One Word:
Brainstorm

Plan out your whole story including all the nitty gritty details and see how they all fit togther.

Make Love Not War!

i disagree. i find that everything only comes together in the writing process. it is after all the most important part of pre-production. everyone gets writers block. in my oponion, become friends with the backspace key, and just write what u want, even the most simple things as a title can help. try writing a title for each scene of part of your story. and then after you have all the acts, build on them. this way you can write each scene in any order u please. and you may be surprised what u come up with.

I find that if i write a screenplay of any length or substance i invariably get lost if i dont use any planning techniques.
I agree that alot of ideas come to you when your writing, but thats why you write a treatment first, just a dozen pagor so outlining the story so you can see with foresight how its all going to work.

Make Love Not War!

Put a posting out on SP asking for a certain genre of script. If you're a director (and clearly not a writer) don't write it.

It's obvious when watching a film when a director has written it because they want to direct it. Find a great script and direct it well... you'll end up with a much better film overall. And there are plenty of writers out there each with a lot of often great scripts waiting to be made!

Just write, write, write! If you get stuck, keep going! If you have the motivation to finish it then you're on the right track. Write draft after draft after draft until you get it how you want it.

I hear you man, this is a cruial point for you. I think
alot of writers go though this. It's not quite writer's
block (usally in the beginning) and it's not quite lach of
direction(in the middle) . It's the "formual Gap" that essence
of the story that alludes you after you come up with story.
The details...well, they're already there once you crossed that gap.
The one thing I've found is that with every story there is a different
way to approach and come to grip with it. Willam Goldman talks about it is his book. The different ways he had to complete one script to another. Sometimes he had to put a story a way for a couple years before he saw the story...so be patient. One tip that helps me is to try to find the personal level of the story that relates to your life ie: memeory of certain events in your life...it helps with visualation, which in turn helps with the detail.

good luck!

chris-

the coolest thing about writing a script is that you can DO anything! i mean, like you can act the scene in your head and it can still be good. Like when i write a action sequence, I get so caught up into the action! Liek i even put for gun shots! BAM BOOM! Etc.

Example:

JOEY KNOCKERS takes out his 9MM BERETTA and AIMS it at TONY EYEBALLS! JOEY pulls the TRIGGER! BAM! BOOM! The TWO SHOTS PIERCE through TONY like a PIECE OF PAPER! BLOOD EVERYWHER! A total BLOODBATH!

somthing like that! For details man. Throw a shit load of details. Talk about every little cut the person has on him. Explain the scene's details. Dark, Scary, Bloody! Details makes the script more interesting! If you want to get more complicated! Shots that seem SO COOL in your head, write it down! Make a little section for the shots!

Example:

Once JOEY raises his ARM, the CAMERA PANS from the SHOULDER of JOEY to his GUN in his HAND! BAM! Once the SHOT is ignited! The CAMERA flies to TONY making it seem the CAMERA is moving the same speed at the BULLET!

Somthing like that! If you would want to IM me on AIM, MRNICEBOY55 is my screen name. I can send you my script and you can get some idea's how i write. Again, im not the greatest writer, but i love to act stuff out. And my ideas always are written and thrown in some movie.

Another tip of screenwriting is to have little stories in you movie! But dont side track off the MAIN STORY, or it will be pointless!

And to everyone that writes! After your finished writing your script. Take the best segment of your script and ERASE THE NAMES! And read the dialouge to yourself! When you read outload, IF YOU DO NOT KNOW WHICH CHARECTER IS WHO by the way they speak and there personality! You have some major problems...go back and bring you charecters more alive. But if you know who is who, then you are good!

-Greg

SN - MRNICEBOY55
EMAIL - MRNICEBOY55?hotmail.com

Fantastic Firsts, Sloppy Seconds, Tickilish Thirds, Filthy Fourths, Fouling Fifths, Slippity Slappy Sixths, and the Seventh person scrapes her off the mattrass

Good advice about the names: I often find when skimming through other people's scripts that I can't keep track of who is saying what because the characters are so similar. This has been a particularly big fault in a lot of low-budget horror movies I've seen, where half the time I'm trying to figure out who's alive and who's dead.

The main problem I've had with writing is getting used to writing crap: the only way I can get a script done is to rough it out as an outline, then write a very crappy first draft and then rewrite, rewrite and rewrite multiple times from there. I know a lot of people say you should outline it right down to the details, but I find a lot of the details only appear once I start writing the complete script... however, I'm the kind of person who has a hard time doing the same thing more than once, so rewriting a script I've already written doesn't come easily and I'm having to train myself to do it rather than worry too much about getting it right first time.

Otherwise, when I actually get down to writing the first draft, whereas many people I know set themselves a goal of working on the script for so many hours a day, I prefer to set myself a number of pages to finish each day, and find it more productive: at three pages a day you can finish a first draft of a feature in a month, and even at one page a day finish it in three months. If I set myself a number of hours, it's easy to waste that time and achieve nothing, whereas if I set a number of pages, then either I spend the time productively, or fail. Even with a day job, 1-3 pages a night should easily be achievable at first draft quality.

that is true. sometimes i get bored of my story and then i come with a better story and write that. i have a lot of unfinished scripts, but i may re edit them and finish them up.

Fantastic Firsts, Sloppy Seconds, Tickilish Thirds, Filthy Fourths, Fouling Fifths, Slippity Slappy Sixths, and the Seventh person scrapes her off the mattrass