If you've read this blog for long you've seen me mention queer comic book writer Kieron Gillen and his technique of hiding a surprise or two behind a reveal the audience is waiting for, which I call #TheGillen.
Gillen writes a ton about the craft of being a writer, and I always find it really helpful stuff, even if some of it is super specific to comics.
Here's something he wrote recently about his first draft of a script:
My first drafts can be as small as a structural ghost – dialogue, panel numbers, tiny suggestive sentences of description. Point being, I keep it as molten as I can until I’m sure what the overall shape is, and then add everything to make it an actual script.
My own first drafts on a script are usually the opposite, completely overwritten--I want to get everything possible down and then pare from there. And I think a lot of TV writers are similar. And that's why I like Gillen's take so much; it's a completely different approach. Who knows, it may not work for me, but on the other hand it may open up whole new paths of discovery.
Also every toolbox also has tools that you rarely use. That doesn't have to be a mistake, a bad purchase. It can be something for a very specific purpose. And so even if the "Keep it molten as long as you can" approach doesn't work for you most of the time, there may be a time where it's EXACTLY what you need.
