How To Outline
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- čas přidán 8. 07. 2024
- Serious ScreenWriting HOW-TO: it's time to get nuts-and-bolts & nitty-gritty with a DETAILED, STEP-BY-STEP tour through a simple, flexible practical OUTLINE FORMAT for ANY kind of script - Feature, TV or Indie DIY.
PLUS! Tips on how to decide what Outline Format works for you, and thoughts on OUTLINE SOFTWARE.
BIG LIST OF QUESTIONS - To Figure Out If An Outline Format is HELPING You:
Is it helping you turn everything into scenes?
Is it showing you what the action is and who’s taking it?
Is it making each idea more specific and concrete?
Does it allow physical space for all of your thoughts?
Does it give you ways to distinguish between different types of content?
Does it help you organize and prioritize?
Does it help you explore and experiment?
Does it allow you to step back and look at the story or structure?
Is it easy to make changes, rethink, reorganize?
Is it showing you what’s ready-to-write and what’s not?
Is it safe? Can you lose it? Can you back it up?
Is it easy for you to operate?
Can you afford it?
Are you thinking more about content than process/technology?
Do you find yourself looking forward to using it?
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Learn to write for screens - ANY kind of screens, from Hollywood tentpole to streaming series to DIY indie.
Want to know more? Want to work with me? Go to WRITINGFORSCREENS.COM.
Credits Motion Graphics: Xander Brennan, xanbrennan.com
Credits Music: musicfornothing.com
SFX: "Bell, Counter, A.wav" by InspectorJ (www.jshaw.co.uk) of Freesound.org
I've seen a lot of videos that stress the need for creating a script outline but this is the first one I've found that offers a practical way of going about it. This is great. Thanks so much.
Thank YOU! It's so wonderful to hear that!
@@writingforscreens ❤❤❤❤😊😊😊
I just started an outline using this method and I CANNOT thank you enough for this video. The way the ideas are flowing without blockages because I am utilizing lines, fonts, and colors to organize my process has been a game-changer!
So great for me to hear that it's working for you!!! Yay!
Sir, you have a brilliant system in place. I love your advice about: Color Coding, Pasting Scenes on the Wall and crossing them as we go, and removing everything else to know the journey of our Character. Simply Outstanding. Thank you for tutoring us your experience.
Thank you so much!!!
This guy is a natural teacher and I am so grateful for that! I’m learning so much! Thank you!
Thank you! I'm blushing.
Thank you again, Glenn! Rewatching again:)
Thank you SO MUCH for making these videos. I am an animator that is trying to make my own stories. I’ve basically got all of the other parts of creating an animated story down except for writing. This has by far been the most challenging part of creating videos, and your channel has made this phase significantly less anxiety inducing! Thank you!!!!!!!!!!
You're so welcome! (!!!!) I am truly happy to hear this, it's THE reason I do this, to think that it's actually useful to an artist. Definitely keep making your own stories!
Thank you so much for sharing your knowledge and experience! They say when the student is ready the teacher will appear... Here you are! ;)
Glad to be summoned-forth!
Wow, I am actually using a similar method already (also with pages). But I did not think of colouring the text differently when adding notes and such. I might try that. And the list to cross off sounds very useful too. Thanks for the advice.
Everyone has their own ways of organizing the world - color helps me, and I'm just a sucker for fonts :) Keep thinking in scenes!
These videos are gold. Even though I'm a novelist, nearly all of your information is invaluable for me, too. Thanks for helping out us strangers, Glenn 💙
Also. I'd just discovered and bought Scrivener recently and was LOVING it ("I can organize all my info!"), but then I foolishly replaced my laptop with a Chromebook. Oops, no Scrivener for that, and all my searching hasn't found me a comparable program that works with Google's dumb OS.
Any viewer of Glenn's know of one?
Ouch - sorry about the tech snafu re Scrivener. A PC-based friend of mine uses www.writersblocks.com and says it's great, so maybe check that out.
As a child having nobody to play with at times I explored my grandmothers cellar I found a small desk with a simple chair slightly pulled out inviting me to sit. And there on the desk was an old typewriter...
