling I realized it might be more interesting to make it a female protagonist. 

Writing a script is solving a problem, it's troubleshooting. Journaling allows me to jot down ways in order to solve the problem. During "The Five Stages of Baldness" I solved my problems by using a journal as a springboard. It's important to have paper trails throughout the process. 

My second draft is where I start turning the story into something more coherent. It's the toddler part of the script process, the part where things start to form but it still wanders around. 

The third draft is where it becomes something for me and this is the draft that I start extending to individuals I trust, individuals whose criticism is specific and meaningful. Using a music analogy the third draft is a demo tape. It is starting to feel like a script but it's got some errors that need to be fine tuned.

Somewhere in the third and fourth draft processes I work on finding people to read it aloud. In a script, the dialogue needs to be out loud to be understood well. 

The fifth draft is when it should be in a shooting capacity, even if not perfect.