Outlining question

[Warren Piece]

I'm about to start my second script. This time I'll have an outline. As usual, I'm shooting for about 110 pages for the finished script.

How long an outline does that correspond to? Do I count scenes in the outline to get an idea on that or what?


Thanks in advance.

[whistlelock]

Outlines are a personal thing, really.

Mine tend to corrosponde to how many minutes each at is- and to go further down it's a page for every ten minutes. But the more I outline, the more complete and full they tend to be. Which is good, because that makes it easier to write the script.

[Warren Piece]

Thanks, I do remember reading that it's about 8 - 10 pages, so that would work out about right.

[Flu]

Like whistlelock said, there's no straight answer, it's a bit different for everybody.

Mine don't tend to be longer than 4-5 pages at most, and that's for projects with a deadline where I don't want to run into many surprises along the way, but even then I like to keep some specifics undecided to keep the actual writing process a bit more interesting.
With more "casual," personal projects without a deadline, my outlines tend to be a bit shorter. As long as I have the key scenes nailed, I can figure out the path between them along the way.

Basically, outline until you're comfortable with it. You'll figure out what works best for you as you do it more often.

-Johan

[MrJayVee]

From my blog...

http://theworkingscreenwriter.blogspot.com/2007/05/outlining-process-part-1.html (http://theworkingscreenwriter.blogspot.com/2007/05/outlining-process-part-1.html)

http://theworkingscreenwriter.blogspot.com/2007/06/outlining-process-part-2.html (http://theworkingscreenwriter.blogspot.com/2007/06/outlining-process-part-2.html)