Being a writer and figuring out what methods work for you is crucial. There are so many books out there with varying levels of success. Not all work for everyone. In this blog, I’m going to break down my writing method.
Stage One: The Idea
Coming up with that cracking idea that gets the creative juices flowing isn’t the easiest. It can be so damn hard! In my fourteen years writing, being able to make it clear what the idea is and has been the hardest part.
Recently, I read Erik Bork’s The Idea and Pilar Alessandra’s The Coffee Break Screenwriter and it really helped to solidify what I’m looking for. I need to test the idea has a clear goal with serious consequences should the goal not be met. I just need to play with the idea until it seems deadly enough.
Stage Two: The Logline
In Pilar Alessandra’s book, she helped me to narrow down what it’s about. This has caught me out many a time and still does in figuring out the heart of my story. Pilar asks us to think about the idea as a “what if”. It might look like “what if an alien has to fix the ship before the skip kills them so they can return home?” as a first attempt.
Don’t be afraid if your first attempts are awful, wishy washy or unclear. Having a few goes at it means you can see what works and what doesn’t. This method is gearing you towards loglines, which is essentially condensing your idea into one or two sentences as a maximum.
When you have your “what if” statement, this would be a great time to have a go at writing an actual logline. There’s a super useful guide by Lucy V Hay that breaks it down as this:
“When [inciting incident occurs], a [specific protagonist] must [objective] or [stakes]”
You can check out Lucy’s blog with handy tips on writing a great logline here.
Breaking down the idea into this logline means it’s a lot easier to answer the question as writers we dread to be asked – “what is it about?”. There are a few different way to write a logline. The below example is from a project I’m writing at the moment so you get an idea of what it looks like:
“A dystopian prison is infiltrated by a lightning-fuelled recluse on a mission to protect her fellow superhumans from being murdered for their powers”
Stage Three: The Outline
This is yet another part of the process that writers hate, myself included at times. This outline document is essentially breaking down everything that happens in your project. It’s one long document of prose that goes through every twist and turn, every hurdle your characters have to get over. Initially when I write mine, I do it in the same document as my loglines and go right into writing the events I put my characters through. I try to write the outline in one go to the end. I tried to pick it up after doing so much of it but I just couldn’t get the flow right and couldn’t finish it.
Writing this out, I also ignore any of the rules with it should the outline be used for anything further down the line. Depending whether you’re wanting to publish it or try to get it made, outlines could be limited to one to three pages as an absolute maximum. In this, I write as many pages as I want to get the whole story on the page. If it stays as it is, you can always edit the outline further down the line. If nothing else, you may need to edit if bits of your story changes.
Stage Four Part One: Scene Breakdown
For screen or theatre, I use the outline as a base to do a summary of each scene I’ll need. This means I have an idea of what happens, what we learn and where something I set up for later needs to be and where it’s paid off.
I can then test the flow of the story by seeing where the events are happening. You don’t need much in the description here. It’s for you to get an idea of what you need to write in each scene when you start writing your first draft.
Stage Four Part Two: The Spaghetti Draft
Whether I’m writing a script or a novel, this stage will be done. The previous stage gets ignored if it’s a novel, as I don’t need to break it down into scenes as much if it was a script. This whole stage of my writing method is to give me the opportunity to write an awful draft of my idea. I call it awful because the first draft will be solely for you. Never, ever show anyone this draft because it is you splurging your idea onto the page.
Don’t worry if it’s too short, too long, too wishy washy. This whole draft is meant to help you write a version of your project. There’s a phrase I’m going to summarise that I picked up somewhere that I really liked because it sums this stage up perfectly.
“You’re adding sand to the sand box to then make sandcastles”
This reference sums up that draft one is us adding the sand so the next drafts will be us playing with the sand to create sandcastles. This way, we’re able to create the version that works best.
Stage Five: The Rewrites
So you have a first draft. Great! Well done you! Celebrate this because it is so important. Not everyone gets to this point. No one gets to this point easily either. Give yourself some space between drafts so you can see where you were struggling and can improve on the next draft. This will give you fresh eyes to see the chaotic bits.
Maybe you diverted from the plan (guilty several times!) or you just weren’t happy with a part of the project. That’s okay. That’s what this stage is for. Figuring out what worked, what didn’t, what you hated, what you loved and what could do with some tweaking to go forward. Write as many drafts as you like. Try new things from your plan or tweak the plan a little to reflect your changes. Don’t be afraid to do it if parts just didn’t work out.
Stage Six: Rework Outline
When you’re happy with your draft to some extent, go back to your outline and rework it in a new document to reflect the changes you’ve made. Then you have a backup copy in case you accidentally delete details you needed to keep (guilty of this one too!). This will also be the point to edit it for submitting. Shrink it in a version to one page, three pages or whatever the limit is for where you want to send it. Different places have different lengths they’ll accept, so do your due diligence if you’re doing it that way.
Stage Seven: Submissions
This bit scares the hell out of me, so if it makes you nervous, you’re not alone. The key is to read carefully any submission rules. They may only want your first three chapters/ten pages or something different. Make sure you do it as they say, so don’t post it if they expect a form online instead. Also, check they want your kind of story. No point sending a romance to a specialist in horror.
Should your work include characters from a community you don’t inhabit, ie LGBTQ+, disability or have a specific career like police officers, then this stage also includes submitting to a sensitivity reader/authenticity reader with that knowledge. This will not only help make the characters authentic, but it also means they ask you questions that you might not have thought about that you can act on to make it even better. Sensitivity Readers aren’t here to catch people out or to call writers out for their work. We wan to help writers write better.
So, I hope this blog has been at least insightful into the writing method I use. Don’t feel any pressure to use my method. Finding yours that works for you is the best thing you could do. If there were bits that you liked from mine, try them and see how it goes.
If you have any questions, please do get in touch. I’d be happy to answer them. So good luck in finding your own writing method that works for you.
Happy writing!