To be honest, personally I think that you’ve gotta just learn everything you can about screenwriting, then read as many scripts as possible - so you get the format, unique qualities that a screenplay has, seperates it from novels etc etc. Then it’s a whole lot easier to fill 90 pages, know how, even feel it. When I first tried writing a feature like most people you hear about, got stuck only twenty to sixty pages and usually a mess. No one story, more many stuck together as I didn’t understand, know how to structure and pad if you want.
- I put that all down, just cause Cipher you say you been inactive for a bit, but I kinda sensed you didn’t write screenplays.
Ideas wise, I differ slightly from everyone’s I’ve read here, cause I usually got a character, and just see where he’s natural - so I mean my story usually builds on a basic idea, then as you go, rethink things you get a bigger web, more depth and it doesn’t even have to be in order, something you think of for one scene, just a small detail you know, could lead to this side scene or whatever further on.
Think Dr. Gonzo said up there, he don’t like to alter the story, why not? I mean (I say this alot) if it’s changing even the whole original idea, why not? The original idea is just that, the start of an idea, expanding it and being as sometimes writers go over top on is “honest” to the characters/world which you write in, is what makes writing so exciting and great.
So back to writing process, then I might have a sequence I’d be working on with another character, totally seperate and somehow it works into the story, not patched on but cause your just building, but fits right in, I mean the character just changes, it’s like he reveals his true self, I thought he was one thing, but he ain’t.
For me it’s characters I guess that dictates story.
Hope it helps.
Side note, writing scripts what I do is just write any scene that I feel doing, I give myself a month to do first draft, first draft though I mean parts of the script ain’t gonna add up as I’m always making minor, but major in the sense a coupla of scene gonna be needed to be re-written. Brief example, no explantion, but at the moment I got a story, a side plot - so on my typewriter I type up the side plot, work on it that way and then I’ve got my book which the main plot is written in with notes and story notes etc. It’s like cross referencing the two, both main plots in there own rights…
Anyway, help this ramblings helps ya.