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BREAKING STORY BEFORE IT BREAKS YOU
My Fellow Writers,
What's the hardest part of writing a script? Well, okay, finishing - which I've actually never done. Don't get me wrong -- I've turned in many scripts. A couple have been shot. But I've never actually finished one.
So, aside from that, what do think is the most difficult aspect of script writing?
We all know that anyone can think of a concept. Hell, my GRANDMOTHER has pitched me concepts for movies before. I told her I don't take unsolicited submissions and that she should have her agent call me. Anytime you go anywhere and say to anyone that you're a writer, they will pitch you an idea. Next time, I'm just going to say "Oh, that's pretty good, I'm stealing it and writing it. Thanks, man, you just paid for my new boat."
Of course, thinking of a great concept is a little tougher, but any writer worth his or her salt has a backlog file of dozens of great concepts. And any veteran writer knows that they're all worthless. Because a premise is next-to-nothing. It's an acorn when you need wood for the fireplace.
This is where we come to the hardest part of writing. It's called "breaking story." It's basically the process of turning your premise into concepts for actual scenes. Sometimes, it's done in outline form; sometimes, in prose form. But the goal is the same: to list out the basic scenes that you will be writing in order to tell your story.
It's difficult because the page and the screen are absolutely blank. You have to determine the specific choices that will best tell the story of this great premise you have. You'll question every choice you make, and few choices will be black or white. You'll tread into familiar territory, picking scenes that we've all seen too many times. You'll think of great scenes that simply don't fit in with the rest of the movie. In short, you'll have to be more creative than you will at any other point during the process.
What's more, even when you break story right, all you often have at the end of it is a document that you can't show to anyone. It's just sort-of an internal memo - a blueprint that tells you what you're going to write, but that no one else could possibly understand.
But it's also where your movie truly takes shape. And that's what makes it so exciting.
The best writers in town fully understand the importance of breaking story. When you hear those stories of series writers doing a script in two or three days, realize this: often, they're helped by the other writers on the show to do the hardest part - the breaking of the story. They have a roadmap by which to write, meaning they don't have to pause and work out the next story twist every five minutes. Having written and rewritten a few scripts that fast myself, I can tell you that it's a lot easier that way.
You've all heard this in every screenwriting class you've ever taken. I've heard it, I've taught it, I've been paid to do it, and I've done it. But that hasn't stopped me from trying to skip this step every once in a while when I'm starting a new project. I figure that I can go off of a treatment I wrote for the project, or a pitch that got some executive excited. However, what I inevitably find is that I need to break the whole story, scene-by-scene, before I begin. If I don't, I'll just go through the hassle of writing a meandering first draft and then having to break the whole story anyway. And wasting a ton of time.
There isn't any one way to do this right. Index cards, computer programs, dry-erase boards, outlines - I end up using all of these, every time. Know why? Because, if you'll excuse my most excellent French, it's fucking hard to do.
I cut up scratch paper from old drafts of scripts, because if I don't use the most useless paper possible, then I might just stop myself from wasting it on writing down a scene that might become a great act break. I have things laid out on my carpet, tacked to walls, on various computer files. I print out several versions of outlines.
I also complain a lot while I'm doing this, because it's often one of those things that doesn't initially show any results.
But in the end, when I'm in that zone, I know that it's really the most important part of the process. Because it's the first time that anyone gets to see the movie. And when I have victories in breaking the story, I know that I'm really thinking about something that is going to be part of that eventual movie. I know I'm done breaking story when even that one-line outline is exciting - and when I visualize those scenes, I'm seeing that movie. I'm truly creating.
Relish this very important step. And do it right - before you jump too deeply into a script that isn't properly planned out. You'll find that putting more time into breaking story up front will pay great dividends in terms of both the quality of your script and in the time spent writing it.
Unbreakable,
Grady
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