Film Courage: Why do you say you can never have a good story without an outline?
Cody Smart, Writer/Script Doctor/Teacher: I think that outlining is good. I don’t know if you
never necessarily have a good story but you're going to be working on so many more drafts and
spending so much more time than if you start with the basics. Sometimes people don't physically
outline and they just think about the story whatever you do. I feel like if you track
the emotional arc if, you kind of envision a structure and the journey of your character
that will result in a better story. A lot of the times when I'm working with writers one of
my notes is go back to your outline because you have a good idea but it's just not translating on
the page because you're trying to tell something and you're not sure what the beats of the story
or what the turning points are. Maybe you have a good premise, you want to get your hero from
here to here, but that is not on the page because you're trying to jam all of these little ideas
that you have that you think will work but are not connecting to the arc. I think that if you set up
an outline and again whatever structure you follow through that structure eight sequence approach,
Save The Cat [Blake Snyder] whatever, if you kind of map where you're going, it will be much easier
to get to a point because you can see where the plot holes are. I usually spend way more time
outlining than actually writing a script because I've thought of everything, especially if you're
writing a TV show where you're not just writing a pilot. I mean technically you are writing a pilot
but you should be thinking of a whole show right when you're setting up that pilot you should be
planting the seeds for 100 episodes to come so outlining becomes even more important when
you're writing television because you need to be thinking so ahead that sort of mapping all
of the things that you want to show and you want to tease and you want to set up for the future and
how you're going to actually connect them and put them on the page in a way that makes sense
to show what you want that show to be can you be a disorganized writer I mean you said
you love sort of they say organized versus disorganized so whether it's like criminal
or whatever but can you be a disorganized writer and still be successful at your craft
ah I think you can I'm never going to say no to something like that maybe a super disorganized
writer can have a unique voice but I think that or the nod you need a level of organization to
really tell a cohesive story because there are expectations there are things that need to be on
the page you need to track what you're doing so I think that kind of having a map of things even
if you don't write it again because maybe that's where like the disorganized could come maybe you
don't actually write down an outline but you still need to think about it you need to you need to
map where you're going and perhaps the problem of being disorganized is that you're going to
eventually ride a hundred drafts of your script because you're going to keep rewriting because
you didn't plan ahead on where you were going in a sense so I think that outlining saves you time
and kind of helps your story much more because you already know what you're telling and how you're
telling it and where the plot holes are and where the twist happens so the writing becomes easier
let's say someone's a wealth of ideas but they're not good at staying on task and staying organized
is that where a ghostwriter comes in or a script doctor and they can kind of take the reins I
think it could be two ways I think that yes sometimes people have great ideas and
they hire a ghost writer or a script doctor or a writer to write their story but I also think that
sometimes deadlines or taking a course doing a workshop something that's keeping you on task
can help those type of writers I like that let's say a lot of the classes I teach and things like
that they're like deadline motivated so every week you have to turn something in I teach a class on
how to ride pitch decks and show bibles and every week you have to turn in a different section and
then we Workshop it obviously and then by the end you kind of present a more polished version
but I think that that helps a lot of people that have problems with that because a lot of writers
procrastinate in the writing they're just like ideas or whatever so sometimes either the deadline
can be a class or it can be the deadline for a contest submission or something like that that
can help you granted there is also the case where a lot of people just have ideas and can actually
write all of that so then yes they would hire a ghost writer or someone like that to actually
put pen to paper but even with someone like that they would theoretically need an outline correct I
think so I think that you still need something to to guide you through what you're doing
again you don't necessarily have to write it down all the time my advice would be to do it because
it makes the writing easier sure sure because I love how the way you're describing it because I've
used this analogy before but it's like a game of Jenga so if you're pulling out a piece from here
that's going to definitely affect the stuff that's at the top exactly if not then that's when like
the hundred rewrites and drafts comes from because then you forget to set things up you forget where
you're going you forget what your central conflict is or you're trying to tell a story
and then you told a different one so a lot of times for example when I'm teaching how to write
a coverage or have to write a script analysis one question I always get is like why do you need to
include a synopsis if you're working with a writer because they already know their story
I'm like well the synopsis is to tell them how their story is perceived because a lot of
times writers set out to tell a certain story but what's on the page is not what was in their head
and that also can translate to outlines sometimes you set out to write a story but you didn't plan
it that way exactly so then you ended up telling a different story that's why for
example I was saying earlier how the log line I sometimes don't like to know the login and I
like to write my own log line for writers because I can tell them what I'm perceiving as the story
sometimes you think you're doing something but the way others are reacting or experiencing or
reading the material is completely different so I like writing a short synopsis when I'm writing in
script analysis because I'm telling the writer this is the core of how your story is perceived
obviously your story I don't need to write like five pages of synopsis I write less than a page
but just to tell them this is what I consider is the top things and these are the turning
points and this is how I'm reading your story is that what you're wanting to tell so I think
that that kind of like helps them see the story different it sounds like it's almost similar to
actors where they think like I'm going to become the next this person or fill in the blank of the
major star and it turns out they go in for these casting director workshops or whatever and they
say well but that's not what I see when you walk in exactly you can you're still castable
but I think you're this and then they're like wow I never I didn't plan on becoming that but
that's how I'm perceived yeah yeah so it's the same for the writing interesting it happens also
with like I recently read a script where I was like what like the story you're trying to tell
they rode an hour-long pilot and I was like this should actually be like a
half hour comedy like what you're trying to tell is interesting is just not the format it should
be in so sometimes just like analyzing it from the side and being like this is your story but
the way I'm perceiving it that should be a half hour comedy not like an hour long dramedy that's
kind of like what I'm getting from the story and is that is that hard for let's say a new
writer that that's like their personal story to take it yeah a lot of the times that's one of the
trickiest things to work with as a consultant when the writer is writing their own story because it's
