Peter Jackson’s Secret to Great Scriptwriting? It Starts on the Floor

I rewatch the Lord of the Rings movies at least once a year. They bring me so much joy, and the world they inhabit is so entertaining.

Those movies were directed by Sir Peter Jackson, and he also wrote them with his longtime collaborator and partner Fran Walsh.

So how did they get movies that big and stories that important out of their heads and onto the page for the greatest adaptations of all time?

In a clip from Film Writers, Jackson breaks down the organic, messy, and inspiring workflow that brings their scripts to life.

Let's dive in.

• YouTube www.youtube.com

The Power of the Bouncing Phase

When it comes down to getting your ideas onto the page, Jackson has a starting phase he loves to incorporate early on, before his fingers ever hit a keyboard.

And it happens on the floor.

Jackson describes a collaborative environment where he and Walsh sit with simple notepads and pens, just bouncing ideas back and forth between each other.

This stage is about raw creativity. They sit on the floor to stay away from desks and just keep the energy informal.

Diving in this way allows them to test verbal outlines, play with dialogue, and just mess around with each other to find the best kinds of scenes as well as the spine of the story.

Bouncing back and forth highlights the collaborative nature of their process. It shows how you can turn a conversation into something deeper, and allows you to align with a partner on a clear vision where you both agree on the details and come to them together.

From "Indecipherable" Notes to the Screen

Once the brainstorming session is over, Jackson takes their collective scribbles and moves to the computer. This is the stage where the ideas face the "cold light of day."

You sit and type all of it up so you then formalize the process. It’s the bridge between a vague feeling and a concrete narrative structure.

Now you're truly outlining and maybe even making a beat sheet you'll follow when the writing takes place. The idea starts to take true narrative form.

"Endless, Endless Revisions"

We've said it so many times, but "All writing is rewriting." And Jackson makes this a part of his process.

He says of this kind of work:

"A lot of the skill of scriptwriting is not in actually getting the script written. It’s the revising afterwards. It’s the endless, endless revisions."

You have to just keep reworking the idea over and over, like a sculptor chipping away at marble.

Jackson highlights Fran Walsh’s specific strength: the ability to pick out weaknesses and ruthlessly refine the material until it’s perfect.

Summing It All Up

This was a fun way to look at someone else's process and to see how they work. It's cool to shake out of your normal routine and try to do something that's completely different and outside the norm.

that can get your brain following and let the ideaso our out onto the page.

Let me know what you think in the comments.