i've been working on a screenplay for a while. is it a good idea to jump ahead and write later scences?

Question

Assuming I can fill in the spots I left behind later?

Answer 1

Writing is hard. Good writing is darn near impossible somedays! So write what you can--if a good scene occurs to you, get it down on paper. Get all your ideas written whenever they occur to you. You'll be rewriting a lot anyway, so you'll have many opportunities to fill in the gaps as you go along. But if you don't write down a good idea when you get it, you may forget it tomorrow, which would be really discouraging, because

writing is hard.....

We need good writing in movies (there is so much dreck out there!) so I hope your screenplay goes really well!

Answer 2

Yes. This can often provide further depth to your story. If you write out what happens at the end, you'll have a better plan of how the story is going to work out overall. Then you can go back and put details in your earlier scenes that lead up to and/or support the later ones. For example, you might have a scene where the character is stuck in a room, and a bomb is about to blow up. You can then go back to one of your earlier scenes and write about how he finds a key, but doesn't know what it is for. Then, you can finish up the latter scene with him suddenly remembering the key, and pulling it out and escaping. That's just an example I made up, but you can use this technique to help in your writing by making it fit your story. BTW, I'm interested in filmmaking and screenwriting as well, so maybe we can talk about it together sometime. Hope this helps!

Answer 3

Yes.
If you try to keep to a structure, writing from beginning to end, your screenplay will come off as strained instead of natural and flowing.
If you write scenes as they come to you, whether they are in order or not, they will probably inspire exactly what you need to fill in the gaps. :)

Answer 4

Of course. The idea is perpetual motion; i.e., just write, write, write! If you feel stuck or at some impasse, it may be just as good (or better) to move to parts of your piece that project your heightened creativity.

Answer 5

if you have a general idea of the basic plot, then sometimes writing ahead can help you flesh out previous scenes..

Answer 6

you could try writing lots of scenes then try to put them together like a jig-saw.