Quantum Storytelling

There comes a time when it is prudent for a writer to look outside of the field of writing for solutions to getting a manuscript or script done. Among the nuggets of advice often given to writers is, “Write every day.” Although this may be great advice, more specific prescriptions for writerly behavior may be missing altogether.

As I’ve been wrestling with my script I found it difficult to organize a good writing schedule. The problem is any schedule worth following needs to be flexible, not just some rote punctual routine paced by ticking stop watches and blaring alarm clocks. We fired the inner nazi, remember? I need something that holds me accountable to the weeks and months, but not necessarily to the day, hour, or minute.

I also wanted a bit more than just a schedule. I wanted a organizational method for writing. Since writers are often woolly creative types who resist organization and embrace chaos I figured it was high time for me to look at some tricks of software development.

Agile Software Development is a method that places emphasis on fast iteration. One of my biggest issues with my writing is that both story development and writing (read: production of writing) often take me a very long time. So long that I sometimes lose sight of the big picture, whether or not the story is where I want it to be, or how to get there.

From my experience in game development, I know that the fast track to results is often defined by tight feedback loops. What do I mean by this? Tightly focused work increments that aspire towards a specific goal.

In a game it might be; “We want to get this monster functioning in the game, which includes A.I. behaviors, sound effects, 3D model, 2D texture, animations, etc.” For a script or novel it might be; “Write scene 12 with the goal of establishing character John’s depression.”

A tight feedback loop would be an obvious measure of work defined by a specific goal. You will know when you are finished whether you got closer to that goal or farther away from it — hopefully closer.

The big picture is to establish a larger plan dependent on these small goals and manageable periods of writing work. There is a more specific mode of Agile known as Scrum, which will help us do this.

Scrum

Scrum is just a method of Agile development. It has a focus on specific team roles which don’t really apply to the lone writer. But team roles aren’t the only benefit of scrum. There are several aspects of Scrum project management that might be useful to writers:

• Product Backlog - A wishlist of elements you want your story to have.
• Sprint Backlog - A master list of tasks required to implement the wishlist elements for your story.
• Burn down Chart - Work left to do vs. time remaining.

A burn down chart may or may not be useful to you, but the product backlog and sprint backlog are concepts I think are useful to writing — especially the sprint backlog and the idea behind sprints themselves.

What is a sprint?

A sprint is a work period focused around the implementation of specific elements or features. In my case (see pic above) I’ve chosen a 10-sequence story structure to act as larger container groups for my scenes.

Why ten?

A more detailed explanation is probably the subject of another post, but after a brief overview let’s just do the math. Sequences in a story should probably be no more than 12 pages long, to focus specific story elements, keep the reader entertained, the drama high, and the conflicts fresh.

Television writing follows the 12 minute mark for commercial breaks, which in term have made TV dramatically interesting by focusing smaller chunks of drama to peak at the 12 minute markers. Build your story in 12 minute chunks to keep the drama tight and your work focused. How does that fit into a 120 minute film script?

120/12 = 10

That’s the short answer. How many scenes per sequence? That’s up to you. What parts of the story fit into what sequences? That’s up to you, although loosely following something like the Hero’s Journey might be a good idea. If you want. Or not. It’s up to you!

The most useful way to define a work sprint for writing in my opinion is by sequence. Official scrum definitions say that a task should be no longer than 16 hours. For writers this is easy if you interpret tasks as the writing of a particular scene. It shouldn’t take you longer than 16 hours of actual work time to write any given scene, should it? Okay then.

So your scenes are your tasks, and a sequence is your sprint. Think of sprints as sprinting towards the finish line. A sprint is one burst of work towards a specific goal like having X chunk of the story done. If you’ve got ten sequences then completing one sequence means you’re 1/10th of the way towards the finish line of your first draft.

In software development, a sprint is usually no longer than a month long. Preferably on the shorter end of two weeks. I think for writing, a week or two is a reasonable time frame for sequence writing.

This gives you an easy way to measure not only your goals but also your progress — without being a nazi. You can copy my model from the picture above or you can define your own work sprints.

And this folks, is how you knock out some Agile Script Development. It seems to be working pretty well for me so far. Let me know if it works for you.

P.S. My calendar whiteboard is by Board Dudes, similar to this one, and I found it in store at Office Max for about $70. Keep in mind my story was pretty well developed before the writing production phase — something I highly recommend. I’m also coming into a new month with some sequences already done, so this may not be an accurate picture of an entire script in a month. I’d also recommend a sequence per week — which as you can see I’m not following because there’s quite a bit I want to get done before GTA IV arrives — it’s going to suck the life out of me.