Okay, I have no idea where to post this, but you, Buffy fans (Me as well :)), might be interested...
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Site: http://www.fox.com/firefly/espenson.htm
Hello Kyle (Editor’s Note: and all you Mutant Enemy fans around the world)!
I’ve been asked to describe the writing process on a Joss Whedon show. I am primarily a Buffy writer, and I’m not in the Firefly writing room that often, but the general procedure is similar.
Okay, first there is the idea. This is usually something that Joss brings in, and it always begins with the main character – in my case, almost always with Buffy. We spend a lot of time discussing her emotional state, and how we want her to change over the course of the season. Frequently this in itself will suggest a story area – we will find a story in which we explore her mental state metaphorically. The episode “Same Time, Same Place,” was centered around Willow… we wanted to explore her emotional distance from the other characters. This turned into a story in which no one could see or touch Willow and vice versa. The episode “Conversations with Dead People” dealt in part with Buffy’s ambivalent feelings about her calling. She explored the feelings during a mock therapy session with a vampire she was destined to kill. Notice that the episode ideas *begin* with “what is she going through” and never with “what would be a cool Slaying challenge?”.
Once we have the central theme of the episode, and we understand how the main character will change during it, we begin “breaking” the story. This is done as a group, with the entire staff participating, except for anyone who is currently out writing the script for the previous week’s episode. Breaking the story means organizing it into acts and scenes. When the break is complete, the white board in the anteroom to Joss’s office is covered in blue marker, with a brief ordered description of each scene.
The first step in breaking an episode, once we know what the story is about, is deciding on the act breaks. These are the moments before each commercial that introduce danger or unexpected revelations into the story… the moments that make you come back after the commercials. Finding these moments in the story help give it shape: think of them as tentpoles that support the structure.
Selecting the moments that will be the act breaks is crucial. Writers who are just starting out, writing sample scripts that they will use to find that first job, often fail to realize this – I remember changing what the act break would be in a script because I wanted it to fall on the correct page. This is a bad sign. The act break moments should be clear and large. In my Firefly episode, “Shindig,” the third act ends with Mal stabbed, badly injured, in danger of losing the duel. It does not end when Mal turns the fight around, when he stands victorious over his opponent. They’re both big moments, but one of them leaves you curious and the other doesn’t.
After the act breaks are set, the writers work together to fill in the surrounding scenes. When this is done, there is one white board full of material. At this point the work-dynamic changes completely, and it stops being a group project. At this point, the single author of the episode takes over. She takes the broken story and turns it into an outline. (Or possibly a “beat sheet,” a less detailed version of an outline.)
An outline is usually between nine and fourteen pages of typed material that fleshes out the broken story. It clarifies the attitudes of the characters, the order in which events happen within scenes, and often includes sample dialogue and jokes. A writer usually writes an outline in a single day.
The complete outline is turned in to the showrunners --- Joss Whedon and Marti Noxon on Buffy or Joss and Tim Minear on Firefly. The writer is given notes on the outline very quickly, usually within the day. These notes are often quite brief and almost always have to do with the *tone* of the scenes – “make sure this doesn’t get too silly,” or “I see this as more genuinely scary.”
At that point, the writer starts work, writing the script itself. Many of the writers go home to do this. They are excused from story breaking until their first draft is done. (The rest of the staff, of course, moves on to breaking the next episode.) The writing of a first draft takes anywhere from three days to two weeks, depending on the demands of production. Sometimes the production schedule requires that more than one writer work on a given episode, splitting it into halves or even thirds – interestingly, this often results in very nice episodes and isn’t as jarring as you might expect, because we’ve all learned to write in the same style.
The first draft turns a dozen-page outline into approximately 52 pages of action and dialogue. People outside the writing process are sometimes disappointed to learn that we are following a detailed outline. They feel that there can be little creative work left to do in the actual writing, but this is not the case. This is, in fact, the most exciting and freeing part of the process… every word spoken, every punch thrown, is spelled out by the writer at this stage. For me, this, more than during filming, is when the episode actually becomes *real*.
After the first draft is turned in, the writer gets another set of notes. These may be light or extensive, but on a Joss Whedon show, these rarely result in a rethinking of the episode. The broken story remains the same, although the words expressing it may change. Even an extensive note session rarely lasts more than an hour, and usually is much shorter than that. The writer takes these notes and in the next few days, produces a second draft. Buffy scripts usually go to a third draft and sometimes a fourth, but by the end of the process the changes become very small indeed – “change this word” or “cut this joke.”
