Challenge Dom-The Start

I've decided which script I'm going to write. It was between two, a robbery comedy with a difference or Faith, a dark drama about prostitution and escaping the streets of London. I have said previously that I wasn't going to write Faith just yet as I wanted to write something a bit lighter, but on reflection I feel that I should be writing what I want to write and not what I think the industry might be looking for at the moment, so Faith wins.


Now, to keep you all informed of how I'm getting on I will be making regular posts. To help you identify them quickly each post about the challenge will have a picture of me in the corner, scary I know but this way you will know it's a post about the challenge rather than a random post about nothing in particular.

Right, nose to the grindstone. As Faith is an idea that has been floating around for several years now most of the plot and characters are worked out, so I feel confident starting to lay out my key scenes.

This is how I do this. First I buy a pack of record cards (6" by 4" nice large £1.99 stationary heaven from WH Smiths) to write down scenes on. What I usually do is take 40 cards, 10 for act one, 20 for act two, and 10 for act three, and write a brief description of as many keys scenes as possible on these cards (in pencil, as pen is hard to rub out and change). Then I lay them out on the floor (or pin them up) and see if the structure is working. Remember these are only the key scenes so I don't have to use the full 40 cards, and obviously there are going to be more than forty scenes in the script. I use these cards just to make sure of structure and as a guide for when I finally get down to the writing. Other people write beat sheets, I use record cards. I find them easier because I can swap them about to see if scenes will work better in a different order.

Better get on with it.