I’m starting a new project this month. I’m also going to try something I’ve never done before. It’s a script development technique that I’m going to call…The Tester.
How it works is this: during the note taking phase (which for me can last anywhere from two weeks to six months,) you take a few hours or so to bust out a quick scene that would theoretically be a part of your first draft. It’s just a small snippet of the project at large…a flavor, a sample. It’s purpose is to test one of the central dynamics of the story, just to see how that dynamic works on paper.
(Usually, I don’t begin scene work until I’ve made comprehensive notes on character, theme, plot, location, etc. From these notes, I hammer out the story’s three act structure, focusing on the major plot points. I then fill in the beats. When I’ve got my 45 to 65 outline of beats worked out, then and only then do I allow myself the (relatively) fun phase of actual scene writing.)
But with the Tester, I can jump forward through all the notes and plotting, and just let the characters interact with one another, so I can get a feel for them. There’s no pressure to make it good, as the Tester scene probably won’t make it to the first full draft. It’s just a sample.
For instance, let’s pretend I’m writing a comedy about a revolt in a box factory on Neptune. (They happen.) I could pick two of the main characters; the factory owner and the daughter of the revolt leader. Since these two characters are likely to have a scene in the actual script, they make good candidates for this exercise. I’ll then plop them down in the middle of a location (say, the factory’s break room,) with a set of extenuating circumstances. Hmmm. Okay, let’s say the daughter has a huge science project due the next day, one that her (single) father hasn’t been able to help her with because he’s had to work double shifts all week. So she marches to his job and confronts the factory owner, asking him if he’ll help her. As I write out the scene (two pages is all it’ll need, I think) I get a feel for not only them as characters, but also how the project’s theme plays out in real time…in this case, I think the theme deals with vocational versus familial obligations. In those two pages, I can learn a lot, and it will ideally help me to keep things tight and on track during the crucial process of outlining.
I’m going to try it this weekend and see how helpful it is. Can’t hurt, right? One more technique for my bag of tricks.
