I finally started actually typing my screenplay this week. I've found it is so much different than any other type of writing I've tried before. Usually I like to wing ideas as I writer. This means that I just go after my short stories with nothing more than a vague idea. I feel this helps the story overall, as while I'm typing, I'll occasionally simply ask myself what I can do to make it weirder/scarier/funnier/whatever it calls for. In my novel I'm writing, I made a pretty thorough outline, but I left a lot of wiggle room to do some fun things in it. The basic structure remains, but I still have artistic license in the project.
With my screenplay, though, I created a number of different outlines and I want nothing to go off pace. I'm worried so much about the all-important structure that I know my creativity won't be able to shine through. That's fine with me because I've already written it a few times, just without all the inner workings. I've already let myself go off on tangents while writing my treatment, which was basically my screenplay in short story format without dialog. Even though I'm just getting started with the structured writing, I'm finding that the dialog is flowing, but at a difficult pace if that makes sense. I basically know what my characters are going to say, but getting them to say it in a life-like way sometimes proves a challenge.
Next time I try my hand at this, I may take even longer in the pre-writing. Maybe the next treatment will be an actual short story, with dialog and everything. After that, once I'm comfortable with the layout and structure of the screenplay, I'll possibly even be able to do less pre-writing. I guess I'll see how it all works out. All I know is that it's fun to stretch myself into a new form of writing. I may as well end this now and get back to it. Until next time, keep reading and/or writing.
