Screnzy prep: crafting your story

Dear readers, Screnzy is fast-approaching, and the more background and organizing you can do now will mean more time to actually write when April 1st rolls around.

I know many people cringe at the mere mention of outlines, but when you're facing a writing challenge like Screnzy, outlines can be helpful. You don't have to create a complex, detailed outline to get yourself ready for April. Even just jotting down your story arc or a list of scenes will give you an idea of where you want your story to go when you start writing. It will help keep you from writing yourself into a corner.

When you write an outline, it forces you to develop your story beyond the one-line idea you had when you first started brainstorming for Screnzy. My one-line idea is "A collection of vignettes that center around people waiting for something."

When I started outlining the script, it became a story. As I thought about the different vignettes, I had to flesh out the idea into something more substantial than an idea. I needed story arcs for each of the vignettes, and before I knew it, I had something ready to actually be written.

If you really can't handle outlining, think of it as crafting your story. You need to know what you're writing about. Jotting some notes about how the story is going to go, how many acts and scenes you're writing, etc., will help make sure you can hit 100 pages between April 1st and April 30th.

What are you writing for Screnzy this year?