Pre-writing

Over the years, it has become clear to the Groupe Ouest consultants that the widespread use of laptops as a tool for writers and scriptwriters has become a trap. We think we can write faster. But since we have less and less available mental space (taken up with internet, emails, social networks…), we tend to confuse conception and writing. As if stories and fictional worlds can be developed only through writing. In fact, this limits the fields of exploration because it reduces the space for beneficial mind-wandering, the time for dialoguing with oneself and with others, the space for fostering one ‘s own imaginary worlds, the scribbling, the doodling, the exploration and testing of different concepts, all essential before starting the actual writing process.

Creating a space for fostering one’s imaginary worlds and stimulating dialogue prior to the long-term writing process

In 2012, Groupe Ouest saw the need for a space to nurture and populate our mental landscapes, to test the different combinations, for dialoguing prior to the long-term writing process. This unrestricted space designed to facilitate conception without resorting to writing, to multiply alternatives and possibilities was immediately baptised “Pre-writing”, renamed “Boosting Ideas” by our European experimental partners.

Since 2012, this area of exploration has become one of the most fertile experimentation departments at Groupe Ouest, optimized in recent years by our frequent collaborations with researchers from a wide variety of fields (primarily the cognitive sciences).

Inside LIM

Every year, pre-writing workshops – called Boosting Ideas – for emerging talent from LIM partner countries or regions, are organised all over Europe. They are systematically adapted by our scriptwriters-consultants to the constraints, needs, desires or audacity of each country’s talents. The Flemish inspired us to try Pre-writing workshops in their country, bringing together writers of films, series and video games. The experience was highly constructive!

From the “Pre-writing for series” to the “Serial Experience

Steadily, year after year, through experimenting with our partners with different work group formulas, a new support group for the writing of series was set up. The concept of “Pre-writing for series” was created in partnership with the ARTE France Fiction Unit. Followed by the “Serial Experience” with ARTE once again and the Danish channel TV2.

In other words, it’s now possible to build a “writing room” according to European terms – as opposed to importing American industrial know-how. A “writing room” fuelled by exploratory methods, and learning through both iteration of experiences and also experimenting with recent discoveries in cognitive neuroscience applied to creativity.