Personally, I never intentionally do any sort of pre-writing, although it took me almost 40 years to write a screenplay (still unproduced). So the early stages could be called pre-writing. The idea came to me with the story almost fully formed and I hacked out a first, very fundamental version in which, to my dismay, I was unable to make the characters speak – very frustrating. In fact, this first attempt was a treatment without my knowing it: I had heard the word in connection with screenwriting, but didn’t know exactly what it meant. Anyway, having no idea how to go about developing the thing, I put it away and some years later got the idea of writing it as a novel in the manner of Faulkner’s As I Lay Dying, each chapter being a narration by one of the characters, going back and forth among them. It got off the ground, but really it didn’t fly, and I left it off about halfway through. Then a couple of years ago a filmmaker friend suggested that the two of us write a screenplay together on an idea of his. I agreed, but when the initial material I produced didn’t get a follow-up from him I decided to relaunch the ancient scenario. After writing an outline on file cards, according to my friend’s suggestion – very useful – I whipped the whole thing out in about a month, then later made various small revisions, though so far it has retained its structure and actually, almost everything written in that short period, about two months altogether.

There you go:

http://cloudsmovingin.wordpress.com/2012/04/02/what-not-to-post-on-your-blog/

Seriously, I couldn’t even be bothered with the rest of your post. Kiddy posts are for kiddy blogs. Not for serious writers.

It was a fast and furious week with a fantastic imaginative pay-off. It is encouraging, that despite the cut backs in schools, as writers we can find creative spirits amongst us to carry the written word.