First scene

The opening scene of this movie is a woman running from two men who are following her. As a viewer you don't yet know why she's running away or anything about her or the two men following her.. I knew I wanted her to almost get cornered, build the tension, then escape long enough to bump into the hero who helps slow down the two men following her long enough for her to get away and the hero to become unwittingly involved in the story. That was the idea.

Every time that I'm stuck in my writing it's usually because I don't like what I've written and feel I can't go on without fixing it or I don't know what comes next and have to stop until I do figure out what comes next. I knew I wanted the woman cornered by the two men in an alleyway with seemingly no escape but then something happens and she does escape and the men have to continue the chase. But I didn't know how. Then I read about a writing technique from John Vorhaus, whose book Creativity Rules, is full of such creative exercises, that seemed to help. The theory of the technique is that when your stuck it's because you don't have enough information about your story to figure out what comes next. So it recommends that you brainstorm a detailed list about the details in your story. Setting, characters, action beats. Anything to get your mind immersed in the moment of the story so you can hear, taste even touch that story moment in your minds eye.

So I did that. I brainstormed a list about what the woman was wearing and about the two men. What they were doing and then I wrote a short scene about how the two men met in a diner earlier that day. And then a list about the alleyway she was in and that's when I realized there were doors in the alleyway leading into the backs of stores on the main street. But they were locked. She probably tried a few while the men closed in on her. They knew she was trapped in that alleyway. They relaxed, maybe even grinned, happy the chase was over when suddenly one of the doors flew open. Someone was taking out the garbage. She did a beeline for the door and escaped into a laundry..."cont"