Day Two - Project Backstory

Yesterday I started the outlining process. But, that is hardly the beginning of the journey. To catch everyone up to speed here's the backstory to the story.

In my annual meeting with my agent and managers we discussed what I should do next. This is totally standard, only this year, I really needed to know what to do next. I didn't have a clue.

Okay, backstory to the backstory:

Since the writer's strike, I believe the industry has changed. The spec market did not roar back to life like it reportedly had after previous strikes. To be honest, I'm not sure anyone knows what game we're playing right now. The amount of work seems to have shrunk. It's still there, only it feels more like a puddle than a Great Lake.

So what's a writer to do? Well, who knows. But here's what not to do, complain, whine and wait for things to go back to the way they were. Ain't gonna happen.

What am I doing? I'm writing a spec (The Project) that hopefully we can package and sell and also use to get more assignment work. I'm writing a novel (a completely new endeavor that is wonderfully freeing) in hopes of finding a publisher and then selling as a movie adaptation and I'm developing one of my other ideas with another writer, me taking the producer's role.

So, I leave my annual meeting armed with The Idea. (Which by the way, was just a kernel of an idea until my agent threw in his magic and turned it into a full fledged, marketable, castable concept that I couldn't wait to tear out of the room and start writing.)

Next I turned The Idea into a treatment. A treatment is a summary of your story. You should be able to tell the entire story in two single spaced, typed pages. Those are the bones.

The next step is to get notes on The Bones from several trusted friends (or if you're lucky, like I am, to have savvy industry professionals on your team - them). Be open to their notes and listen for the little voice inside that says, "I recognize that." Even if you don't know how to fix it - or stubbornly don't want to. That's not your job right now. Just take it in and let it sit with you.

Next, incorporate the notes that resonated into a longer treatment or outline. For this project I had to do a longer treatment, because it helped me flesh out the character, and because my managers wanted to make sure I was ready to start writing. But you can go straight to outline. That's where we're at. You're all caught up.

Next Post: The Grid and The Outline