Jay Fingers, Screenwriter/Youtuber: I think it's undeniable every every film every story
has that moment
Film Courage: What is your writing process as I mentioned I have ideas rattling in my
head when I decide that I want to work on something the first thing that I do is I get
a composition notebook usually like one of those black and white speckled notebooks and
that's a holdover from junior high my writing teacher that's what she made us you know we
had to get the black and white speckle notebook that's where all of our assignments you know
we did them in that notebook so that's just stuck with me to this day I get a notebook
write the working title on the cover and on the first page first page is reserved for
the title and character names I usually start with the protagonist right once I've got that
notebook every idea every thought that I have about this story goes into that notebook there's
no real rhyme or reason I don't you know aside from the first page I don't have say like
a section for dialogue or anything like that you know I just everything that I've been
thinking goes into that notebook if I go out to have lunch or whatever and something hits
me that I think would be perfect I come back and I put in that notebook once I have kind
of like all the notes and everything I craft my outline my outlines are not too detailed
you know they're pretty spare and this is because once I have the outline I start writing
the story really really like develops it really begins to tell itself you know I've got my
notes I've got the outline I know what's supposed to happen but it blossoms during the writing
process so I like to you know keep things loose the outline is like you know very spare
and I mean that's pretty much it you know I write I can't write out of order i'm not
one of those writers I know a lot of people that say oh if a scene is hard for you you
know just write tktk and come back to it I can't do that I have to work it out in that
moment and if i'm not able to work it out in that moment then that's where I stop for
the day and when I come back to it the next day or whatever let's give it another go and
and yeah that's that's pretty much my process and I mean that's that's for my my books as
well you know all of my books same thing get the notebook write the characters throw in
whatever notes outline it and then write and are you reading the new work from the day
before like are you going through the entire thing of what you've written or you're just
starting from the scene right about where you're going to start up again yeah I just
start from the scene the thing is I know the story by the time I start writing the actual
script I know the story so well I don't have to review the previous day's pages or you
know start from scratch I don't have to do any of that I just jump in at the at the scene
and I keep going and then once the script is finished then you know of course I go back
and I read from the beginning and see and usually things things work out I mean there
may be some things that I'd have to shift or you know whatever maybe there's a payoff
that you know didn't have a setup and so I may need to include that or whatever but for
the most part you know because I know the story so well I can just jump right in and
then when you finished the screenplay do you give it some time before you go in and look
at okay definitely definitely you know it's the old put it in the drawer don't think about
it I don't even give it to people to read at that point you know I just let it sit and
get to work on the next idea and then I pull it out and you know once I pull it out you
know after some time that's when i'll give it to readers you know because it's kind of
fresh for everyone if that makes sense so get the feedback from my readers and you know
I've given it time giving it some distance and it's just like okay I also find out more
receptive to to getting like feedback and notes because that time has passed and i'm
a little bit removed from it you know because when you're you know I've just finished it
you know it's my baby if I get notes back right away saying oh you know perhaps you
should consider this it's like no this is my how dare you this is my baby but with time
and you know it's like all right that makes sense you know more receptive to to the feedback
have you ever given it to someone and you decided that was the wrong person to give
it to oh that happens often that happens often but but I find more often than not that happens
if I give it to someone who's perhaps not in the industry someone who's knows nothing
about screenwriting or they're not as invested in storytelling I like to do that just because
I want to get I want to get an outsider's perspective you know I just I just want to
know what you know joe the common man who you know thinks about about this script but
yeah yeah that that that does happen that does happen from time to time also too so
many people consuming films they're not in the industry right right right and and so
in some sense if it can appeal to the person the working person in another state not in
the industry right and that I mean yeah that's that's a large part of why I do it because
you know for instance I sent my buddy Ralph I sent him a copy of my recent work in progress
because I imagined him as the everyman taking his wife to the movies on a Friday night you
know it's date night what do you think of this you know so that's exactly why you give
it to people who aren't also screenwriters or you know in the industry can you explain
how you outline a screenplay it's not yeah sure I mean it's not like an in-depth process
or anything I literally write each scene out you know just like a line describing each
scene right I don't even number the scenes I just draw a star with a circle around it
that's how I know okay new scene and I write what's supposed to happen and it's usually
just like a line or two because as I mentioned in the actual writing of the script the scene
blossoms it comes to life things happen so I don't get too detailed it's just what's
supposed to happen and yeah I you know I don't I don't aim for a set number of scenes I know
some people oh you know 70 70 scenes and you have a movie I think that's David Lynch who
said something like that i'm not an index card person I never have been like that just
doesn't work for me I just write the scenes down in my notebook and go from there why
do you love Save The Cat.
Save The Cat provides structure and I do like structure I know you know based on what I
said like about the outline it might not seem like i'm too but I do like structure and the
thing about save the cat when I when I read it it was so funny I found Save The Cat this
guy was selling books randomly like on the street and it I mean you see that a lot in
New York at least someone will have something set up and I was walking past and you know
just looking at what he's selling you selling books and cds and stuff and I saw Save The
Cat and I'd heard of it but I hadn't read it and I asked him okay how much you know
for for this book he's like a dollar I remember it's like a dollar that's like you've got
a deal so I give him a dollar and I take save the cap and I read it and I understood why
it kind of riled some people up but again it provides structure like I don't think that
you have to be you don't have to be beholden to like what it says you don't have to treat
it as as gospel right you don't have to have a certain event happen on a certain page or
whatever but recognize that these elements are pretty much in every film and you know
we see in every script that we read if you're looking to as I am write commercial feature
films it's not a bad guy to follow it's not you know and so that's that's I mean that's
honestly that's why and I think it's undeniable every every film every story has that moment
that catalyst that shakes up the protagonist's world every every story has that moment where
the the character debates as to what they should do I feel like every story has like
that save the cat moment it might not come at the very beginning but there's that moment
that you realize the protagonist more often than not is someone you want to root for there's
always a dark night of the soul there there always is you know so yeah save the cat it
laid the structure out for me and it gave me the terms because I didn't you know I didn't
know what all these terms you know we're called but it lays it out and I think it's it's I
think it's brilliant and even Syd Field did something similar I mean in screenplay you
know he's okay you've got your first second and third act and then you've got your plot
point A and your plot point B and he had page numbers but you don't have to stick to those
page numbers just know that those elements are should be present those elements should
be present you should include them
Question For The Viewers: Do you write your stories in order from start-to-finish?