Screeplay question, friends. Do you have any TIPS or TRICKS - for making the subsequent secnes non-obvious? After we make a rough "scenic order" and start developing each scene, I feel, that the knowledge of subsequent scene forces us to write the current scene in a manner it leads to the next scene in a very obvious path. That seems to be how the grip is lost in most situations.

I was just reading Erin Brockowich (not watched the movie, though), and the Author sounded to have handled this problem quite deftly, and that too in multiple situations. For example: once, the objective of the "next" scene was to make Erin understand that "her boss did not bother to inform her on a critical meeting". For this the Author in the "current" scene, made Erin call her boss (from her home) on ANOTHER important issue, and she was told that the boss is busy. Irritated by that, Erin comes to the office, and that is how she finds that there is some critical meeting going on without her knowledge.

It's funny, because Erin Brockovich (the movied) was used as an example in a screenwriting book I have BECAUSE of its great plot lines and twists.

I haven't done enough writing yet (something I really need to get back into) to have any really good advice for you...

one exercise is to write the scenes completely not where they are supposed to be.

like write one scene in a zoo, and the other scene on a boat. the reason being that once you stop seeing them as connecting places, you really start to see how the feelings/words match one another, and then get the transition in your head.

then you change back to your location: (for example the zoo changes to the house and the boat changes to the car. but now you might have a better understanding of the characters between those two scenes)

i dont get the brockovich example...

soderburgh is a genious.

you just have to find a way to transition, but in a way that people aren't going to notice the transition right? so you put a little interscene in, so you can travel from one scene to another. like the phone call you just have to do something like that. EX: in rush hour 2, chris tucker's character is all mad at jackie's character because they aren't doing anything fun. so anyways between two scenes, you see them i believe leave the police station. and you see jackie drive him to a massage parlor then the massage parlor scene starts. you see, their leaving and driving there was the transition. It also might help you to write down at least the area you're having a hard time with, as a story, writing down lot's of details, so when you write it as a script you can see the transition and write it in. hope that didn't confuse you too much.