WHAT IS THE PROCESS?

The process of writing a screenplay is a tricky one.  And that is because there is no correct way to have a process happen.  You hear certain people say you MUST outline your script or you MUST get the vomit draft down as fast as humanly possible, or you MUST test your logline out of 100 people for reactions before you type a single word.

Well...

That's bull.  There is no one writer that is the same in this world.  So there should be no one process the same.  I have tried so many different processes over the years - tweaking and changing based on hearing what writers I admire do, or how a book made sense to me... and all they did was pull me away from what my gut was telling me to do from the get-go, and that is: DO YOUR OWN DAMN PROCESS!  So I have created my process by using bits and pieces of things I have learned from everyone else, and finalized my gut feelings, and made it my own.  As should every other writer.

I used to sit down and try to write ten ideas a day.  It was exhausting, and I never found a gold mine.  All of my best ideas came to me out of the blue.  And when an idea comes to me out of the blue I write it down and lock it away and think about it.  And the very next thing I do is feel around for what character this idea should happen to.  And thus begins my process.  My process is one of more thinking than writing.  I will sit and talk in my head to this character, ask them questions, see how they would react in the situations I find myself in over the day.  I get to know who they are, putting pieces in of people I know or have met over time.   I build them into something real and interesting, I find quirks, I find issues, I make sure they have beliefs that in some way go completely against they way I look at things - and it creates conflict in myself, which allows me to make that person more dimensioned and deep.  And as I get to know that character, I start to think of different situations that would happen that would COMPLETELY throw him or her off balance.  Because the most fun happens when the obstacles in a movie challenge the character not only physically, and emotionally, but philosophically.

It's like in HACKSAW RIDGE.  The main character's deep belief was that he would not shoot a gun, but going further than that - never even hold a gun.  So then he is put in situation after situation where he has to pick up a gun to be successful.  And yet he doesn't.  It created instant internal and external conflict in that character and made the drama high in every moment.  And then there is a moment when he must save another man, and to do so he picks up a rifle.  And you as an audience member are floored.  You actually catch your breath at this small action, because of the conflict that has been there.  And you almost want to scream out and tell him no!!  And then he does the unexpected... he uses the rifle not to shoot, but to roll up a blanket with it and use it as a handle to pull an injured man across the ground to safety.

Because every fantastic moment in any movie, in any story, is when the character is challenged, and they stay true to who they are.  Good guy or bad girl.

For me, the PROCESS begins there, and then many more boxes are ticked off along the way.  Going forward I will move step by step through my own process, not in an attempt to get you to drink the Koolaid of how I do things, but to show you someone's process on a deeper level, and if it helps you in your own process in even the smallest way, then that would be something cool to have happen.

So.... get out of here, and WRITE HARD!