At the end of the process, Joss or Marti or Tim usually take the script and make a quick rewriting pass of their own. This produces the SHOOTING DRAFT.
Then it is filmed!
Congratulations – that’s an episode!
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THE WRITING PROCESS by Jane Espenson
:( No one likes to reply on my post? :(
THE WRITING PROCESS by Jane Espenson
You know, thats pretty interesting. When i started watching buffy, i thought joss really did start off with "What should the slayer slay today and how difficult can i make it?".
This should give some of us ideas about our posts in the game as well.....especially me who is currently sufering from the good ol' writers block.
THE WRITING PROCESS by Jane Espenson
As Sid says, there's no such thing as writer's block. But whatever it is you have, I have it too; plus a whole bunch of other stuff going on. Hang in there.
And thanks, Drew, for the link. I caught it on Slayage.com. You beat me to posting it here.
THE WRITING PROCESS by Jane Espenson
Drew, that was a VERY interesting post. I really had no clue how the TV writing process works.
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And you two: Saadia and Sherlynn. As Dave said (I just read his intro--I've been gone for four days), disregard the Writer's Block!!!!!!!
No such thing.
When I first started reading about writing, I came across that advice a lot. I still come across that advice. And I think, "Well surely all these published authors are wrong. Of course there's such a thing as Writer's Block. That's why they call it 'Writer's Block.'"
Recently, I figured it out.
When you're feeling in a funk, you feel, well, in a funk. It's a swirling, invisible, ghostly, ghastly, uh, hard to explain...THING that you feel. You feel that you're not good enough. You read things like that bit Drew posted and you go, "Oh, those are real writers." You read other people's LABN posts and you marvel at how they make it look so damn easy; they just write; they know what is happening to their characters, and you don't. You read published short stories and you go, "Why am I even bothering? I'll never measure up." And that thinking, my friends, leads to unrelated things. You look at your smoking habit, or your unfinished Ethics essay, or your failed diet, or that load of dishes you've been meaning to do. Suddenly the world gives you a chill. It's icy, bleak, heavy. Why bother going to work even? Why bother writing another LABN post? You should just quit.
Now you're getting drastic. It's more than a funk, huh? It's so much more than a funk that someone should come up with a better name for it. So you'll name it. But you're not feeling creative enough to name your own, personal funk. God, you suck. God, you're a loser. Let someone else name it for you. Let the geniuses of the writing community do the work that you never can.
Ah, Writer's Block. That's what they call it. Enough people use that word. It must be true. I'm blocked. It's not my fault, you think, I've got Writer's Block.
*Whew.*
I feel better. Don't you? An excuse. Finally.
"Hello, Doctor Writer's Block."
Writer's Block. Capital letters: Writer's Block.
You've been coldcocked by Writer's Block.
Shellshocked!
Mind fucked!
Wounded.
Oh, Doct-ah!
"It’s not my fault. I'm a victim of that fiend Doc Writer's Block."
***
Congratulations. You've just empowered a mere "funk" by going ahead and naming it. You've even supplied it with a personality. Shoot, you may as well ask it its favorite color: black or white?
Hogwash. Know that W.B. is nothing but an exuse. Take away the Writer's block and you've got funk. Isolate the funk and you've got junk. Junk can be scooped into a trash bag and taken away.
How do you clean house? Do you put on your nice clothes? Do you invite people over to watch? Do you try to look as glamorous as possible, holding the toilet brush between your index finger and your thumb as you tap away at weeks of dried feces?
No!
You go upstairs. You put on some sweats (perhaps put your hair into a ponytail), turn on the stereo, unplug the phone, and get to work! You put on yellow gloves. You get everything wet. You scrub from top to bottom. On your hands and knees, you pick and scrape and pull--yank, yank, rip--and wipe, and then, when all is done, you take a shower.
This is how I think you should write. Whenever you think you’ve got Writer’s Block looking over your shoulder, don’t tell it to go away—don’t even talk to it! It's just junk. And you’ve got work to do.
For your next post (which is just a blank, white NOTHING on your word processing document, of course), take a handful of that funk and throw it at the page. Don’t worry about how it looks as its heart and guts splatter. Use it, baby, use it. The Supreme Court has no jurisdiction here. Worship Bundy and Manson and Hannibal. Write, write, write. Write SEE JANE RUN if you have to. Don’t worry about present tense, past tense, future tense. Spelling? Bah!
Take a shot of whiskey and smack your bitch up.
