Kinetic Moves Forward

The oh-so-joyous outlining process

Play on words non-withstanding, I wanted to post an update that my screenplay for Kinetic is finally beginning to take its first productive steps towards completion.  With all the medical issues as of late, as well as the impending birth of a new addition to our family – this blog, and my work have both been equally disrupted.

I have all but finished the arduous process of outlining the first act of the film, and I am excited to actually begin to write the actual first draft of the screenplay.  As you can probably tell by my rather homeless appearance in the above picture – outlining is not exactly my favorite thing in the world to do.  However, it is a necessary evil.  I am far too scatterbrained to write freeform, and even if I could – I am a chronic reviser.  My first two attempts at treatments never crossed the finish line before I began to rewrite the first page.  Obviously, this is a cancer to the writing process, if you are constantly reworking things in the script before finishing your first attempt at a complete idea.

On the other hand, I am also very averse to detailed outlines.  I am refusing to outline dialog, and am only using the cards to frame the introduction of characters and the ebb and flow of action throughout the script.  It definitely took a while for me to fully embrace doing this, but my inspiration was based on a suggestion from B-Moore, who was utilizing a similar approach.

I can say with a high degree of certainty, that had I not taken the “cards” approach – I would probably still be trying to figure out what my idea was truly about.   As always, any comments/questions/etc are appreciated – and will serve as a break from the grindstone.

Coming Together