On Wednesday afternoon, I handed off thirty pages of the collaborative screenplay project to my writing partner; now they will run with the story for awhile. Very curious to see how they receive my interpretation of the pre-writing discussions and bull sessions, and even more curious to see where they take the story next. Batting ideas around for a project in a safe cocoon is one thing, once the idea starts taking shape and intention crosses over into reality, there’s some disconnects and–very hopefully, or it’s going to be a craptastic story–surprises.

Oliver Stone once said it didn’t matter what was on the page once the cameras started rolling. He put it a bit more crudely, actually. But in a way, his maxim rings true for a manuscript. Writers can plan and outline all they want, but at least some of the pre-production flies out the window once the cylinders start firing. The preparations are not for naught.

Plans can pay off big during gut checks, the days when one takes a real hard look at a project and asks, “Is what on this page what is playing in my head? Can a reasonable person glean what I intended for them to see based only upon what I have written?”

And proving that theorem takes another set of eyeballs and some understanding–maybe only primitive, maybe at the highest of levels–of what one was trying to do in the first place.