The Creative Process: It Begins Anew

I'm not sure if any of you would actually care about this or not but I thought it might be a fun thing to have down on "paper" to look back at after the fact. A few days ago, I did a post mentioning that I need to start writing a second screenplay here shortly. What I thought would be kinda cool is to take y'all through the step-by-step process of that - or as step-by-steppy as I can get without enlisting Patrick Duffy's aid.

"It all began with a mouse..."

That's a quote that a lot of Disney fans like to use over and over. It's a quote attributed to Walt as something he used to say to keep his employees humbled and centered - something to show them that despite the growing empire they were developing, it all started with a simple idea. One character that carried them to a level none of them ever could imagine.

In this case, it all begins with an idea.

It doesn't have to be something terribly complicated and quite frankly, it can come from pretty much anywhere. The first screenplay I wrote can credit it's "creative spark" from a song I heard, listened to the lyrics, and decided it'd make a hell of a story on the big screen. The first sitcom I ever tried to pen was based on an experience that my brother-in-law had at work.

It all begins with an idea.

So, that's the stage I find myself in right now. Over the years, I've start-stopped a lot of novels, teleplays, screenplay, comic book ideas in some sort of scribbled shorthand. I dug through an old notebook the other night and uncovered a lot of them. Some of them I just had filed away mentally, adding a few "notes" to the file from time to time. But all of them had some kind of development done to them - however minor.

From there, I took 16 ideas and put them down on paper - a working title if I had one along with a short description of the plot/theme. If I had originally conceived it as something other than a screenplay, I noted that as well. 16 ideas - all incredibly solid in my oh-so-humble opinion and all completely worthy of making print/press/publish/etc.

At this point, I turn to my partner-in-crime, Mrs. Blue. She was my sole editor for the first script so this time, I involved her a little earlier. She got all 16 ideas in their written form and I told her to narrow it down to eight that deserve stronger consideration.

We're down to the Elite Eight. It's a diverse list - ranging from sci-fi to fantasy to western to an almost 80's style action flick. All of them have some serious potential. Now comes the time to narrow the list down a little bit more.

We're making progress, people - one step at a time.

I recently helped a customer at the store a couple weeks ago who, in the course of smalltalk, revealed that he was a screenwriter. After probing a bit to try and find out more details (he clammed up,) I mentioned I had just finished my first screenplay. His words of wisdom?

"Congratulations. That's the tough part. Everyone in the world can start one."

Amen, brother. Amen.

And this "everyone" is one step closer to starting his second.

Stay tuned, folks, it only gets more interesting from here.