Thank you for these reminders. Nuggets of inspiration.
Marvelous. You're entirely welcome. Thanks for telling me this.
Saving this bad boy vid to my saved playlists. Simple and to-the-point. Thanks Glenn!
Thank YOU, for watching, saving - and letting me know!
I'm very slowly making my way through your videos and I've yet to watch a single one that wasn't useful. Thank you for the amazing work you do!
Thank you so much for the kind and encouraging comment!
Great video, I definitely needed this. I'm writing my first ever script and it's like learning to walk. I'm a very organised guy and I love your style of outlining. I have my first act done and fortunately, I know where my story is going, how it ends, and have plenty of meat for the often feared 'Act II'.
I am sort of stuck at the minute. Because my story has three main characters, trying to juggle all of their wants, weaknesses, growth, failures etc is a bit of a headache. I love how you focus on each character by writing down what scenes they are in and seeing the world from their eyes. I'm going to use that to tackle my issue and complete this first draft.
Thanks again, and I'll be going through your archives in order to find more writing gold.
So great to hear this - thank you! Best of luck. Small steps, enjoy the journey!
Thank you.
Your teaching style and philosophy is very refreshing. I'm a novelist/prose writer, but find it interesting and helpful to see what's up in the screenwriter world. I find a lot of "you must do this and that" mentality, but you simply give very handy tool to add to the tool kit.
I'm a poor organiser so this video helped me greatly.
Thanks
I'm SO happy to hear that these videos are helpful to you! I agree about the "you must do this" problem. It's very gratifying to hear that you noticed I'm trying to offer an alternative. Best of luck on your novels!
@@writingforscreens cheers
Super helpful! Love this outlining approach! Thank you!
This is gold, thanks
Thank you, for letting me know it's helpful!!
I watched this video a month ago, and have made notes according to your suggestion. I have also created a style template in MS Word and started using it. That way, my ideas flow very easily.
Now I use this method for anything I write, including writing song lyrics. Yes, I am a musician.
Today I want to watch this video again, just checking if you have any suggestions that I haven't followed.
I was surprised, because today I saw that you have added chapters to this video, making it easier for me to learn it.
I know, making chapters is tiring, so I really appreciate your efforts. But, if you wish, please add chapters for your other videos too. 🙏
Thank you for all the knowledge you share. Wish you long life and always healthy.
I'm SO glad to hear the video has been helpful! And I WISH I could take credit for the chapters, but the truth is CZcams has started automatically creating them. (For all the dangers and troubles Big Tech is stirring in our world - they also do some amazing and nice things. So hopefully we'll figure out how to keep tilting that balance toward the good...)
Love your work.
Thank you so much!!
Secret trick #2 - Gold!
Thanks!
Thank you, only video I’ve seen that actually explains how to outline and not just saying that you need to outline 😭
Thank YOU, that's great to hear. Tell your writer friends :)
Thanks so much Glen🤓
So glad it's helpful!
Thank you soo much for sharing this! It is so very helpful! I always struggle with outlining my scripts. So glad you made this video and share with us! Thanks again!
Thank YOU, for this message!!!
Thanks for sharing!!!
Glad you liked it, thank you for letting me know!
I was really sleepy coming to class today my baby decided to wake up in the middle of the night for some play time but I'm so happy I showed up & followed through. This outline information is so helpful, thank you!
These videos are always around, so if you can't get to them because of whatever - they'll be around when you can! Thank you!!
Excellent advice!
Thanks!
This is soooo helpful! Thank you!
Great!
Thanks!!!
You're welcome!
Lol LOVE the outtakes 🤪👌🏼👏🏼 This is truly valuable to me. I DID recently purchase Scrivener and excited to explore it. Thanks for your videos, you have captured my interest with your style and personal story you shared with Karen from Film Courage, where I discovered you yesterday, and now I’m obsessed and immersed in your Channel. TY 🙏🏼
Yay! Scrivener takes a while to get a grasp of (or it did for me...), but their manuals and support are very helpful if you have patience. I hope the channel continues to be helpful!
