Tumble, coil & fumble

Here’s a tip for fellow screenwriters. Something that I noticed recently. I call it Director’s Notebook. It can be anything you want, a Moleskine, wire-bound note pad, Scrivener document (as in my case). It doesn’t matter as long as you’re comfortable with it and know in the back of your mind that you’ll find the references in there again. That’s the most important part, peace of mind, otherwise you’ll drop it again.

This is how it works in my case. Every time you have a brilliant idea on how to shoot the scene you’re writing. Write it out as it flows, then copy that part to my corresponding Scrivener document with the scene heading as title and paste it in the content part of the document. Now rewrite the part without the scene directions, then copy the rewritten part into the synopsis part of the corresponding Scrivener note card.

I do the same stuff when I have an idea about how to pull off a vfx shot that I’m writing. Ideas are volatile and hard to bring back once forgotten.

If you have FinalDraft 8 you can also use the note cards and Script Notes there, the only reason I’m not doing that is that I revise a lot while I’m writing even at first draft stage. So with the two-apps approach I know I’ll always have my ideas secured and can learn from them for use on other projects if they be discarded on the current one.

No idea is an island, but they can sink.