I’m usually pretty resistant to the kind of colour-by-numbers approach that many Hollywood screenwriters seem to recommend. It works fine for them, most of the time, but it’s not the process for me.

My own process is more organic and chaotic, though it’s also contained and reliable. (I AM going to post some autobiographical process-porn soon. Really.)

That said, I really enjoyed watching this brief and engaging narrative about Dustin Lance Black’s screenwriting process. There are some gems in here that really resonated with me, including this quote:

A film is not what happened; a film is an impression of what happened.

You could easily substitute ‘novel’ for ‘film’ in that quotation, which is a succinct and clear way of gesturing towards my own theory about the relationship between story, plot and structure. (Again, more on that later!)

For now, watch the video. It’s good.

• Creative Spark: Dustin Lance Black