Storytelling a character-work matters to me above anything else. As a result, I’m always taking notes on ideas. In my spare time, with another writer, there is constantly action. I wouldn’t spend so much time on a project that didn’t engage me in critical thought and analysis in and of itself.
Everything is 100% of the time thoroughly outlined. The remainder of the series is loosely outlined, and we know where we want each and every character to end up. Granted, some more specifically than others, but we are constantly working out the fine details. I feel that in storytelling you need to be able to maintain a balance at all times of having a close-to-vivid picture of the end-goal while leaving that mental wiggle-room to readjust ideas as new ones come up. If you lock yourself down entirely, you block off the better potential routes. If you don’t know the end goal, you’re bound to meander and not build up to something meaningful unless you get lucky. If you put all of your time into something, you CANNOT leave it to chance.
I love to live in the broader conceptual zone. Theming. Thinking through the purpose of characters and the world they live in. How do pieces connect? What matters? How would the actions of the characters reflect on the viewer and the world of the show? Why X? Why Z? Nothing makes sense, life is an illusion, how do characters make sense of that?
But also I am fascinated by character. I love to dig into a characters’ moral code and force them to question. I need to find purpose in every little quirk, whether in origin or in result over time. What pairs make sparks? How do different characters change one another? Who has a story to tell, and in the case of II, when is the best time to tell it? How does that story affect everyone else, does it create a new story? Repeat.
There is so much to say here in regards to episode 12 alone. But, sticking to released episodes, my go-to scene is Suitcase and Knife at the dock, which you better bet started way longer. We take everything that Knife and Suitcase have been through come this point, contrast it with their brief conversation in S2E7, and force a character to question the moral values while shedding light on another. It helps helps that I think they are perfectly-suited to bounce well off of each other. And that I’m a sucker for quiet, contemplative scenes. A dynamic is constructed, we re-establish our characters’ purposes (especially in the eyes of one-another), and it leads to an intense decision- one that triggers strong effects down the line. Repeat.
To start moving into your question more specifically, like I noted earlier we have a ton of concepts going forward, and as one episode nears its end we really dig into the next one and make sure everything is set and understood (I hecking love episode 13). Before Brian and I jump into more thorough outlining, we need to have every general idea sorted out, which if I had to choose one step of the process, I’d call my strong-suit (despite loving every little detail that goes into -pre-production). We need to review:
-What is each characters’ arc (important or not) in the episode, and what events accomplish it? Who needs more focus than others? Who can sit out?
-Who is getting eliminated, and how (which is well-sorted out for the series already, but with wiggle-room)?
-What do we need the characters to be able to do, physically, in the episode- and what are three challenges that can allow that to happen most-properly?
-What themes and messages matter most to us in the episode?
-What are key moments and visuals that we would like to highlight?
-What scenes NEED to happen in order to complete each arc? What scenes would we LIKE to have to strengthen those arcs and the episode?
-How does the world of the show play into the episode? What can we explore? What hints can we leave?
Then we’re onto outlining. This takes all the concepts that we initially had and breaks it down into a general beat-sheet, talking about every single important point we need to hit on, in order, for the episode to be complete- in a lot more detail. This is used as a pitch to show off the workability of the concept and how it, and likely will, play out in structure. Granted, more-so in episode 12 than in episode 11, the story that we pitch through the outline can go through many readjustments between that point and script-completion. That’s a mix between reworking concepts based on Adam and Taylor’s pitch-input and then the natural progression of the four of us (and often plus Ben) coming up with strong concepts over the scripting process that take some details in different directions.
Once we are settled on that story, scripting is on the way! By this point in pre-production I am incredibly comfortable with the characters’ mindsets and feel pretty free to go about writing out what’s in their heads. We work within the general guidelines presented by the outline, and complete scenes often as individual pieces- knowing already how they fit in and need to flow. There is so much to talk about just in terms of writing strategies, I might make separate posts about more specific types of scenes going forward. A lot of it comes down to balancing the puzzle pieces that are constantly juggled throughout my mind and the comedy that comes from the characters and their situation. It’s important to know what is necessary and when, and obviously there’s no one-way about it, but it’s a skill you can certainly build up with enough practice. A tone can sell an emotion, and emotion can sell a beat, a beat can sell an arc, and arcs are everything. Nothing is meaningless, even things about meaningless. If a story is told and a writer is purposefully avoiding making or alluding to a statement, it’s a wasted opportunity… so I see it.
A great deal of writing is rewriting. That’s a good sign. A first draft CAN be the best draft, but chances are it isn’t. Even when I have a good plan for a scene, I’ll keep the major beats at the back of mind and just let characters talk. I’ll see if they naturally hit on the beats I need them to hit on. If it goes on for long enough without meaning, the convo is scrapped, but good ideas from the scene can be retained for the next try. Retry and redirect it. A scene cannot be written so procedurally that it ruins any natural characterization that a character deserves. Again, it’s that dang balance back at-it. In writing it can be tough in the moment to entirely scrap a scene that you just worked hard on, but trust me- when you muster the strength to let go, you won’t miss it. You can always do even better.
Find a piece of yourself in every character you write. If you have trouble with writing a character, there’s a decent chance that it is because you’re connecting to them. Find qualities in the character that you can understand and empathize with, or relate it to something you’re familiar with in your day-to-day life, and focus in on that. Any character could be a good character if you use them properly and focus on what’s drawing about them.
If a scene accomplishes nothing, it shouldn’t be there. Every scene must establish a motivation, progress the action, or explain something in some manner. Understand what’s necessary, and feed into what makes a scene good.
Write what you like. Thinking about what the audience will get out of things is good when conceptualizing, but your vision should never rely on that. If you find something interesting or funny, others will too. Write what you would enjoy seeing. Occasionally when I come up with something I’ll think “this is amazing, people are gonna hate it” and go with it anyway. This goes more-so for the pre-writing stages, such as deciding character-focus degrees or eliminations, for instance, but it is still important in any step of the process.
When working with a team on a script, chances are there will be arguments. No good ways around that. That-said, embrace discussions and arguments! Every argued idea and concept deserves attention. If you are spending a lot of time on a project and are not willing to dig into what works and what doesn’t thematically, character-wise, or within the rules of the world- there is something wrong there. Be passionate about what you’re writing. Don’t shut down input until it is thoroughly discussed. Fighting does not mean something is wrong. (Although, fighting to the death is a problem).
A lot of the editing in II writing is shortening. We have a budget, we want episodes to come out as quick as possible, there’s no room to meander. Even scenes that we had deemed “perfect” at a point may still have a flaw of being too long for our own good. Although it seemed like a major limit back in the day, it quite honestly is important to learn how and when to keep writing concise. Bring everything down to the essentials. Brevity will allow your work to flow better and come across as neater. An annoyingly tedious two hour movie might be an hour long masterpiece wearing a scary costume. As someone who definitely writes extremely long on every first-go, having more than one pass to check for conciseness is wonderful.
I hope the overview of this process at least shed a little light. There are so many more details to go into, and I’ll gladly dive into them per request. Writing and constructing story for this show is what keeps me going, so I’m glad it has intrigued many of you, as well. :)