"Allen Bridge" blog #01...

As I mentioned a few weeks ago, I was planning on doing a series of blog posts about my next screenplay - Allen Bridge - during the process of actually writing it, and so this is post #01 in the series.


For the past several weeks I've been obsessively mapping out the script, and in the above picture you can get an idea (albeit a tidier one than normal) of what this process looks like for me - indeed not pictured is a bunch of research that had already been processed, set aside, rejected, and/or boiled down. Dozens and dozens of pages of research, drafts of script and scene layouts, character breakdowns, and so on - and that's not including the hardback journal featuring the in-depth information (pertaining to the final draft script breakdown), further research, and indeed the earliest ideas I had for this project back in June/July 2010.

During the intervening months my progress on the planning of Allen Bridge had been patchy at best, and indeed until just a few weeks ago I hadn't even broken the back of the original idea. However, during these last few weeks I was able to break the back of the entire project and really get into the characters, the premise, the mystery, and the eponymous town itself - discovering what was important, what was extraneous noise, and who the characters told me they were going to be (if that makes sense).

The script itself will be a mixture of drama and murder mystery, with a curious bent throughout ... but to suggest more might be a bit too revealing. It is a mystery after all ... so expect plenty of vagueness during this series of posts, but a few tidbits too.