Okay, so you've got this great idea. You think, if only someone would make a movie out of it!
Then it hits you.. Hey, why don't I write it myself?! Well, why not? Go for it! But before you
jump into the deep end...
PLAN YOUR STORY!
Many novice Screenwriters make the mistake of leaping head first into a full screenplay
without taking the crucial first step of outlining their story - otherwise known in the biz as
"step-outlining".
A step outline is essentially a step by step breakdown of your story. By planning your story
structure in advance you will save yourself a whole lot of time in the "rewriting" stage of your
project because no matter how good you are at screenwriting, all writers have to learn to love
rewriting!
Movie Outline offers a simple way for Screenwriters to outline their story while
simultaneously referencing successful movies of all genres.
The 12 outlines and analyses included are:
Die Hard
True Romance
There's Something About Mary
When Harry Met Sally
Scream
Good Will Hunting
Dead Poets Society
Ghost
Pretty Woman
Seven
The Terminator
Spider-Man
.. and there are many more to come!
Step or Scene?
Movie Outline uses "Steps" instead of "Scenes" which may confuse some screenwriters who
are used to using scenes in relation to film timing and screenplay layout, but the difference is actually
quite simple to understand.
A "Step" in Movie Outline really means an "Event" in the progression of your story, and this
means that each step can consist of more than one "Scene". A Montage sequence is one good example or:
Joe leaves his apartment, gets in his car, drives to the bank.
Although in a screenplay this totals three scenes, in a step-outline it is only one step since the
nature of creating a step-outline dictates that you focus on the main story event and do not get into
too much detail. Unless something big happens to Joe while he is getting into his car, the
scene can be described within the overall event. What then happens when Joe enters the bank
is another step.. and so on.
Another example could be a car chase. In a screenplay, each location that the cars involved in the chase
pass through is technically a scene, but since we're dealing with the same story event, the entire chase and collection of scenes is referred to as a step.
Or supposed your screenplay has your Hero bravely dashing into a burning building to save a child while other fire-fighters
frantically do their best to put out the blaze. Technically, each room your Hero searches in constitutes
a scene, and every time we cut back to the other fire-fighters, they are separate scenes too, but when planning
your story, it is much easier to think of this as one single event and as such, a single step.
"The strength of Movie Outline lies in its simplicity for
ease of use. Everything you need to do or see is mostly on the screen in
front of you. It’s one of the few writers’ software tools where I was
comfortably up to speed in the first few minutes of creating and outlining my story."
