John August

QandA

David Dean Bottrell on How I Write

First Person, Writing Process

A few months ago, I asked several screenwriters to write a bit about their process for the [First Person](http://johnaugust.com/archives/category/first-person) section. The first one to email me back with an answer was David Dean Bottrell. While I waited for the others answers to come in, I promptly misfiled his response.

This week, David emailed me to ask what the hell happened, and I could only cite my own idiocy. Fortunately, he’s a kind person who will forgive me for it.
***
first personWhen I have an idea I really like, I launch into a fairly detailed treatment of it. This is where I find out if my seemingly ingenious idea will really translate into a viable (and fun) story. I do this because once I start writing the actual screenplay, my focus will naturally shift to the characters and dialogue and I can easily lose track of the big picture. Writing a treatment gives me a clear perspective on the overall story that I’ll never have again. And since (as we all know) story makes or breaks a screenplay, attention paid to it now will save me a ton of time and grief later.

Once I start the screenplay, the task is to make sure my story is fully and truthfully lived out by the characters — and if they seem to want to do things a little differently than I had planned, I let them do it. I never try to write well on a first draft. I just hammer it out. I never edit while I’m writing (that comes after I’ve finished a draft). After about three passes on a script, I’ll show it to someone I trust. Usually they confirm my worst suspicions and then the repair work begins.

From this point on, other people are going to be involved and my job becomes about shaping and reshaping the script based on the feedback I’m getting. The greatest lesson I’ve learned from this part of the process is that (contrary to MY former beliefs) other people sometimes have terrific ideas that can significantly improve my script. Not always, but sometimes. Sometimes I agree to a change that I don’t initially like only to find that within a couple of days I love it and can’t wait to take full credit for the idea! In my experience, screenwriting (kinda like life!) is about choosing a path, then accepting the inevitability of change and learning to deal with it creatively.

I have yet to have a normal day at work. I write daily though I don’t keep specific office hours. I’m not one of those guys who can write in coffee shops – mostly because I live in L.A. and inevitably someone always comes up and asks what I’m writing and then wants to tell me about what he’s writing and then I somehow wind up agreeing to read his script.

Sometimes, my work day is dictated by deadlines so there are occasional late nights. Generally speaking, I protect my writing time by turning off phones and disconnecting from the internet – which can be a very tough thing to do since writing is at times a lonely process. I’ve found that not much good work happens if I am in a bad or cynical mood so I have lots of goofy (AKA “borderline idiotic”) tricks I play on myself in order to stay happy and interested in the work — And if you think I’m going to tell you what they are, you’re sorely mistaken, bub. Mostly, I try to respect and take pride in being a writer which helps me sit there and do it when I’d much rather go out and get drunk.
***
David Dean Bottrell co-wrote the screenplay for the Fox Searchlight feature, [Kingdom Come](http://imdb.com/title/tt0246002/). He has sold both spec scripts and pitches, rewritten scripts by other writers, adapted novels and written for feature animation.

New Final Draft version 7.0 is…marginally better

Formatting, Geek Alert

finaldraftjpg
My screenwriting software of choice has long been [Final Draft](http://www.finaldraft.com), which is 90% great, 10% maddening and significantly better than any of the other programs I’ve tried — and believe me, I’ve tried a bunch. This past month, Final Draft came out with version 7.0, which was the first major update in a while.

On the plus side, the new version is stable. It hasn’t quit on me, and it hasn’t had the same [refusing-to-launch problem](http://johnaugust.com/2004/when-final-draft-wont-open-under-os-x) the last version had. It doesn’t choke on the previous version’s files, which is a problem I’ve encountered every previous integer-level upgrade.

One nice new feature is the ability to split a document window, so you can see two parts of the script at the same time. You can show one of the panels in scene-navigator view, or as index cards — which can now have two sides. On a big screen, keeping the left panel open to the scene navigator lets me click through to specific sections quickly.

Splitting the screen is helpful, but hardly revolutionary. Many Mac programs — including Microsoft Word — have had split windows for over a decade. Final Draft runs into familiar problems with this setup. If you make a selection in one panel that extends into the region shown in the other panel, the program freaks out. Caveat selector.