Very helpful. Thank you!!
So glad to hear! Small steps, figure out what works for you.
Amazing content. And lol at always including the outtakes! 😂
Thank you so much!!
This is so helpful, thank you.
So glad to know it's helping!!
I often use a table to outline,but I find your method more firm.
another great video,thank you.
Terrific, thanks! Glad if it's helpful. Sometimes it's useful to put the same outline into different forms, just to see it in different ways. Do what works for you!
Brilliant, thank you. I have written a short script. Just from a prompt and stream of consciousness. I have been so tangled up in the detail I already have, that I was finding it hard to join up with the bigger picture. I have not started the outline yet, only just finished the video, but I can already see how I can zoom out, put what I have in the outline, see what is missing, and then dive back in again. So simple and yet so gamechanging. Thank you.
So glad to hear it's helpful! Step by step, you'll figure it out.
thanks!
Glad you're enjoying!
Thank you very much, for showing us how you write outlines, it really helped me a lot! And thanks for writing the questions in the description so I can paste them in my note (:
👍
Great stuff! May the algorithm smile upon you.
A helpful blessing, I thank you.
This is SO helpful!
Thank you so much!
Thank you. Thank you. Have a great day 🫡
So glad it's helpful! Thank you!
Very helpful! Thanks sir! 😁
Works like a charm: reliable strong note taking system, everything finds its place, content, structure and creative energy builds up! Outlining becomes natural and professional at the same time. I love it! Thank you! 🤩
Thank you so much, what a delightful response!! I am so glad it is working for you that way (it's how it works for me, but you never know what will help others...)
@@writingforscreens Admittedly, I modified it a bit. My writing software offers three more colors that then felt left behind, so I added character (yellow), item (orange) and location (green). Rest assured, the "two cents" you throw in, stir some waves!
@@digitalprincesses Every artist has to do their own work, their own way. It's great to hear you're modifying it!
I will definitely try this method. Good video. Thanks!
You're welcome!
as always this is great!
Thank you!
Back here again for a refresher. I wrote an outline initially, but it didn't help, as I didn't know how to function with it and scenes. I just started writing. Now that I know how I want the story set up and have written scenes, I'm updating the outline and getting so much out of it this time around. Thanks again, your videos are outstanding.
Yay! Thank you!
Thank you so much for this video Mr Gers ...I always feel I look at things in granular detail, rather than the overall, somewhat simplified, bigger picture. For me this video, was like a refreshing birds eye view of how to structure an outline! I already employed some of the things you mentioned; and though I had an idea of how the outline shoud go; I hadnt fine-tuned my outlining technique /process enough for it to work for me.
My brain just couldn't see how to organise the outline properly, so I would often start, but rarely get past the muddle middle before feeling overwhelmed, with pages and pages of outline, that mixed up the scene line with the details, with the notes etc. And despite being in bullet points, and in chronolgical order, I'd often feel frustraited at having to sift through and the parts i needed to figure out, vs the parts I needed to research, vs the altn storylines from my core details etc.
But after watching this fantastic video, the penny has finally dropped! I see the method clear as day and wondered how I could never see past this fog! The added tips are brilliant too, (esp outline for characters and how they see things!).
Thank you again Mr Gers, you have armed me with not only a solid structure for me to finally gather all my thoughts and notes in an organised fashion but the satisfaction that goes with an organised process; my outlining process was a stressful mess that hindered me so much, that I dreaded outlining and became an expert procrastinator, but now, I am excited to sit down and work on it each day! You are a brilliant, insightful, articulate teacher!
Thank you so much for this message, Maisey - it's a remarkable feeling to hear exactly how the thing I wanted to share was useful in exactly the way I'd most hoped it would be. It was great to see you on the livestream, but definitely don't lose sleep to see it :)
Keep writing, small steps! That fun and excitement is your best guide - but when it gets buried (as it often will, no matter how experienced you become) trust the process and keep trying different things and it WILL always come back.
