Outline your story. This is where you find out if your story is going to work or not, or at least get a good idea if it is. For many writers, the outline is their first step after they get an idea. This outlining effort will make the actual writing much easier than it would ordinarily be. Of course, an outline is never written in stone and may be very simple or complex, depending on what works better for you.
What follows is an outline of The Mission in its eight main beats.
1. The Cardinal writes a letter to the Pope, explaining what has happened.
2. The Man of Peace, a Jesuit priest, replaces a murdered priest and converts the Guarani tribe.
3. The Man of War enslaves the Guarani and kills his brother for sleeping with his fiancé.
4. The Man of Peace oversees the penance of the Man of War and ordains him a priest.
5. The Cardinal must endorse the Treaty of Madrid by vacating the missions; he announces this to the Guarani converts at the missions.
6. The Guarani choose to fight rather than vacate the missions. The Man of War vows to help.
The Man of Peace will stay but not fight.
7. The Guarani and the priests are slaughtered.
8. The Cardinal concludes his letter to the Pope: “Thus, we have made the world.”
The above outline emphasizes story, but could have been written more from a character viewpoint.
Again, outlining is a tool for you to use as you see fit.
CHECKPOINT 15
Plot the action of your story. Identify your central character’s action plot and emotional subplot. Look at your other movie people; identify their goals. Their goals will drive their individual plots (actually subplots). Do these various plotlines intersect, resulting in adequate conflict for drama or comedy?
CHECKPOINT 16
If appropriate for your purposes, write a four-page synopsis or treatment (double-spaced).
Summarize the beginning of your story in one page, the middle in two pages, and the end in one page.
Focus on two to four main characters, the key events (plot points), and the emotional undercurrent of the story. Although somewhat difficult, this exercise will help tremendously in laying a strong foundation for your story. Now answer these questions:
• Is the central conflict of the story clearly defined?
• Are the character’s goal and need clear?
• Are the stakes of the story big enough for a commercial movie?
• Does the story evoke an emotional response?
• Will the audience cry, get angry, laugh, get scared, fall in love, get excited, etc.?
• What makes this story unique, fresh, and original?
• Is your story too predictable? Have we seen this before?
• Are the facts of the story plausible? (They don’t have to be possible, just plausible.)
• Will people be emotionally satisfied at the end?
CHECKPOINT 17
Step-out your script. Traditionally, the step outline consists of a series of 3”×5” cards, one card for each scene or dramatic unit. Consider attaching these cards (or Post-it Notes) to a wall, table, or corkboard to see the entire story at once. My personal preference is to do this on a computer, using one of the two formatting software programs or some other application.
Continuing with the traditional method: At the top of each card write the master scene heading; then summarize the action of the scene in a sentence or short paragraph, emphasizing the essential action and purpose of the scene. Some writers like to list the characters appearing in the scene in the lower left-hand corner of the card. That way, they can see who is where at a glance.
You can use the lower right-hand corner for pacing and tracking plots. Some writers use a highlighter and identify plots by color: Blue is the action story, red is the love story, and so on.
You can identify scenes as fast or slow, action or dialogue. If you discover that you have four dialogue scenes in a row, all with the same characters, you can adjust this pacing problem by moving scenes around, crosscutting with action scenes, condensing, or even omitting an unnecessary scene.
If additional ideas come to you, jot them down on blank cards. You’ll end up with 30 to 100 cards (or more), depending on the nature of the story.
As mentioned, you don’t have to use 3”×5” cards. You can step-out your story on your computer—
whatever works for you. Once completed, your step outline will become the basis for writing your script.
CHECKPOINT 18
Now that your step outline is complete, ask yourself these questions:
• Are your scenes well paced?
• Do the major turning points come at about the right time?
• Do things just happen, or is there a cause-and-effect relationship between character actions?
• Do the subplots intersect with the main plot, creating new complications?
• Are your characters’ actions motivated, or do they exist just to make the story work?
• Do action, conflict, and dramatic tension build, or just repeat and become static?
• Are your central and opposition characters forced to take stronger and stronger actions?
• Does the conflict rise naturally to a crisis/climax?