I never use Final Draft’s index cards. While in theory it would be great to reorganize your script just by moving some cards around, real life screenplays never work that way. Scenes aren’t Legos, and they can’t be flopped around willy-nilly. In my opinion, better choices for outlining are [Omni Outliner](http://www.omnigroup.com/applications/omnioutliner/) and [Pyramid](http://www.mindcad.com/). Each of these has free demo versions.

Final Draft 7 is apparently better at exporting .pdf files. That may be new for Windows, but if you’re using Mac OS X, I’d highly recommend using “Print…” and “Save to .pdf” instead. That way, you have all the options of the print dialog box, and you’re guaranteed to get just what the printer would.

There are other features I wish Final Draft had, such as XML export for the web, a clipping bin, and less-aggressive Smart Lists. But on the whole, the program works well for what I make my living doing. And for screenwriters lucky enough to have an honest-to-goodness movie on their hands, the production features alone are worth the price. Final Draft does a very solid job locking pages and tracking revisions, which makes sending out colored pages considerably easier than it has any right to be.

Should you buy Final Draft? Probably. Should you upgrade? That depends. If you’re happy with version 6, there’s really no pressing need. Version 7 isn’t bad, but it isn’t a huge improvement.

Formatting a montage sequence

Formatting, QandA

I was just wondering what is the actual format to cite a montage? Is it similar to:

EXT. MONTAGE – DAY

There are so many images coming from so many different places, how does one cite such a thing as a montage? Thanks for your time and help.

–Mike
North Carolina, USA

A montage is a collection of very short scenes, sometimes only a single shot each, designed to show a series of actions over time. Depending on the needs of the sequence, there are a few different options for how to write a montage in screenplay form.

The easiest example is when all the action is taking place in one location. For instance, say you have a character trying on clothes — the infamous Changing Room Montage. It might read something like this:

INT. CHANGING ROOM – DAY

Holly enters with a massive armload of clothes. Kyle’s eyes bulge. Holly pulls the curtain shut.

MONTAGE

Holly emerges, dressed in different outfits, each more elaborate than the last. Kyle watches in horror and dismay, checking his watch as the madness continues.

And when it’s time to finish, a single line of “END MONTAGE” lets the reader know you’re going back to normal time.

When a montage moves between multiple locations, the situation gets a little more difficult. Often the best choice is to not even say “MONTAGE” and just let it be a series of short scenes — just a slugline and a sentence or two of description. The reader will correctly intuit that there’s a montage occurring.

If all the locations in the sequence fall within one larger location, the most economical choice may be to just change the slugline:

INT. MARY’S HOUSE – VARIOUS ROOMS

MONTAGE as Mary chases after the dog, trying to put in the eyedrops. Every time she has him cornered, he manages to escape, ducking under the coffee table or vaulting over the bed.

My advice is to pick the simplest version that gets the point across. You may find that you’re using two or three different formats in a single script, depending on the needs of each sequence.

Learn more about formatting montages here!

Working on multiple projects

QandA, Tarzan, Writing Process

Do you prefer to work on one project at a time, from start to finish? Or do you prefer to keep a couple things going at once, maybe writing a couple pages on each a day?

–Jason Rinka
North Hollywood, CA

When the situation allows — that is, when I’m not horribly behind on a project I owe somebody — I prefer to work on one thing at a time. Unfortunately, I’m usually behind. As of this moment (March 2004), I’m on my third draft of CHARLIE AND THE CHOCOLATE FACTORY, my second draft of CORPSE BRIDE, and finishing my first draft of TARZAN. Generally, they get prioritized based on how soon the movie shoots, so CHARLIE gets the bulk of my energy, even though TARZAN is horribly overdue.

I would never try to write two first drafts at the same time — there’s too much planning involved. But a lot of rewriting can effectively be done in quick bursts, so working on multiple projects in one day isn’t as onerous as it seems. Once you’ve written the screenplay, it’s pretty easy to get back in the right mindset when a director calls with a quick change.

Television writers in particular have to be ready to work on any script at any time, since any given moment they have an episode in outline, an episode in prep, an episode shooting, and an episode in post. Of course, television also benefits from having characters and storylines that continue — you’re not reinventing every 60 pages.