@Writing For Screens It was great to have briefly caught you too :) and may I say congrats on that accomplishment Mr Gers - I can only imagine how fulfilling that must feel! This for sure, has helped countless other people (and many more in the future!) ...expect to see future credits coming your way from people who could create because of this advice! Thank you again for your generousity; sharing your knowlege and time. You are awesome!
And I will try and trust the process, though it isn't always easy; giving up seems to always be the preferred default. LOL
@@maisey2363 Well, maybe give up 2/3 of the time and see what the other 1/3 brings you!
@@writingforscreens haha I might just give that a try👍🏼👍🏼
This seems like a highly adaptable format. Thanks for sharing it and teaching how you use it. I think I'm going to add another step, picked up off your video on Fear of Writing. Step one: 1. Remember, no one will see this. This is only for you. Be fearless.
Wow: I LOVE that! Thank you.
Thank you Sir , this video is very informative.
Glad it's helpful!
Thanks alot. I learned a lot. You are nice teacher and honest person. Respects from Istanbul. I have written a plot and difficulties to map for season. I will use it technique.
Thank you, so much!
When I took the time to learn how to create and save these little shortcuts of font, color etc (even centering -- GREAT idea, that💡), I realize my loss of Scrivener by changing over to Chromebook feels much smaller
Your walkthrough gave me the confidence to slog through the process*... and now I have it forever!
Thanks, Glenn
* Life seems to have a lot more slogging in it after 50, I've been noticing
Excellent, so glad it's helping! Don't let tech or money issues stop you from working: there's always another process you can find, and many of them are absolutely free. Always try to find a way to work - YOUR way to work. This video may help: CREATE A RITUAL - czcams.com/video/MtDxVsiI3Zs/video.html
Great video! Thank you much! I like the method of thinking in scenes. I'm going to put it into practice. How do you calculate when your scenes equal one minute (page)?
Thanks great! The "industry standard estimate" is simply one page = one minute of screen time.
In reality of course, that's not accurate, but it's the agreed-upon rule.
The sad thing is there are a lot of writers on here with far more subs than Glen who talk a good talk but don't walk the walk! At least one sounds so impressive I feel dumb and yet he's only got ONE credit for a short!
I use Word's style and make sure the scene title is actually a title in the style. The result: I can hide or show the content with a click. Usefull if you want to show scenes with a specific caracter, as an exemple.
BTW, very usefull video. I just told me girlfriend I've learned things (cannot always say that on other channels).
So glad it's helpful! Thanks for the note bout Word, seems like a great way to approach it.
Thanks so much for this video! I've returned to it countless times while I work on a feature script I've been struggling with for years. My main question is this: once I have an outline, is it too early to ask people for feedback? If so, when would be the right time to ask people's opinions? Any advice in this department would be super appreciated. In the meantime, keep up the great work!
I'm glad it's been useful!! Re -- your question: it entirely depends on your nature and situation. If you're like me, getting feedback on the outline just irritates and confuses you. But if it encourages you or helps you make choices - great! Do it!
The main issue will be: can the person you're showing it to understand the outline form? Has your outline been written to be read? (Mine are just notes to myself - incomprehensible to anyone else and incomplete because I know some stuff too well to bother writing it all in...)
The "right" time is...the time that's right for YOU. Just be sure you know what you're asking FOR. What is it you're testing, questioning, seeking a reaction to? Is it just "can you follow the plot?" or "is it too gloomy?" or "should I end it this way?"
Try to identify what you're "struggling with" and ask that. If you're struggling with "is this good enough?" - that's not really great to ask, because who knows. Good enough for what? It's going to be as good as it is: if you can write it better, you will, and if you can't, then what's the point of opinions? You can only write what you can write, as best you can - and you're already doing that. Keep doing it.
The thing you don't want to ask is "Do you like it?" Because it's not DONE yet. They can't actually like it. (This happens a LOT in the industry, where everyone meets and meets to approve the outline - and they all have different imaginary versions of the actual scenes or characters...so when they read the script they HATE it.) And also because: lots of people don't like lots of stuff for all kinds of reasons - so unless this person is literally the intended audience of one, "liking it" is just a matter of chance and opinion.
