There are many techniques employed by writers to build a narrative and world for their projects, whether for novels or films and television. In this How-To guide I'm going to show you a few simple processes that I've found to work quite well. I'll keep it as relevant as possible, going from A to B with minimal distractions.
Let's build a story from scratch.
Get on with it.
Obviously, we want our screenplay to be the best that it can possibly be. But that's not what it's going to be when we first draft it. It's going to be awful, and that's fine. Everything has to start somewhere, and if you want to develop your skills you have to give yourself space to be wrong. If you don't, you'll just spend hours staring at the page waiting for the right line to come along. That won't help you.
The first step towards writing anything is to actually write. It doesn't matter if it's good or not. As you move forward, new ideas connect to the existing ideas, and before you know it you'll have more creative options than you know what to do with.
Conceptualise.
When creating a new concept we need to know: what makes a concept interesting? The answers, at the simplest level, are contrast and conflict. If there's no contrast between opposing sides then a conflict is meaningless, and if there's no conflict then a contrast serves no purpose.
So, as an example let's create a protagonist. We'll call him Barry, and he's a mobster, head of his own small criminal enterprise. He's not super rich, but he's doing well and has managed to keep his head low enough to avoid being noticed by the authorities. He's tough, selfish and he won't take shit from anyone.
Now we need to find an interesting setting to place Barry in. So, following the principle of contrast, the opposite of criminal mobsters are police officers. Let's do a role-reversal and say that Barry is a criminal mobster who goes undercover as a police officer. Putting a twist on a classic trope is an excellent way to catch people's attention, so try and do it every chance you get.
Y tho?
What Barry really needs right now is some motivation. Why is he going undercover as a police officer? It's not likely to be very beneficial for him business wise, if he needed information he could probably pay for it or extort someone. So we'll give him a primal motive: revenge.
Use of anything primal is another great way to build audience investment. If I was to say Barry just wants to go undercover so he can learn to "think like the enemy", well, that's tactical but it's not very dramatic. If we say he wants to find the dirty cop who killed his brother and take revenge on him, then Barry is now a man with a goal that is linked inexorably to his emotions and primal drives.
If the cop is a corrupt murderer then we feel a connection to an injustice committed against Barry, even though we may not relate to his method of dealing with it or to him as a person. Everybody has a side of themselves that loves the notion of the "anti-hero"; the cruel part of their personality that they keep buried, that is fearless and selfish and doesn't take shit from anyone. It's a psychological experiment that you, as a writer, are tacitly requested by audiences to indulge in.
Twist it again.
Now let's give Barry's story some direction. We'll start with an outcome and work backwards, because that is often the simplest and most efficient way to go. Let's say that Barry eventually finds the cop, but it turns out the cop isn't corrupt and the death of Barry's brother wasn't his fault. And to twist it even further, Barry might actually end up saving the cop's life instead.
In order for this resolution to happen, we will need to create some character changing events that happen along the way. The form these take will vary depending on the type of story you're writing. If we were writing a comedy, we might make him save the cop's life by accident, but if we were writing a more serious film something will need to happen that changes Barry's perspective from wanting to kill the cop to wanting to save his life.
Barry will need to undergo some kind of growth or transformation, a character arc. This usually works best when the potential for change is hinted at throughout the story and then realised in the final act.
Turning points.
To effect this change, let's say that about halfway through the story Barry discovers that his best friend, the guy who identified the cop as his brother's killer, actually owed money to his brother and was being investigated by the cop. Now Barry is unsure of himself, he might be being used and his whole plan could be in jeopardy, but he's in too deep to back out.
When you have a clear goal, and then threaten that goal, the dramatic tension is increased. All Barry needs now is a nudge in the right direction. Firstly, he should have a bonding experience with the cop, where both parties discover they have something in common. This could be anything from their personal lives, past mistakes, future plans; anything that identifies shared ground amid the contrast.
Going all the way.
When it all comes together at the end is often the most memorable moment of any story. If you've laid the groundwork correctly, tying it all together shouldn't be too difficult. We know where we are, and where we want to be.
Barry initially set out to get revenge, but now he doubts if that is the right course of action. We want to lead him to end up doing a complete one-eighty and saving the cop's life. Let's say the cop finds definitive proof that the best friend killed the brother. He goes to arrest the best friend, but Barry has been doing his own investigation and when he hears the cop is making a move, he knows he'll be walking into a trap.
Upon seeing the proof himself, Barry rushes to the aid of the cop and takes a bullet for him. He's now gone through a total change of character, from selfish to self-less, by way of gradual development throughout the story.
Nice guys finish up properly.
To bring the story to a fulfilling close the cop should learn the truth about Barry- but, unexpectedly, this allows him to identify Barry's true strengths which helps them to catch the best friend using teamwork. Now that the two sides have come together and found they are stronger as a whole, the cop promises to keep Barry's identity a secret provided he keeps on being a damned fine police officer- a deserved reward for the hero. That's assuming we want a happy ending, of course. Ultimately the details are up to you.
To Summarise:
• find a starting point [usually a character, group or significant event]
• create contrasts
• set up conflicts
• build audience investment
• build dramatic tension
• take an unexpected twist
• make it look like all is lost
• a realization or change occurs
• the conflict or contrast is resolved
• the hero emerges victorious
If you follow these steps when building an outline, you should be able to come up with some pretty interesting stories and concepts. Give it a go and see what you come up with!
So there you have it, a few very simple pointers to creating an outline for a story. It's short but to the point. I hope you found this guide useful.