The Screenplay Outline Workbook: Prepare To Write Your Best Script - Naomi Beaty [FULL INTERVIEW]
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- čas přidán 22. 05. 2024
- 0:00 - Why Outlining Is Essential In Screenwriting
13:52 - Simple Ideas Make Great Movies
22:50 - A Writer Has 4 Pivotal Reasons To Write A Screenplay
35:08 - 3 Words That Make Up Every Story
46:35 - Difference Between A Story Engine And A Story Goal
59:43 - 4 Types Of Conflict Writers Should Know
1:15:42 - What Writers Get Wrong With Stakes
1:27:20 - If A Writer Can't Answer This Question, They Don't Know What The Story Is About
1:36:45 - Most Common Mistakes Screenwriters Make In Act 1
1:47:09 - How To Give A Story Meaning
2:00:53 - Save The Cat Beat Sheet: What Everyone Gets Wrong
BUY THE BOOK - THE SCREENPLAY OUTLINE WORKBOOK: A step-by-step guide to brainstorm ideas, structure your story, and prepare to write your best screenplay - amzn.to/38uXIGA
BUY THE BOOK - LOGLINE SHORTCUTS: Unlock Your Story And Pitch Your Screenplay In One Simple Sentence - amzn.to/2xF7JP3
Naomi Beaty is a writer, screenwriting teacher, consultant and owner of WRITE+CO., along with the author of LOGLINE SHORTCUTS: Unlock Your Story And Pitch Your Screenplay In One Simple Sentence and THE SCREENPLAY OUTLINE WORKBOOK: A step-by-step guide to brainstorm ideas, structure your story, and prepare to write your best screenplay.
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I used to think that way, outlining would choke my vibe, but I found the opposite to be true. Like any wise traveler, I have a road map. But there are lots of places to stop along the way to see the sights. That, to me, is outlining.
Your interviews with Naomi Beaty are excellent. I think it's some of the best stuff on this channel. Everything she says in gold. Hopefully, there will be more in the future.
SO good to hear her say the simple idea is good, and then to find the charm within that.
Naomi is pure gold! Thanks for this interview ... and all the work you guys do. 💛
We appreciate it! Thanks for watching
I love how Naomi plays ball with your interesting questions! She’s good on her feet!
I’m an outliner for the most part, but it definitely isn’t for everyone. Some are wired to be intuitive pantsers, and hard core outlining is a recipe for writer’s block. But like she said, outlining is on such a spectrum that it can be helpful for nearly everyone
Thank you for sharing experience and tips. They are so useful it's like a mini course of how to understand how to write a screenplay. Besides I have to give a thumbs up to the interviewer. good questions and have been prepared.
This speaker is so helpful in describing how a story works
This as usual was so insightful. Loved all the tips. Naomi Beaty seems like such a gentle soul by the way she analyzes and says things 😍
Thanks for introducing The Bookshop - I had not heard of it, sounds great. Will track it down and see it!😉
Hope you enjoy it!
I’ve totally already bought her book!!!
Yes!!!! We finally have the full interview all in one place!!
Cheers Andrew!
I love her, she is so smart and professional.
Love how Naomi chooses her words
So good!
You have to build up your story and have a plan with it.
Love all these interesting topics you are bringing. Thank you.
Lovely to see Naomi back! Looking forward to this one.
Great video. Brilliant!
Love you for this sort of content...you are the courageous courage...
Happy to see this, Thanks so much for doing what you do.
Cheers Luca! And thanks again for your support!
this was great, so helpful! thank you!
She is so always clear and capable!!
Thanks!
Kevin! Thank you! We hope you find a lot of value in this one!
I absolutely cannot write without an outline. I've tried; it never goes well.
Usually the problem is that I wrote something early on which renders something necessary to the plot _near the end_ no longer possible, forcing me to throw out almost all of what I'd already written. And it's rarely character stuff; the problem is usually in the world-building; I introduced some interesting element that absolutely breaks the rest of the plot in a way I hadn't quite realized until much later.
The only solution is an outline that keeps me focused, keeps the end goal in mind. Otherwise, I just get lost. I start by writing the major plot points like chapters in a book and then start filling in the blank spots between 'em.
blessings!
I think the answer to all your questions Karen is, how much detail is in the outline?
Maybe people who don't like outlining just think of it as writing down your whole story in shorthand.
If it's TOO short then yes it can seem to simplify or reduce the impact of what you had in mind. 🤷♂️.
I've lost interest in stories because I didn't embellish the parts that meant something to me. So when I came back to the rough outline again later I thought the story was weak and un interesting. But it was in the details later I realised why I was drawn to tat story.
Good
Very helpful, thank you. Maybe you could discuss how to appropriately address the passage of time/time jumps in scripts, as my pilot has quite a few.
Hi Matdy, maybe not quite what you are looking for but here are two videos on flashbacks - czcams.com/video/1S0EWO7mnqs/video.html & czcams.com/video/Irsxsm2JfmY/video.html
@@filmcourage Thanks. No, I need something that unpacks how to show the passage of time, ie, my pilot takes place over the space of several months, and montages get tiring/boring, so looking for creative ways to show within the story that a week has passed or a month, etc. Obviously know how to do this on the slug line, but just creative ways to show the audience that time has passed without taking up too much space in the script itself.
