Writing FAST - Jeff Bollow 2012

One single sentence
Capture your idea
Focus

Write it down in one single sentence.

That’s it. I’m serious. Not a one-page overview. Not a detailed outline. Not a crisp, clear paragraph. One single sentence. And nothing more.

That’s your central idea.

And simple is better. Always. It’s the core of your project.

If you don’t do this (like when you race in without a plan), your ideas get muddled, or they vanish into thin air.

And, yes, I know. You’re writing a novel or a movie or other long-form project, and you can’t possibly whittle the whole concept down to one single sentence.

Oh, but you can. And you must.

Take an example I use in my screenwriting workshops: the movie The Shawshank Redemption. Here’s a quote from the opening page of that script, which is also a line from the movie:

“Hope is a good thing, maybe the best of things, and no good thing ever dies...”

That’s the central idea of that movie. And when you know your central idea, you can hold everything else up against it.

You can hold up every idea, every scene, every page, every word you write. And ask, “Does this build the idea — or not?”

Keep it simple. The more convoluted your central idea, the more confusing or disjointed for the reader. It’s too easy to lose them. Your reader wonders what the heck you’re trying to get at.

And you forget the whole purpose of your project.

With a clear central idea, you’ll stay on target.