What does a professional screenwriter’s outline look like? And how can you emulate them?
One of the most common problems we hear from friends attempting to write a script is that they get lost in the second act. The second act is so hard to write because you need to move the story forward while also developing new things about the character.
So, how can you avoid this madness and proceed forward like a professional writer? One word: OUTLINE
It’s both deeply satisfying and kind of intimidating to hear about how the pros do things. But one commonality is the outline. Personally, I think outlining has made me a better writer. It forces you to break the story in new and exciting ways, and it keeps you honest. You have to see what happens not just at the beginning and end, but also in the middle.
As Vince Gilligan says, writing is structure. You need to figure out what happens outside of snappy dialogue. You need to hit the beats to make what you’re writing an emotional journey.
Paul Thomas Anderson comes up with scenes first and spreads them around. Then tackles them individually, seeing if he can link them together until a story happens.
When it comes to outlining, Tarantino is similar, he just tries to follow his characters. What makes life hard on them? What genre matters? He likes to follow genre beats and subvert when he can in order to keep the audience engaged. His outlines evolve from there.
Alex Garland loves a beat sheet. He makes that first, then writes his script above the beat sheet in the same screenwriting software. That way his script is getting longer and then his outline is getting shorter.
Greta Gerwig hates outlining. So does Sorkin. To each their own. But both of them say they imagine the movie from beginning to end. Gerwig likes to just let ideas take her through the pages. That terrifies some but her scripts all turn out really well so…
Rian Johnson draws his arcs in notebooks, one for each character, and then once he sees everything from 10,000 feet he can tackle them individually. That feels more my style, mostly because I am a big fan of doodling the story beats and then putting them together in a document.