@@writingforscreens this is a such a helpful response! Thanks so much for taking the time. :)
Thanks for these videos glen. QUESTION: Whilst producing Index cards to outline I often think to myself, What makes a scene? Is this scene really 2 scenes? Or rather how far do i break down things? For example in your example script a single Index card could be "The wedding - Ceremony" but this could really be broken down further into things that happen here? For a very short film idea, i could make only 4 index cards
I believe this video will be helpful about defining scenes: Think In Scenes - czcams.com/video/0i5wWOhVkLY/video.html. But certainly you could say that different parts of scenes are, in themselves scenes...if it helps you define the steps of the story. Remember the "script format" definition of scenes was created for production, in order to help figure out when they would have to move the production unit or change costumes etc. The definition for writers is more: is this an action, and is this other part a different action?
I also define part of scenes as "beats": it's still the same action, the character is trying to do the same thing...but they are switching how they do it, or taking a break. I talk about it a little here: czcams.com/video/_y-cwlrrqLA/video.html
The main answer is: don't worry about other people's rules or definitions - the outline is YOUR tool for YOUR work, it's private and only has to make sense to you. Experiment, try it different ways and see what is most clarifying and productive for YOU.
Does that help?
@@writingforscreens This helped a lot Glen. Thank you for taking the time
I'm a passionate plotter, I love developing plots in their broadest strokes. Your Outlining seems like a good starting point to gap the transition between knowing your plot and actually writing the scenes (always a big struggle for me). Do you just start writing down all the scenes you already know need to be in there, and then fill the gaps? I guess I have never done a real outline.. :O
A "real outline" is anything that works for you. For me, yes: I start by writing anything I DO know, and then look at and ask: what's not there? What don't I know yet? I'm currently doing that with a novel, so it's 300 scenes instead of 60ish. And I have maybe 40 of them figured out - the rest are "I know I need a scene about this" or "I will need to put a few scenes in between that beginning moment of a story bit and this ending moment...how many scenes? What exactly happens in them, and why?" It's a LOT of questions, but when you figure out a workable answer it feels VERY good and you have more confidence.
omg the outtakes lolol 😂😂bare bottom haaaaha..
:)
Great and useful advice as always 👍 ❤️
but what do you do before scene lines? Do you use cards? Thanks in advance
"Before scene lines" meaning - before you are ready to write scene lines? I just write notes in the outline - things I want to find scenes for, random ideas, whatever. Sometimes I write it in the form of questions. Sometimes as "possible scene lines." As I showed in the video - I made formats for all of those options.
Put it all in one place, then you can refine it.
I don't personally use cards because I never have a place to look at them (I rarely could afford a big empty wall space!) - and also I like to put things in documents because that way they roll/flow in sequence like a story must.
But if cards work for you - use them!
@@writingforscreens ❤️
Thanks so much for your detailed reply. I'll think about your method.
I usually put them (the cards)on the table instead of the wall. That way, I can move them around. Besides, I don't have a big white wall either 😂
Thanks again ❤️
Dear Sir,
I usually use cards to outline, but after this wonderful lesson, I use your way to outline again, based on the cards, And, you know what, the story gets more solid! Double outlines, double joy. Thanks again ❤️
@@BlancheChiang Excellent! That's great to hear.
Link to the script please
I apologize: I am not sure which script you mean.
@@writingforscreens the outline script
Do you or would you read as a beta reader? I haven’t finished mine and am quite far from being finished, but just want to know if that is something that you do . Of course critique/criticism is desired.
I'm sorry, but at least for the next year I will not be doing any private consulting, because I am working on a project of my own.
@@writingforscreens Thank you for answering, may your works be successful and find what you are looking for! :)
@@Alta2.0 The same right back to you!!
Thank you for this channel.
You're so welcome! Thank you for your encouragement!
lots of good advice here. some sound familiar, but majority of it I hear for the first time. very interesting and inspiring. and that you give us a chance to ask questions is super good.
I use outline only from time to time and need to turn it into everyday habit. I wish I should've found your channel long time ago.
thanks a lot for amazing advice
Thank you!