Thursday, Feb. 11

Planning It All Out

Paul Schrader (Taxi Driver, Raging Bull) discusses his process:

I know exactly where I’m going beforehand. I know to the half page if I’m on or off target. I draw up charts before I do a script. I endlessly chart and re-chart a movie. Before I sit down to write, I have all the scenes listed, what happens in each scene, how many pages I anticipate each scene will take…

The rest of this excellent thought for the day can be read over at Go Into The Story. Personally I’ve always felt that if you’re writing for a purpose other than self-knowledge (like say, oh, I don’t know, a screenplay or something) than it follows that you should have some outline that organizes the things you want to say.