DZ-106: How do you know if you have enough story?

Listen you're not sure whether your idea has enough fuel for 90 pages. In this episode, Chas, Stu and Mel attempt to answer a listener question: “In your own pre-writing process, how do you know you have enough for a feature? And do you have a specific pre-writing method you're going to?” Thus we launch into a discussion on our writing processes and the varying usefulness of tools such as log lines, turning points, beat sheets, synopsis, treatments, and scene breakdowns. We also tackle the challenges encountered while developing an idea to first draft, such as balancing the pace of the story, developing distinct character voices, character choices, plot changes, pacing, and thematic clarity. Is this backmatter? Or is it development tools? You decide! Hahaha. Thanks so much to Chris Walker for his excellent editing on this episode! As always: SPOILERS ABOUND and all copyright material used under fair use for educational purposes. LIKE THIS EPISODE? Watch and comment on YouTube. Send us feedback. Thanks to our Patrons, especially Lily, Alexandre, Malay, Casimir, Jennifer, Thomas, Randy, Jesse, Sandra, Theis and Khrob. → Read the transcript for this episode. ——— "for me, that's actually in a lot of ways easier to write. You don't need to conclude anything. And you can hopefully if you sell it, then you get a room of people and then it's all of your problems, you know, as opposed to just your problem and you're banging your head up against the wall on page 80 going, Oh my God, what have have I done?" — Mel Killingsworth @ 00:05:41 ——— CHAPTERS 00:00:00 – Cold Open 00:00:16 – The Listener Question: Do You Have Enough for a Feature? 00:00:30 – › Why features demand a known ending before you start 00:02:38 – Our Development Processes 00:05:20 – › Deciding format before asking if you have enough story 00:09:20 – › Narrative fuel as a concept and when to test it 00:13:42 – › Why the midpoint is the first structural tent pole to find 00:17:35 – › Cards, brainstorming, and capturing scenes before plot 00:20:06 – › How TV bible development differs from feature outlining 00:25:15 – Developing from Concept 00:28:53 – › Mel's four-stage process from voice note to scriptment 00:33:06 – › Theme as the organising principle before you outline 00:38:55 – › Character and plot as mutually dependent in development 00:44:09 – › Loglines from other characters' points of view 00:45:26 – Sponsor: Arc Studio Pro 00:48:12 – Expanding Your Idea 00:51:24 – › Sequence structure as a test for narrative fuel 00:55:34 – › Turning points driven by character decisions, not events 01:00:01 – › When genre dictates how fixed your major beats should be 01:06:19 – › From bullet outline to scriptment: when to move to pages 01:09:36 – › Summarising dialogue scenes before writing them 01:15:29 – Long Short Documents 01:20:34 – › The therefore-and-but test applied to outlines 01:23:07 – › Prose treatments as a low-cost pitch and development tool 01:27:22 – Consistent Problems with First Drafts 01:28:53 – › Pacing imbalance between over-written and under-written sequences 01:31:27 – › Character voice, empathy, and choices that don't land 01:34:28 – Many Thanks to Our Patreons! EPISODES IN THE DEVELOPMENT TOOLS SERIES DZ-106: How do you know if you have enough story? DZ-71: Treatments & Loglines - Development Tools 1 DZ-72: Theme & The Story Synopsis - Development Tools 2 DZ-81: Pitch Decks & Look Books - Development Tools 4 DZ-73: Selling documents - Development Tools 3 ——— More Draft Zero is brought to you by our awesome Patreons. If you enjoy the show, please leave a review on Apple Podcasts, a rating on Spotify, or a review on Podchaser. We are @stuwillis, @mehlsbells and @chasffisher on Twitter. You can find @draft_zero and @_shotzero on Instagram and Twitter. Full show notes at: https://draft-zero.com/2023/dz-106/