a delicate balance between writing their story and writing a story that's interesting for audiences
so I been Consulting in this story that's very personal to the writer these days and I keep
telling them like yes this could have all happened but just because it happened doesn't mean all of
the steps make sense for a story and that the emotional arc is there the way audiences expect
it to be a lot of the times I tell them to merge characters get rid of some characters bring in
a subplot and take some subplots away it's the same way when I'm adapting a book into a script
I sometimes merge the burst the best friend character into one because it makes more
sense for the story to just have one sounding board than one in the first half of the story
and one in the second half of the stories novels work a little different than what we expect in
scripts we don't usually bring in a best friend character in the second half of the story right
we usually have one throughout the story so you would merge the two characters into one
and kind of introduce them early so they can be that sounding board for the protagonist
so I think that that's the problem with yes you can tell your story I'm not saying no that's great
because I believe that if you're connected to the story you can tell it in a even better way than
nobody else can tell it because you have a point of view you have something that nobody else has
write what comes from that but it's a delicate balance between that and actually stepping aside
and being like okay this is a dramatic story I'm trying to get others to engage with and track an
arc I'm not just retelling the facts that ends up being this like linear boring thing
how does a writer figure out the ending of their story when they're just beginning
I think that the ending is something that you should definitely think about when you're starting
and not just as you're going along and that's one of the problems I see sometimes when the ending
doesn't make sense is because they didn't actually plot it from the beginning so I think that the
ending always has to connect to that first act act three is the resolution of act one that means that
what was set up in act one needs to be paid off in act three so those two are incredibly connected
act two is kind of where the things go in motion and we see the evolution of that until it reaches
the boiling point in act three but act one is where you set everything up so if you're setting
up a protagonist that has a certain flaw on a certain core wound for example they're incredibly
shy or they lost a child or something happened to them there's an illness or something like that
that needs to be connected with that ending right so whatever they you set up at the beginning is
what they need to change by the end so for example in even in something as simple as a comedy like
friends Rachel is introducing the pilot as this spoiled girl who lives off Daddy's credit cards
and just ran away from her wedding but by the end she's become the successful businesswoman who gets
this offer of the job of a lifetime and things like that so we track that with her but it don't
make sense because at the very beginning it was set up that she was this type of person but she
had aspirations she wanted more she always loved fashion even in that first season where she was
working as a waitress she always had the style to herself she always wanted more and then we
see that growth so that's everything should be set up in that act so then by the end we
see it like that whether it's a show or a movie or whatever it's from the beginning to the end
so when we hear people say well I let my characters just tell me what they're doing
and they talk to me that's okay but they shouldn't be telling you the ending is that right we should
already know it I think that sometimes things change as you go along I never say never in that
you sometimes discover things as you're writing and that's great suddenly you have a realization
that oh this could happen to my character so that ending kind of changes sometimes
as you're writing but at the same time I think that if that happens then certain things will
need to change at the beginning as well because you didn't set up enough things if you made a
turn in the middle in a way right everything set up needs to be paid off so sometimes it
happens you're writing and you discover oh I could add this twist that I never saw coming
and I remember Consulting on a script where one of my suggestions was okay these two characters
are Rivals all the time but what if one of them is actually connected to the other in a different
way they are the daughter of their previous best friend and they never knew about that
so that makes the characters much richer and this was a note given after they've
written several drafts that's when I got the script after several drafts
and that just like opened up the story in a way that they never thought about it so yes the ending
changed but then that meant that set up in act one had to change as well so yes things can change and
the characters can speak to you when I read the script I immediately thought of like okay these
two characters should be connected in a deeper way because then that rivalry will be enhanced let's
do that but then obviously yes that then created a backlash in a way we had to tweak a little a few
things in the beginning so then the ending made sense how do you teach outlining to your students
I think that outlining is an interesting thing to teach in that everyone approaches it a little
different the way I like to teach it is with the turning points I like the eight sequence approach
to outlining where we have act one that has sort of two sequences divided by the inciting incident
and then we have act two which the midpoint is obviously at the middle and then we have act
three with the climax that kind of divides that and the way I teach outlining would be to focus
on where you're starting where you're ending and then focusing on what the turning points
will be and then sort of fill in the blanks in a way obviously tracking your emotional arc and
those turning points are always connected to the characters so let's say we're saying the inciting
incident and let's put that in the outline so how does that affect your protagonist and that's
why you should be thinking about and that's what you should be writing not just like an earthquake
happens no how does that affect the world of your protagonist and disrupts things so for example
they were separated from their families because they were on vacation and everyone was away and
then an earthquake happens so that disrupts their world because they have to go search
for their family so he's affected emotionally because of that and then by the midpoint maybe
they were about to reach where the family was and realized oh the family wasn't actually there they
had moved to a different location so then what do I do emotionally I can't locate my family there's
no way to have a phone or anything everything is down all communication but it's all connected to
that so when I'm teaching outlining and teaching them to track that emotional arc as they're going
with the beats and then kind of like filling in the blank stuff how we're gonna get our character
to go from being this lonely person to opening up and reconnecting with our family by the end
and do you have them do like say one through 24 if you've heard the 24 plot points is that one style
of doing it I kind of like to let writers follow the style that works best for them I don't believe
in imposing to students like you should ride this way or you should write this way I think that
all methods of writing are valid and sometimes I work with different methods for different stories
sometimes the hero's journey works better for one type story versus the eight sequence approach
that works better for a different one so I think that it depends on the story you're telling and
what works best for you as a writer because that's eventually what's going to help you tell the best
story not if I'm imposing something to you just letting you work with what works best for you.