Sequential Narrative

To outline or not to outline? That is the question that many writers argue and obsess about.

Some feel outlining is a crucial part of ensuring you have a solid script, others feel that outlining is a muse-killer and should be avoided at all costs. Some do something in-between; start an outline, get bored or confused, abandon it and then wind up with 43 bad pages and wonder what happened. Well, the road map got tossed out the window was what happened, and now you find yourself on a dirt road in an unrecognizable county somewhere southeast of Fresno.

The Wave-natrix holds that those writers who insist that they never outline and don’t need to actually do outline – in their heads. In my experience working with writers, it is a rare talent which some writers really do possess. But for those of us without a mental chalkboard that organized – we outline.

It took me a long time to come around to outlining but that was out of inexperience and not really finding an outline method that worked for me. When one thinks of outlining, one thinks of what we learned in high school and – well – that just doesn’t make sense.

We know that a script is three acts but if you outline by act that still leaves some pretty wide open, undulating plains of – question marks. That never worked for me. So what I do now is outline using a sequential narrative. Oddly, many writers use this method and books have been written on the topic and yet for some reason, it’s not widely known. There are different ways of looking at a sequential narrative outline; some recommend using 8 sequences, others use 12 and some far-flung islands in the South Pacific recommend 5 ½ .

The 12 Sequence Outline:

Imagine that each sequence in your script describes approximately 10 pages of material (ten minutes of screen time) and that your script is about 100 to 115 pages long (work with me people; The Wave-inatrix is quite loathe to set down rigid numbers on topics like these as there are always variants by story and by writer. So these numbers are flexible and approximate):

ACT ONE: 30 pages
Sequence One: 1-10
Sequence Two: 10-20
Sequence Three: 20-30 – first plot point or pinch

ACT TWO: 60 pages
Sequence Four: 30-40
Sequence Five: 40-50
Sequence Six: 50-60 – the midpoint
Sequence Seven: pages 60 to 70
Sequence Eight: pages 70 to 80
Sequence Nine: pages 80 to 90 – the second plot point or pinch

ACT THREE: 10 to 15 pages
Sequence Ten: pages 90 to 95
Sequence Eleven: pages 95 -100 – climactic ending
Sequence Twelve: pages 100 to - fill in blank – the tag

Okay so immediately you’ll notice that sequences 11 and 12 don’t have ten pages; here is a good place to note that while generally each sequence will have about ten pages, the further you go along in your script, the more compressed each sequence becomes. Because remember, in a script, events escalate furiously as we near the end. Because tension is rising and things have snowballed into bigger and bigger stakes and entertainment. Also we know that third acts are not as lengthy as the first or second act in your script; the material is not evenly divided by dint of the job that the third act has to do.

I personally have never written a twelfth sequence. I always run out of story by the eleventh sequence. So in my world, the sequential narrative has not only wiggle room for personal use but is really most helpful in the first nine sequences in terms of keeping your story on track.

Notice that sequences three, six and nine are the BIGGIES; these are where you have the biggest reversals and complications in your story.

Jotting down a sequential narrative – whether you use 12 sequences, 8, 10 or in my case, seriously, I use 11 – accomplishes multiple goals at once.

You can see if you have enough material for the movie full stop. You can see if you have enough entertaining material which moves the story forward and occupies about ten pages in each sequence. You can plan the biggest complications at about the right page number and best of all, using this methodology guarantees you will never have a dull page. Ever.

Why? Because each sequence will have a beginning, middle and end. Or – conflict, complication, resolution. And the resolution of one conflict in a given sequence will naturally push a conflict to happen at the beginning of the next sequence. It’s all causal; like dominos crashing into one another.

So in order to make this method work, simply jot down all 12 sequences (or whatever but don’t be difficult, let’s start there. What’s that? Complaining? No dessert for you.) and give each sequence a quick description:

Sequence one:
A sheriff on sabbatical rides in to what looks like deserted town in Nevada, goes to the saloon and discovers a gunslinger has taken everybody hostage.

Now stop and ask yourself: does that feel like ten pages of material? Does that have set up, complications and is it introducing a narrative you can sink your teeth into? Well, sure, this lame example has some compelling promise.

So jot down descriptions of each sequence making sure you keep that description short, sweet and full of complications, reversals, cliffhangers and resolutions.

Then, label your sequences like DVD chapters. Wha-? You know, DVD chapters. Each has a title, yes? And that title describes the essence of what happens in that particular sequence of the movie. I find that emulating this and labeling my sequences keeps me focused on the essence of what is going to happen in that sequence. So I might label the example above:

Sequence one: This sabbatical sucks
A sheriff on sabbatical rides in to what looks like deserted town in Nevada, goes to the saloon and discovers a gunslinger has taken everybody hostage.

Again, apologies for being silly but my point is that you want to boil each ten pages of your script down to its essence. You are zooming in from the larger view of your script down to the details of a particular section of the script. And now that you have that smaller portion of the script under the microscope you can ask yourself: is this ten minutes of screen time? Does this sequence have an over-arching purpose? Does this sequence contain conflict, complications and reversals? Does this sequence have unique entertainment value?

What you are doing is taking the macro idea of a script in which three acts contain conflict, resolution, complication, reversal and so forth and distilling that idea down to each ten pages. Do you see where using this methodology you will never have a dull page? You are requiring yourself to make sure that every ten minute-sequence contains all of those dramatic requirements.

What about those sequences where things are quiet, where your character is you know, falling in love or just chilling or contemplating life? Um, yeah, please don’t ever write those sequences. You should never have a dull page. Fold contemplative, inward moments into the larger action. Please. But do not allow your character to drift throughout an entire sequence because he or she will take the whole narrative with them and now your reader is bored.

The Wave-inatrix recommends Screenwriting: The Sequence Approach! for those interested in learning much more about this methodology.

The Wave-inatrix will end here by saying that outlining using the Sequential Narrative has literally changed her writing life forever but it is something new to get accustomed to and takes practice.

It boils down to something relatively simple but things learned long ago and practiced daily, much like tying shoelaces, do seem very simple now when they were quite complicated at first.

So Wavers with questions should not only check out the book recommend above, but post questions here and perhaps we in the Waver Community can stretch our hands across the sea and provide even more clarity.

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