WEEK 1 - IDEAS AND OUTLINES

LINKS WILL ALWAYS BE LISTED 

AT THE END OF EACH BLOG ENTRY.

Hi and Welcome. This is a basic A - Z on tools, resources, tips and ideas for amateurs aiming to embark on script - film projects.  It is not by any means comprehensive and I am deliberately limiting the links in each entry so that readers do not become discouraged by endless options and choices . . .

Before I start getting into some practical tools and tips, and because every creative project begins with that all important "idea", I  want to say something about the very important notion of capturing the moment of a creative idea. 

Every creation must start with an idea. But, the real challenge is to get the idea at its peak moment. Capturing an idea in its peak-flow is crucial to harnessing a positive relationship with it and thus greatly enhancing its chances of being grown-out. 

Ideas mostly die or come to nothing because of PROCRASTINATION.   Procrastination happens for all sorts of reasons, but one of them is very basic - lack of readiness.  If you are not ready to capture the idea, then before you know it, it is gone.  So, the very first thing you have to do to impair the procrastination bug is learn to concretely CAPTURE THE IDEA at the moment of its awakening.  Capturing the idea at this key moment brings greater emotional value to the writer-creator but also ensures a much richer and therefore more valuable initial account of the idea itself.  Procrastination is less likley to  impede a writer who feels more connected to a vividly captured idea. So what does this mean practically?

BE READY. You need to be able to find out when and where and why your creative mind is most active. When do you get your creative ideas mostly? At night? In the morning? During lunch? Where do these ideas occur? In bed? In the shower? While you are doing the dishes? What are the circumstances? Are you usually alone? Up a mountain? At a Madrid Botellon?  Once you are aware of the likely timing and location as to when ideas pop into your mind, you can then prepare yourself to capture them.  

I find that a fresh idea usually comes to me early in the morning. Knowing this, I ALWAYS HAVE PEN AND PAPER TO HAND by my bed and I immediately SEIZE THE MOMENT, when the idea is at its most rich and vivid in my mind.   Developing a habit, capturing the idea in its freshest form, creates more possibilities for creative successes and completions. At the same time, this habit also erodes the likelihood of procrastination impacting the development of ideas captured in this way.  

A creative idea, well captured, usually has its own impetus, its own drive, which compels the writer to take it forward.  But, this does not mean that procrastination simply disappears as an issue.  Even after capturing the idea, many writers still go on to block the inherent impetus of their ideas. Many say is comes down to lack of confidence, lack of skill, lack of know-how and so on. All excuses. Have you ever said to yourself, "this is a stupid idea"?  If so, then now think about this - would you ever look at a newborn child and say "this is a stupid child", before the child has ever had the opportunity to grow and prove you wrong?  Many, many writers kick their ideas into the "stupid cupboard" before they even give them a reasonable chance at life.  But ideas are just like new born children.  They are independent beings with their own impetus to life - they only need the parent/writer to nurture them especially at the time of infancy, when nurturing is critical.  

The writer is not a judge nor a jury, but only a conduit for creative ideas. Every writer or creative has, therefore, a responsibility to nurture the independence of creative ideas in the same way a parent has a duty to the independent life of a child. Like every parent of a new born child, writers too need to acquire nurturing skills to help them carry out their task. It is a symbiotic relationship in which the more writers nurture ideas, the better they become and so too the ideas blossom.  Many writers fail in the nurturing task by a lack of tools to help them.  If that all sounds a bit too philosophical and preachy, then let's get practical .  .  . 

Below, give you to a few tips, tools and to-do's to help harness and nurture those ideas that have made it onto the little suds splattered notepad you keep beside the kitchen sink.  Today we start at the beginning - the very first nurturing task - getting an outline.

GETTING STARTED - DEVELOPING IDEAS THROUGH OUTLINING

Even if you have managed to capture an idea, one of the surest ways to loose it, is to try and have it running before it has even got legs!  My advice is simple.  The first nurtuing task is to grow out that idea, get deeper into its contents, with an OUTLINE.  Here is one way do this . . .

Let's imagine we are in a helicopter hovering over your basic idea. From way up there, the idea seems a little vague and imprecise. So what we need to do is bring the helicopter closer in - to metaphorically descend into the idea and pick up more detail as we drop closer in. Remember, we only want to get closer into the contents of the idea.  So, let's forget totally about distractions like writing style and langauge and layout and blaa blaaa blaa and all the finery of writing.  The first task is to see what is down there,  as we slowly bring down our helicopter into the idea.  

Many writers perform this task with pen and paper and post-its and wall charts. They put the basic idea in the centre of page and then start prising it open with questions like who? where? and why?  Don't be afriad that this process will not yield results.  A well captured idea will allow answers to flow out easily and instinctively.  But, if you need a tool to help you get started, then one of my favourite "helicopter landing" applications is LUCIDCHART .  Here,  there are all sorts of bubbles and boxes and linking lines and colours to unfold the layers of an idea.  The array of tools also seems to make the unfolding process so much faster - easily identifying characters and relationships, timelines and locations, who is where and why and when and doing what. I find that a tool like LUCIDCHART really helps the creative impetus within an idea to kick in. The easy to use interface and multiple options for layering and connecting details seems to drive the story out, allowing options and events to flow with ease.   Charts can also be PDF exported and printed out if you prefer manual cross referencing.  

There are other tools too, like mind mapping or brainstroming apps, which also work really well for opening out ideas into an outline and I have added a few such links below.  You can spend a lot of time playing with these tools to build out your story-idea.  Don't worry if you keep changing it - you need to allow this essential process to happen so you can get into the substance and detail of your idea (as well as problems and issues that needs to be resolved later on!). 

Whether you use one of these tools or not, spending time getting an outline from your idea will become your best buddy at the more indepth writing stage later on. Remember, for now your main goal is to nurture your idea.  So, here are a few links to help you get started.

TIPS

Keep a note pad and pen at your side for those ideas.  Jot ideas down at the moment when they are fresh. Recalled ideas lose emotional intensity and their value becomes less clear to the writer.  These ideas are at most risk of loss through procrastination (Beware! you might be losing one of you best ideas without knowing!)

KEEP IN MIND

Be aware of your creative impulses and be ready to capture your idea in the moment.

Nurture your ideas.  Accept the right of your idea to its own life - don't judge it before its has had a chance to breath. 

Know when (time, place etc) you are at your creative best - this is where you need to be to be fully engaged in the task of nurturing ideas.

OUTLINE TOOLS: GIVING AN IDEA FIRST SHOOTS 

www.lucidchart.com - great  easy to us chart app with loads of options to help map out your story and build layers of detail

www.coggle.it - a mind mapping tool with lots of options to link and cross reference notes - workd well for buiding story outlines

www.popplet.com - anther idea organiser with a strong and simple visual interface - a good startup tool for initial stage sof story structuring.

FOR INSPIRATION, TWO LINKS TO COPY

http://www.ted.com/talks/elizabeth_gilbert_on_genius?embed=true - A witty and inspring talk on creativity - just do it!

www.workflowy.com - planner app for those of us who need reminders and prompts to organise their creative planning.

NEXT WEEK 

1) STRUCTURING STORY OUTLINE 

2) TOOLS FOR WRITING UP A SCRIPT