When you write a scene in a script, it needs to tie into everything that’s come before it and everything that will come after. That’s hard to do on a project like this, where we’re working without an outline. It demands an ability to see at least vaguely into the future. To project the characters’ paths.

I wrote the opening scene showing Napolitano retrieving the envelope without knowing exactly where it would lead, but it established some ambiguity about him that I found interesting. It also opened a door to graft, manipulation and backroom power-politics that I knew would eventually have to be resolved in a way that makes for an interesting story.

Similarly, I haven’t read the next scenes yet, but projecting into the future, I can see that sometime real soon, we will meet the cops who come to tell Celeste her husband Larry has been murdered.

Whoever writes that scene should be projecting too, both into the future and into the past:

What kind of history might the detective have with Celeste, a well known movie star? What would it mean to the mayor’s career to be found with her in a compromising position? How would the cops want to handle that?

Is it worth it to introduce another character here too -- a private investigator working parallel to the police but using very different methods? What kind of conflicts might arise from this other detective’s involvement? Will they complicate things too much, or make them suspenseful and compelling?

That’s what’s so hard and so much fun about writing. Before you write one scene, you have to zone into a whole other world, complete with back-stories, motivations, complications and consequences.

If you’re going to submit pages by Sunday night, you'd better start projecting.