Screenwriting : My first buddy action script by Anthony McBride

Planner, definitely! I'm too much of a perfectionist to just pour it onto the page freestyle. It would drive me mad not only to not have act outlines and beatsheets, but to not have things well-written from the off. I'm an edit as I go person too, and i reread the previous day's pages and edit those if necessary. I just find that having a solid outline and beatsheets for each act makes the script-writing easier. I do not however, write as quickly as you! Despite all the planning, percolating and overthinking, I'm a pretty slow, methodical worker.

Congratulations on starting your first Buddy Action feature script and getting to page forty, Anthony McBride!

I'm a planner. I make detailed outlines for feature scripts and TV shows. I make short outlines for short scripts.

Anthony McBride I'm a planner, big time. The outlines are the building blocks for the story, I feel.

I am definitely a planner! Though I will only plan everything up to dialogue. I don’t pre-plan dialogue. I have to “hear” the conversations.

Jacob Sanders I agree. I'm working on something now and using the outline helped tremendously, but the dialogue has to happen as you write. It's really interesting when you start hearing the characters "speak" to you.

I'm a practitioner of the Peter Elbow school of writing: make a mess first. I free write all the ideas I have over the course of a week or ten days as a fast as possible. Jump out of the tub mid-shower if I have to and put it down--dozens of pages of just rando stuff that all fits generally into the story. But it does fit; that's the important part.

I've found that if I don't write it as fast as it comes, first, I miss critical components of my story.

I've never used outlines. I appreciate those who use them because it works for them. They've never worked for me even in postgraduate school and writing big college papers including my MA thesis and published work. I find outlines too rigid. It could very well be that my approach is wrong. I don't know.

That said, maybe someone here who knows much, much more than I do regarding outlines for screenplays can tell me why I should. I'm just now working on my first. It's a based on true events 5-part limited series so the story's core is already there but the pilot came to me quickly. Can someone help me understand how outlining a screenplay differs from different types of writing outlines for novels, academic writing, short stories, please? What advantage do I gain from outlining a screenplay versus, say, writing a 25-page essay on Basque Nationalism, for instance? Thanks in advance.

I outlined short stories and a novel way back, but I don't remember how I did it, Kyle Eidson. I come up with the logline, theme, character bios, scenes, dialogue, twists, and more when I outline a feature script or TV show.

Hey Anthony McBride I've never heard the phrase 'popcorn' movie - what do you mean by that? I hope it's OK to ask

Lauren Hackney A popcorn movie is one that's made for pure entertainment purposes and not art. Action, sci-fi, horror, etc.

Thank you Anthony McBride Just fyi - I write 'popcorn' movies hahaha. Gosh, some days I wonder what I'm doing here. But I guess I'm going to learn something new every day!

Wow

Anthony, here's wishing you plenty of success with "Battle Buddies!" (And this shout-out comes from a fellow "planner!")

Oh yes- just redefined my novel as a "popcorn movie in the making!"

Jim Boston I appreciate you, sir