Outline Your Script in Three Phases

You could say there are two types of writers: “outliners” who plot out their work to one degree or another, and “pantsers” who sit down and, by the seat of their pants, write, write, write without having much – if anything at all – sketched out ahead of time. Your process is your process, but if you’re an outliner looking for tips or a pantser looking to try something new, our friends at WriterDuet have a few tips for outlining that could change your writing game.

Novelist E.L. Doctorow once compared writing to driving a car at night: “You can see only as far as your headlights, but you can make the whole trip that way.”

This sure is a romantic way to look at the writing process. But perhaps it’s too romantic. 

It’s tempting to rush into an exciting idea – to try and keyboard-smash an entire first draft in chronological order. But this can lead to a loss of momentum or, worse, passion. And what a waste it is when a great idea is struck down by writers’ block – when yet another project is thrown to the wayside after we get caught up in the micro instead of focusing on the bigger picture. 

“Oh, gosh,” we think. “Maybe there isn’t a bigger picture. This is a horrible idea! What was I even thinking?”

If an insidious thought like that has ever popped into your brain, or if you have a figurative drawer full of half-baked concepts that you inexplicably fell out of love with, keep on reading. Below, Nicholl award-winning screenwriters Alisha Brophy and Scott Miles highlight some techniques on how to outline a script that allows for a more fluid and reassuring writing process. 

Outline Phase 1: Logline

A logline encapsulates the essence of your story in as few words as possible – generally one to two sentences. Writing a logline before you even put pen to paper (or rather, fingers to keys) is a simple way to find out whether your idea is attention-grabbing. If your story lacks a hook into your character’s journey or world, the logline will let you know. 

A logline will challenge you to turn your concept into a narrative. Central conflicts should be obvious from your logline – to both you and your reader/viewer. If you’re writing a hero’s-journey narrative, the logline should also reflect why your character, specifically, is special within the situation you’ve created for them. What about them intrigues us? 

Basically, if you only had ten seconds to tell someone why they should watch your movie and not someone else’s, what would you say? 

Outline Phase 2: Paragraph Pitch

The paragraph pitch is where you write all the sentences that you were itching to put in your logline. It’s a paraphrased version of your story that doesn’t require too many details and may resemble the bare bones of a three-act structure. Brophy and Miles “never go more than a page” with their paragraph pitches. Having your story written out in vague snippets may help you find gaps in your narrative – both in terms of plot and engagement. What still needs figuring out? If there’s a hero’s journey, is there a distinct and engaging story or character arc? 

Seeing the layout of your story in this way is actually pretty encouraging. It’s onwards and upwards from here!

Outline Phase 3: Beat Sheet

A beat sheet is a blueprint of your screenplay and one of the most detailed ways to outline a script. It constitutes a rundown of all the main beats – or plot points – of your story and allows you to see how pivotal moments fit within an overall arc. A beat sheet generally showcases how character and story interconnect and influence each other: how do the obstacles or antagonists of your story affect your protagonist’s actions? How do the protagonist’s actions, in turn, affect the direction of the story? 

Using sequences is a great way to structure a beat sheet – especially if your script follows a three-act narrative. Brophy and Miles format their beats into sequences of eight: two for Act I, four for Act II and two for Act III. “If you treat each one as a mini-story with a beginning, middle and end,” says Miles, “it always keeps the script moving ahead with purpose.”

Overcome Post-Setup Burnout

Outlining your script isn’t about taking the joy or romance out of the writing process; it’s about focusing your creativity to achieve your goals. While outlining is perhaps a more analytical approach to writing than, say, closing your eyes, opening your laptop and hoping for the best, it shouldn’t feel restrictive or prescriptive. It’s simply pragmatic. `

As Miles states, “figure these things out now, and Future You is going to be eternally grateful.”

by Charlotte Daraio, WriterDuet

WriterDuet is real-time collaborative screenwriting software featuring real-time co-writing, intuitive commenting, and in-app text and video chat make us a favorite for writers’ rooms, sketch groups, and more. WriterDuet integrates and organizes beat sheets, treatments, and outlines so that you can focus on writing. Before subscribing, you can access WriterDuet and write three scripts on their platform for free. No time limit, no page limit, and no import/export limit.

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