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I think most screenwriters do "vomit" drafts: a first draft where you just get scenes down on paper so you have something to revise into a decent script. I don& #39;t think I really do this (except when I& #39;m writing an already outlined episode script for someone else& #39;s show).
When I& #39;m writing a first draft of my own material, I& #39;m usually not trying to plot out a narrative or story so much as I& #39;m chasing a unique tone or voice. Or maybe just a sustained feeling of anticipation that& #39;s punctuated with moments of emotions, revelation, & surprise.
My first drafts still fully suck. But I think they suck in a slightly different way than "vomit drafts" suck. I spend a lot of time in my first drafts trying to get the voice & tone of scenes right, & trying to find surprising or revealing juxtapositions between & within scenes.
I usually write a first draft, or a first big revision, with just a loose general feel for the aesthetic whole and a couple of key sequences and plot points. Then I start trying to write interesting scenes with this aesthetic whole and these few sequences and plot points in mind.
This usually results in a bunch of scenes that I end up scrapping later. But gradually, sort of maybe inevitably, the structure and plot starts taking shape on an almost subconscious level. (I think this is where watching a shit ton of movies helps.)
When I finish a first draft, I usually have the five or six most important scenes down cold. They don& #39;t often change that much going forward. I think I often have the characters pretty decently as well, though sometimes I& #39;ll realize I totally screwed up in conceiving a couple.
What I usually have to do in revision is improve the storytelling structure and locate the emotions and properly build them up and pay them off over the course of the script.
I usually have to transition the script from being a collection of pretty cool scenes and into becoming a fully fleshed-out story with coherent throughlines and recognizable dramatic builds and releases and turns.
This process works really pretty well for me when I& #39;m writing something original on spec. The trickier thing is when I& #39;m writing something for a producer or studio. Often, they want an outline to give them the structure. But for me, structure is more felt and discovered.
Often, instead of a fully plotted out beat-by-beat outline, I try to provide a kind of almost anticipatory sizzle reel of forthcoming attractions: 1) here are the characters, 2) here are some specific big scenes I have in mind for the story, 3) here& #39;s my plan for connecting them.
I kinda stumbled via trial-and-error to this method. It sort of carried over, I think, from writing poetry: I& #39;d start with a mood and a couple of ingredients and maybe one key image, and then I& #39;d just improvise until I made something I didn& #39;t loathe.
To me, coming into a script with a fully fleshed-out outline that I& #39;d execute would be the same as an actor coming to set with a game plan to execute. If they have too much of it already in mind, the game-plan actor risks not listening or reacting to his or her scene partners.
I sorta feel similarly if too much of a script is pre-planned. I risk losing improvisational discoveries. But I also risk not listening to the story, or the characters. I risk executing my intentions w/o reacting to richer elements of the script that I didn& #39;t intend to be there.
I think a lot of folks find it hokey when a writer says the characters told them how to write the script. But I totally buy it. I think there& #39;s an ideal version of every scene, every character hovering around out there. My job is to keep searching until I finally discover it.