Jade and Sorrowww at home
Jade is feeling bad because she and sorro aren’t going anywhere in thei relationship
]
jade and sorrow argue
jade runs out from building, crying
she meets a vampire
cut to sorrow at home, angry at jade. He puts on his headphones and Metallica, doesn’t hear the struggle outside. Their argument is jades downfall. if she'd only agreed to watch Seinfeld instead of Freinds.
Jade falls to the ground the vampire about to rip her jugular out!!!!!!
[there! End post there! A cliffhanger.]
Okay, now you’ve got a thrust of conflict that you can work with. You don’t have to resolve the combat. In fact, I suggest that you don't. It’ll make people eager to read your NEXT post. What happens to Jade? Who is this vampire? Will Sorrow hear the fight? Will they make up? Will they watch Seinfeld or will they watch Friends?
Sure, what you’ve written is a complete mess. You wouldn't line your cat's litterbox with it. Ah, but now you've got something to work with. Now you can go back and sculpt, turn shit into shinola! You can go back over your outline—literally—you can write over what you’ve set on paper. You can take your housecleaning project and begin to polish.
Questions arise.
How do you take this mass of ideas and make it a story? Elementary, my dear Watson. Add dialogue. Add narrative. Clean up spelling. Fix comma splices. Make Heather proud. Maybe change the structure of what you've written. Maybe Sorrow, thinking Jade is long gone, decides to watch Friends, instead. Sort of giving in without having to tell her he's sorry. Maybe he takes off the headphones and hears her calls for help.
You've got work to do. Where are all these ideas coming from?
Er, is that the sound of clicking coming from my keyboard? What an amazing sound that is.
How exciting. You need to tell someone. "Hey," you say, "Doctor Writer's Block. Look what I'm doing. Hello? Doc? Doctor Writer's Block?" You are alone. "Where in heaven did that Writer's Block go? Hello? Doctor Whatsamattaforyou?"
Who cares? You’re too busy getting passionate on paper. You’re trying to take that mess of clay that you splattered over your white page and make it readable.
Now stop!
Step back.
Take a shower.
Do some jumping jacks.
Wash the dishes.
Come back to your post later, tomorrow, refreshed. See how it reads to the naked eye. You’ll be able to find more dirty spots that need polishing. (Isn't polishing what's written much better than staring at a blank page?) And who says you have to write and finish a post all in one sitting? You don't. Take three days. Take four. Just make sure you're always writing/revising/editing SOMETHING.
Dave said something that really made sense to me, on a slightly different thought. He said something to the effect of “tell us what’s happening to your character.” We’re not writing Pulitzer Prize stuff here. We’re caught in-between writing and gaming. It’s not like we’re trying to get published. We just need to convey to one another what’s happening to our characters. If that’s all we do, then we’ve succeeded at playing LA By Night.
I feel like I’ve been ranting. I suppose I have.
There's no such thing as Writer's Block. But just like you can reincarnate a ghost, you can breath life into a deflated balloon and declare it scary. Don't give this balloon animal the satisfaction of standing in your way. You can work THROUGH it. Constantly writing means constantly finishing.
Contantly writing means constantly exorcising your fears about writing.
As an anitclimax, let me say this. Drew is on to something. He had such a hard time writing for LABN because he preferred the screenplay format. I recently read an author who adviseed that we write all our fiction as screenplays. It cuts out the bull, so to speak. We center on short direction (blocking) and pertinent dialogue. Afterward, we can go in and change it to prose.
Food for thought. Might tasty, if you ask me.
THE WRITING PROCESS by Jane Espenson
So, Sid -- you just spit this soliloquy out? Gee. Thanks. No penis envy -- uh, writing envy I mean -- here. No sir. Mine's just as impressive as yours. Mine can turn those phrases. My imagery too can make a old woman blush and a young girl squeal ("dried feces" -- gack!!). But I'm one up on you, pal. For the same fabulous result, I would take a LOT longer.
I feel better now.
