Building Your Story: How to Plan for a Major Project
You wouldn't start building a house without first drawing up plans for it, would you? Then why is it that writer's seem to think that they can begin a major project, like a novel or a screenplay, without first creating a blueprint of some sort?
Beginning a major project can be intimidating. Even established artists sometimes find themselves reluctant to begin a new piece of work, aware of the mental and physical effort required to give birth to such a beast. Beginning writers often either fret over a the idea of a long work so much that they fail to make any significant headway or plunge headlong into a long work with unbridled enthusiasm, a smile which quickly turns to a frown when they hit the first major snag.
Every writer has at least one project that has been placed on the back burner, a relegation which in many cases ensures that the work never sees completion. In other cases, when a writer manages to complete a long work, he or she is often disappointed to discover that the completed work bears little resemblance to his or her conception of it, and in these instances it is easy to become disillusioned with one's work and the amount of editing it seems to require (and that you may no longer feel it is worth).
Most of these problems arise from having no clear plan to complete the project. How much planning you need to do before you begin depends on what you are writing and on what works for you on a personal basis. You might find that extensive planning is not for you, but that a more tentative outline serves your purposes better. Be sure not to follow your blueprints too rigidly - you aren't an architect, and spontaneous alteration of your plans is an avenue open to you - but use these "blueprints" as more of a guide to keep yourself writing when inspiration seems to be lacking and to keep from losing control over your creation.
Which Idea is the Right One?
When you first come up with the idea for a book, screenplay, suite of poems, or whatever, the first thing you should do before you begin writing is to consider whether the idea would work best as a long work. Take a critical look at your idea; is that screenplay concept really rich enough to explore for 110 pages, or would it work better as a shorter film than a feature?
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