16. Writing a treatment: Part One
10 April 2025
Alison Rocket Ross
Getting down to the nitty-gritty of the Aaron (35) Landscaper story.
Treatments are crucial in the writing process. Beat boards and outlines are great, but something happens when you actually get to sit down and feel the story flow through you. Especially when it’s prose and you’re not so worried about formatting.
I personally like to create a separate document for my treatments so I can separate myself from the other work I’ve done and focus solely on feeling the story. Almost like writing a draft of a book.
Now, this is still in rough draft form, but we are allowed to get as flowery as we want. It’s also absolutely acceptable to be bland as all hell here. This is only for you. This isn’t one of the “treatments” you’d send as promotional material or in a pitch deck or anything. This is a writing aid.
The beauty of going into “book” mode and being extra flowery, is that you can detail specific scenes, action lines, moments… you just never know what’s going to come of it.
For instance, Aaron washing his hands over and over again. Now that’s a bit cliche, but it shows how upset he is by finding the skull. When we go in to write the actual script, or even if we revisit the treatment, we’ll think of something much more interesting to put in there. Or maybe not. It’s the world of possibilities right now.
As you can tell, we still only have the first act written out in treatment form. That’s because I’m struggling to fall in love with this story again. When that lackluster emotion hits, I’ll write for short bursts. Short sessions until something clicks and I can enter flow. It’s best not to force it. You still want to do work, but if you kick the vending machine too hard it falls and crushes you.
It’s a job, it’s not always fun.
So this is my contribution to the Aaron (35) Landscaper saga for now. It’s really in the treatment phase where I start to get attached and can really conceptualize all of its potential. We don’t give up until we know it’s dead.
And I’m finishing this one no matter what. Even if we have to restart the story.
That’s all for now.
-Rocket