Chapter 1

Piecing together the storm

The notes from your brainstorm sessions will more than likely end up as a pile
of ideas without much cohesion or flow. This is normal because the note taking
phase is meant to get standalone ideas formulated and written. You will want to
organize these notes into an outline once your brain has spat the ideas out. How you
outline will depend on your own comprehension skills. For instance, some people
prefer bullet lists; others may want to get a mind-mapping software and organize
everything that way. A software such as Scrivener allows you to create sections that
can be easily rearranged, making it a prime choice for screenwriters and novelists.
However, if you decide to do it, an outline is an important step in creating an
animated cartoon.
The goal of the outline is to take your notes and organize them into a roughly
structured narrative. Making the pieces fit is the key. Sticking to the main ideas is
usually suggested when writing an outline, as other details such as character actions
and dialog come later on during screenwriting. If a piece of a dialog that you must
include comes to mind, include it. While your narrative flow may change over the
course of the creative process, the outline will set up the building blocks to creating a
cohesive blueprint for you to follow, as shown in the following screenshot:

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Stepping into the World of Animation

Writing your story

Screenwriting is where you'll want to write the story in full detail. This includes
scene details, character actions, dialog, and so forth. Think of the process as if you
watched your unfinished movie and are repeating every detail verbatim to a friend.
Screenwriting is special because of the following format that it uses:
Your scene headings, in caps, describe the scene setting
Characters are also capitalized
Dialog is written underneath the characters in an almost center-justified format
The following is an example of a page from a screenplay; note how things
are formatted:

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Chapter 1

When it's time to write your screenplay, you will want to download a piece of
software that can put your words into the proper format. This not only makes the
document more readable, but puts a professional spin on your creation, especially
if you want to sell the draft to a production company.
My first recommendation would be Celtx (http://www.celtx.com). This free
piece of software (with an optional premium version to access cloud-based and
collaborative features) is streamlined, yet powerful enough, to draft up even your
most ambitious screenplays. The software comes with a storyboarding template
which allows you to order images, apply scene descriptions, text, and more.
You can download it for Windows, Mac OS, and Linux. On top of that, as of this
writing, you can purchase a Celtx app for any of your iOS mobile devices, which
allows you to write screenplays on the go.
If you want to use the same software that many of the professionals do, investing
in Final Draft (http://www.finaldraft.com) may be up for consideration. The
software contains many advanced features that may help with the creative process.
Plus, as I said, it's widely regarded as a pro's choice type of software. Just be prepared
to pay upwards of $200 for the fully-featured standard edition.
Whatever software you decide to use, the following are some basic rules to follow as
you begin writing your first screenplay:
A scene heading comes first. As previously stated, this is displayed in capital
letters. Int. stands for an interior shot, while Ext. stands for exterior.
Writing actions or descriptions is really no different from that of a novel.
You want to be as descriptive as you can to paint a picture in the mind of
the reader. Unless you are writing the script for yourself, you will want to
avoid descriptions that would fall under the category of direction (camera
movements, transitions, and so on). Also, it's proper to always write in the
present tense.
Character headings are always capitalized, just like scene headings.
Dialog is always placed below character headings.
When in doubt, use the special commands that your software provides.
You shouldn't have to think much about the formatting with the aid
of the software.

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