Here's a blog post I wrote about using notecards to help write a screenplay. Hope it helps!
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Writing a full length script is incredibly daunting. A rule of thumb: 1 script page roughly equals 1 minute of the film. A 110 page script? I???ve never written anything that long. Sounds gigantic.

I need to make this easier, less scary, and manageable. To start, I wrote out a list of all the beats to the film. Start to finish. Then I narrowed it down, combining and deleting most of them, to about 17 parts, and divided them into 3 acts.

Each moment or scene gets its own card. I laid them out in a sequential row, acts stacked on top of each other to create a grid where I can see my move completely. Looking at this set up has made this script seem real, which is nice.

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I don???t think the cards themselves are very inspiring. Some have titles like: ???Product fails, inventor embarrassed???, but at least it gives me an idea of what that moment in the film will be. Every night I grab 2 cards and flesh out their basics. Some are clearer than others, for sure, but the idea now is to get something down on paper. I???m not concerning myself with continuity or pace at this point. I free write, for the most part, about the scene and let stuff pop up out of nowhere. While writing I???ll go back through my note books to see if there are any jokes or story elements I can plug into the scene. 30-45 minutes later I got a first draft of those 2 scenes. I???m not revising or editing just yet, that will come later. I check off the card and move onto the next ones.

Since I???m strapped of any grand ideas, I took a tip from Robert Rodriquez to make this story longer. Take a shorter idea and repeat it 3 times. Comedy comes in 3???s anyway, right? I created one story with 6 main beats, and will repeat those story beats 2 more times. In the second act the beats will be different and the stakes will be raised. In the third act, each beat will have its own little twist so it doesn???t seem repetitive.

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For example, each series of beats will start with a scene that shows the audience the industry or business.

Act 1 will be an infomercial for the crappy product.
Act 2 will be the inner working of the HQ. Daily operations, etc.
Act 3 will be the real seedy underbelly of the business. Behind closed doors type shit.

Each act starts with the same idea of a scene (showing you the industry), but takes you deeper and exposes more. Get it? Little tricks or organization moves like this make the screenplay go a lot smoother and not stress me out as much.

At this pace, 2 scenes a day, I???ll have a first draft done in 5 days. I???m gong to LA this weekend, and Florida the next, so finding time to write will be tough. I???m really hoping to have a solid revised draft by June 12th aka my birthday.

Joe

Joe : www.joeavella.com : #13;#10; http://twitter.com/joeavella