THE WRITING PROCESS by Jane Espenson
All work and no play makes Dave a dull boy. All work and no play makes Dave a dull boy. All work and no play makes Dave a dull boy. All work and no play makes Dave a dull boy. All work and no play makes Dave a dull boy. All work and no play makes Dave a dull boy. All work and no play makes Dave a dull boy. All work and no play makes Dave a dull boy. All work and no play makes Dave a dull boy. All work and no play makes Dave a dull boy. All work and no play makes Dave a dull boy. All work and no play makes Dave a dull boy. All work and no play makes Dave a dull boy. All work and no play makes Dave a dull boy. All work and no play makes Dave a dull boy. All work and no play makes Dave a dull boy. All work and no play makes Dave a dull boy. All work and no play makes Dave a dull boy. All work and no play makes Dave a dull boy. All work and no play makes Dave a dull boy. All work and no play makes Dave a dull boy. All work and no play makes Dave a dull boy. All work and no play makes Dave a dull boy. All work and no play makes Dave a dull boy. All work and no play makes Dave a dull boy. All work and no play makes Dave a dull boy. All work and no play makes Dave a dull boy. All work and no play makes Dave a dull boy. All work and no play makes Dave a dull boy. All work and no play makes Dave a dull boy. All work and no play makes Dave a dull boy. All work and no play makes Dave a dull boy. All work and no play makes Dave a dull boy. All work and no play makes Dave a dull boy. All work and no play makes Dave a dull boy. All work and no play makes Dave a dull boy. All work and no play makes Dave a dull boy. All work and no play makes Dave a dull boy. All work and no play makes Dave a dull boy. All work and no play makes Dave a dull boy.
THE WRITING PROCESS by Jane Espenson
I think it's time to hide all sharp and pointy objects... Heeerrreeee's Davey! :?
THE WRITING PROCESS by Jane Espenson
I'm not sure if that was an insult or a compliment. I choose Door #2, a compliment. Yes, I believe you were complimenting me. Thanks. It was your frustrated tone that threw me. You said something nice while concurrently smacking me with the back-a-yo'-hand. You used contradiction to make your point.
Hmph. Getting a bona fide tone to show through your words is a feat, Sherlynn. To make someone feel your emotion via something so abstract as the written word shows skill. I've never heard you speak, but you have a voice to me. You don't give yourself enough credit.
And what's this? :? You didn't bother using an emoticon? You mean, I just, like, got what you were saying simply by reading the exact combination of words that you used to put me in my place? Wow. :D
Sorry for my ranting before. This old man does ramble these days.
But watch out, because...oh no....I feel another turn coming on.
I simply got tired of fine writers--you too, Sher--cutting themselves short. Both writing AND gaming are crafts. You learn by doing, not by philosophizing. I wrote that last post by using the technique I heralded therein. I got angry, I took a drink, and I raced my fingers across the keyboard. I typed like mad until I reached the end. Then I went back and (be still my heart) revised.
Do not give your brain reasons to let you stop typing. It will win. You will lose.
And, for the record, I'm obsessive. I'll spend hours reading and rereading a piece of writing, polishing. And STILL I have trouble. I'm the fella with no life here. I fail to see why some of you are so hard on yourselves--you've got jobs to hold down, you've got college (sorry Lou, I mean "uni"), you've got children to raise, you've got OTHER THINGS TO DO. LABN is not your only whore.
I was impressed when I came here in July, and I still am.
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And, Dave, "All work and no play makes Dave a dull boy."
Precisely.
THE WRITING PROCESS by Jane Espenson
It was certainly not my intention to bitch-slap you, Sid. I was just saying my, um, writing is as good as yours -- it's just a slower groove and takes longer to get to the sweet spot. The sweet spot being that story that just writes itself; we've talked about that. You know, when you're just taking the dictation of the gods. And since my mind has been mired in sexual innuendo of late, it seemed like a proper analogy.
Plus, I'm all jealous and envious of your writing. Cain't he'p it. Shameless Sid Groupie here.
That's not to say that I don't love my own writing. I do. I think I'm friggin' brilliant a lot of the time. My not writing is all excuse, easily self-given. I'll cop to lazy; I'll cop to neurotic; I'll cop to distracted; I'll cop to plain old evil because of my lack of carcinogens to suck on; all mocking and laughing at me while I pray for my muse who can help me turn a phrase like it was on rails to come, please come, please, please, please come visit me again -- I'm lonely.
So, indeed, it was a compliment.
:angel:
THE WRITING PROCESS by Jane Espenson
You're the best. :lol: I'm glad to hear that you can see your own talent. The way you were talking recently, I was worried you were going to leave LABN!!!!! Booooo!
THE WRITING PROCESS by Jane Espenson
Nah. Wouldn't leave. I promised myself to commit at least a year here, so I'm around for a while. Plus there's that whole Cast Party thingy that I'm so greatly looking forward to. Glad to know you'd miss me, baby boy. I love hearing that stuff.