Montages, screens with the dates, etc. Your creativity is the limit.
Hi. I’m Captain Obvious 😂😂😂. I would think showing (not telling) change of seasons I.e. the leaves starting to turn brown and fall to the ground; characters preparing for specific holidays within the time frame you’re writing in (Black Friday or Labor Day end of summer fireworks); specific sports related dialogue (There wasn’t a bag of chips to be had at the grocery store. I’d completely forgotten it was Super Bowl weekend.). That would be all you’d have to say to establish timeframe of end of January or early February. Ditto The Oscars or award season for your main character or a side character that’s “obsessed” with that kind of thing.
Maybe tap into your characters’ hobbies. If they like gardening, talk about how it was time of the year to plant the tomatoes.
Tap into their occupations. If your protagonist is an accountant then his busy season is January through April. (Being a good boyfriend in a new relationship was going to be a challenge. Tax season was hell. Jim would be expected to work 70 hours a week. He’d be barely alive come Valentines Day!)
Create a visual “progress marker” early on in the story. A brand new house being built down the street from the Protagonist, for instance. From the tear down of the old house to the day of move in to the new house for the family would take several months and your protagonist could comment about it as it’s being built.
Maybe one day he’s complaining about the concrete mixing truck blocking him on foundation pouring day. Then he can comment again when all the windows get delivered a few months later and there’s glass all over the street from a mishap.
The appearance of the yellow school buses back on the road because school has started up again.
Getting stuck in traffic jam from the local university’s graduation ceremony day. Family member graduating from college or going on Spring Break.
The height of hurricane season.
Mentioning how the neighbor that’s expecting a baby is just starting to show but then at a later point in your story how she’s waddling down her driveway to the sidewalk to navigate bending over to pick up her newspaper. Or we see the husband putting the wife in the car and throwing a suitcase in the back of the car before reversing out of the driveway racing in their way to the hospital.
Or a coworker gets engaged at the beginning of the story and they’ve set a date for the second anniversary of their first date, which falls on such and such date. Then later in your story, she’s talking about how she got the exact same negligee from three people at her bridal shower or how wild her bachelorette party was over the weekend.
Or the protagonist’s parent has a hard and fast date to retire and has exactly five months, three weeks and two days until he’s outta there. He’s marking the days off. Check in with the parent at some point and have him say two months and two weeks or however many days to go. 😂😂
Forgive the corny dialogue examples; I’m working towards a novel, not a screenplay so there’s that. Nah, the dialogue is just not good but it was top of my head for example purposes 😂😂. That said, I feel like these are all either very visual clues that can easily be shown onscreen or things that can be mentioned in a sentence that quickly give sense of time without distracting from the main event of the scene too much. Just things that can be mentioned in passing to establish time points.
I’m no authority whatsoever. I’m still very much figuring things out; but you raised an interesting question and I felt compelled to brainstorm ideas. Thank you for inspiring that!
My first project, which I hope to start outlining by next month, will take place over a period of only two to three months so showing big stretches of time passing won’t be an issue. It will be a romantic thriller and my research says thrillers don’t usually take place over a long drawn out time frame - probably because they are so fast paced.
Hopefully you can use some of these things and/or springboard off them to find things that fit with your story. I would suggest you just think about real world things that mark the passage of time in your own life.
Every word was captivating. I especially liked the highlighting of advanced writing craft for specific story structures.
What I would ask Naomi if I had the chance is to clarify the approach about the overall story goal that drives the plot.
She says it’s formed in the first act. Got it. But then she says that story goal should carry all the way through to the third act.
I am new to writing and not actually focusing on writing a screenplay. I’m working toward writing a novel, so maybe that’s relevant to my question.
I’ve read different definitions of the midpoint of the story and different descriptions of what it should look like or accomplish. One of those descriptions says the midpoint is a major turning point and that the protagonist’s goal should be affected because his understanding of the situation or the events of the plot change. The protagonist is then forced to adjust his “plans” as a result.
This seems to me to mean that the story goal would change midway through the story. Perhaps this would be more true in certain genres than others. I don’t know.
But my question would be is it “acceptable” for the specific goal being tracked in the story up to the midpoint to change and ho on a different track if it is caused logically/ organically by how the plot unfolds?
I’m not suggesting making the initial goal to bake a cake then at the midpoint the new goal becomes to learn how to drive a car. The second goal should be connected to or an extension of the initial goal or an enhancement or an escalation or even the flip side of the same coin.
Like the goal was for a woman to bake a cake because baking relaxes her; but then the Protagonist finds out that her husband invited his mother over for dinner; so now the goal changes to cook a whole gourmet dinner with two hours before the doorbell rings which stresses her out - because she feels insecure and wants to impress her mother in law and not disappoint her husband or make him look bad etc. Theme could be finding the balance between being accommodating but standing up for yourself too.
