Organization

Organizing research into a comprehensive story basically involves cutting and pasting
and seeing which bits of material can follow and ‘flow’ into each other. A good technique
is to write down each piece of information in a few words on a post-it or cue card or
simply any small piece of paper. For example: one post-it could state “Whales regularly
beach themselves in large numbers” and another one could say “Sue looked into the
whale’s eyes and cried” etc. Then, stick the post-its in random order on a blank board or
wall in columns and rows. After that, the scriptwriter must start a painful process of
plucking, discarding and re-sticking until he forms an information chain, which tells the
story the writer wants to tell. The only requirement of the story at this stage is that the
information must ‘flow’ and all the futile bits of material are discarded. It’s now time to
start thinking about writing that script.

I'm really liking this kind of organization method. I also like the "tree method" way of writing a script, starting out with the main parts, the trunk and eventually minding my way to the branches, the details and other areas.