Vixmom, I live and die by the outline. I sometimes spend more time doing research and outlining than I do actually writing the script. I have to know where I'm going and how I'm getting there before I start. I also find a road map just allows me more possibilities and freedom for those detours of inspiration. I always know how to get on the main road after exploring a little creative spur-of-the-moment, unplanned excursion.
I usually have anywhere from a 15-30 page detailed scene-for-scene outline before I start writing. Sometimes with huge snatches of dialogue already formulated.
I am constantly re-reading and re-writing as I go. Sometimes I just print up a hard working copy that I can mark and edited. Once I'm finished and written "the end", I'll print up another working copy and spend several days to a week or so, refining, honing, polishing, editing, and correcting. By the time I turn in my first draft to the powers that be, it's really probably a third or fourth draft.
Then there's studio notes...and if it goes into production, director notes and actor notes. It becomes an unending process.