This is NOT a thought through viable real story goal that would support a whole novel of course. I’m just trying to explain what I mean in that the goal changes, but it still is related to cooking, it still takes place in the kitchen etc. but the situation changes and the character’s motivation changes and then so does the goal.
I think structurally I would see it as the initial goal being based on what the character pursuing a want but the second goal is the way she discovers what she actually needs to heal her wound or address her fatal flaw.
It also seems that the midpoint switch of goal would help writing the mushy middle - the second act.
Talk about something you need to work out in your outline before you start writing! I’m interested in any thoughts anyone has. Thanks in advance.
I think the best definition about the midpoint it's the one that presents it as the moment the protagonist turns from Reactive to Active. There's no change in the goal, the hero simply evolves from Passanger in the journey to Leader of the journey.
@@4ng31088 Hey thanks! Here’s a better example of me advocating for changing goal that I heard from an authority on Story I believe in - also on Film Courage.
When a child is kidnapped, his father spends act 2 trying to find the kidnapper and get his child back safe and unharmed; but at the midpoint we find out the child has already been killed.
The father’s goal changes from find and save my child, to hunt down and “bring to Justice / kill” the kidnapper who killed my child.
See what I mean? The goal has changed but it is still an offshoot of the first goal. The midpoint (plot) changed the game, split Act 2 in half and now the reader is on a different but related journey.
It is not the same story goal as it was at the break into two. Which brings me to your comment - which fits in with this example too because after the child’s death, the father would very likely go from reactive to active/proactive.
I think your comment is exemplified perfectly by The Dark Knight when Batman is so clearly two steps behind the Joker and really only reacting to everything Joker does for a significant part of the movie.
That is the case until after Rachel dies (midpoint that changes the game?). After that, Batman goes on the offensive with a better understanding of how the Joker strategizes. He also becomes willing to circumvent the law and his morals by turning everyone’s cell phones into microphones / beacons for Joker’s voice to track him down (offense).
Armed with the hard learned knowledge that Joker creates situations where people give in to fear, lose perspective and rush in to act only to find out Joker has switched one thing for another so that you end up killing who you’re trying to save, Batman was able to proactively intervene to save the hostages from GPD gunning them down. The clown masked people were the hostages but the GPD didn’t know that. Batman suspected it and confirmed it.
TDK ALSO has a changed story goal necessitated by the plot! Bruce’s specific goal in TDK is to install Harvey to become Gotham’s hero with a face to take over protecting Gotham so that Bruce can retire and win back Rachel and have a future with her.
After Rachel dies, that story goal naturally changes to bring down the Joker and save Harvey if he can but preserve Harvey’s reputation as a symbol of hope to Gotham even at his own expense.
It’s an offshoot of Bruce’s overarching story goal for the Trilogy to “save Gotham” from the criminal and corrupt and restore the City to a state of order - when of course what he needed was to make his own life his priority and help Gotham with his resources and status as Prince of Gotham- not sacrifice his mind, body and soul for the City
I see that Nolan established his Bruce Wayne’s motivation as being fueled by Bruce’s deep seated but undeserved self guilt at getting his parents killed. This led him to make their life mission his own which gave him a way to outlet the rage that Ra’s AlGuhl rightly said Bruce was afraid of in Begins. I love that Nolan completed Bruce’s character arc in Rises.
He was the first director of live action Batman movie to do so I believe - except for maybe Batman Forever which seemed to resolve with Bruce reconciling his two identities and presumably maintaining a love interest relationship without the complication of his secret identity getting in the way. I think Nolan’s resolution is “cleaner” and more definitive.
Sorry for the length. Thanks for your reply. I really do believe that via multiple other resources and my own audience member experience, I have an answer to my question. I think the story goal can absolutely evolve as Act 2 unfolds and not only that it can, but that it probably should as long as: the change raises stakes,is logical per cause and effective from prior scenes and the change of goal gets the protagonist closer to realization of their need versus their want.
Naomi Beaty is a rock-god playing solos on an axe of fire.
why is Crash always the go-to for great ensemble scripting? Short Cuts anyone?
I’m imagining you standing at a podium debating against the makers of Crash to an audience who will vote on who they trust more to tell them a great story
I love outlines. I won't start a script w/o an outline
What is your method for outlining a screenplay?
I do an Order of Events to make sure to get my ideas on paper and not forget them when the timeline of the story just comes to me!
Ending first, then a correlating beginning, then main plot points getting from beginning to end.
I have to have at least the first ten pages outlined/written before I can consider and decide how the third act/ending will be.
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Feels like google translator messed up your point
Crash was 'ok'. a well told story but I think people over rate it probably due to the identity politics it covers and it might attract the people who are constantly seduced by the appeal of identity politics. the identity obsessed people.
I would hardly compare the cinematic racial content born out of the Rodney King era to the socio-political agendas born after the George Floyd era.
Stupid crazy love was so mediocre.
Haha yea right that movie was like a breath of hope and of course there’s only been like four since.