SJ Longthorne

Question: has anyone here ever approached manuscript first drafts by writing them as essentially stripped-down screenplays, just dialogue and candid, functional descriptions of what’s happening, as a way to just Get It Down and with the intent of fleshing it into prose later?

Paging my partner in crime, @i_am_thirteen, who is writing a script at the moment like a theatrical production

Yes! Thank you looking forward to hearing about opinions/experiences

Well, I thought it was really good! When I wrote I normally had like, key scenes, concepts, ending and beginning in my head, but would normally stall and go back on decisions and fill things up, but this time, since it's a story for our project and I wanted Juju to [continues]

have the most input and feedback possible. I thought it helped me a lot, since it was easier to move stuff back and forth and change, while also having it be quick and easy to read for dynamic feedback and making sure things were clear enough.

That sounds really positive then! I take an age to write prose (and I rarely like what I like, either at all or for more than 3 seconds) but can blast through a script quite easily and be ok with the outcome. So much easier to edit too, as you say. Maybe a good strat to try...

Something that helped for us (I think!) is getting a buddy in early on. I was able to help Daniel vocalise his own thoughts about themes, characterisation, and structure/pacing. Having a "modular" theatrical script meant we could quick cross-reference things without getting lost!

I try to get my housemate to brainstorm with me but I think I scared him because he’s always conveniently busy these days