As you may or may not know I worked in animation, as an artist for many years, like a couple of decades, LOL, and it was there that I learned value skills about building a story.
Here is what I will say about it. As animation artists, we work differently than one would think. I could write for days, and this could end up longer than a novel by Marcel Proust, so I'll only go into why I decided to write this post.
One of the greatest tools I learned, on my first animated feature at Disney Feature Animation in the 90s, was about sequences and scenes and breaking down the story that way.
When drawing in animation in the character animation department, everything is broken down into sequences and then scenes. When I was on Space Jam, we did it the same way, but I was only on that one for the last few months, as it was about to wrap when I started. So, it wasn't until I went to Disney that I learned about the process in a way that made sense to me.
Also, in animation, we animated by scene and not in any particular order because, there are a million reasons why things aren't in the pipeline. It does NOT happen in a linear way. Again, animation, especially feature animation, is quite complicated to explain, so just trust me on this one. The way the directors, producers, and heads of story looked at the entire story is a way that I still use today.
NOTE: You do not need to know how to draw to do this. I'm also an artist, so I often sketch out the main scenes just so I can see them, but mostly, I just write on cards.
IMAGINE BELOW IS A WALL or BOARD with INDEX CARDS stuck to it.
This is literally how I do it when I'm "breaking a story".
I get a stack of notecards and write out scenes that I know need to happen in the story.
Then I can move them around. I will put the sequence and scene numbers on the card, usually like 1/8, which means SEQ 1 scene 8--that's in the opening sequence or story beat.
You can do this any way that works for you.
Then I may do a stick figure in there if I really want to see it, sometimes in screenplays we have too much talking and doing stick figures can show you if you have stalled the action.
I just scribble something down--usually more specific than below but just to show you the point of what I mean.
I do all of this with literal INDEX CARDS. The ones you can buy at the grocery store are fairly cheap. I have also been known to use Post-it notes.
You can also do this in FINAL DRAFT. In the beat boards, it's the exact same process, but I'm old school, so I like to see it in front of me. The SAVE THE CAT software also does this.
Many times, I have the cards spread out on the floor, and I talk through the story either with myself or a writing partner and move them around. If on the floor, I always take a photo with my phone in case I put them back in the wrong order.
Another thing that's GREAT about using cards is that if your story isn't working, it's stalled, dragging, people are getting bored reading it, or your notes from the director or producer say that they were confused with the timeline or anything, if you have these note cards, you can rearrange in a way that makes sense before you start cutting and pasting actual writing.
For plotting, I use the traditional story beats in the HERO'S JOURNEY, but I don't label them that way. I have a system that I have talked about in older blogs, but here is the most recent one.
I will take my notecards and write out the 7-9 main story beats, and then I will start adding scenes between them to create the main outline of the script.
I find that when I do this, it saves me time and frustration as it's much easier to change beats before you start writing.
Keep in mind, I'm sharing my process, but you don't have to do it this way. One of the biggest truths about writing, in any genre or medium, is that you don't have to do it the way that works for someone else. Find what works for you. This works well for me and I learned how to do it from my years in animation.
Happy CREATING!
Feel free to reply with questions.
XOXO Steph
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