Short Story Idea

[vitaluminosa]

[deleted by user]

[brianluce]

just adapt the tell tale heart by ae poe. you can't go wrong with that. if the film sucks, you'll know the problem wasn't with the story.

[finn_mccool]

As for raw, human emotion...think of something emotional that happened to *you*, and re-create it. Or an emotional scene you witnessed, but weren't a part of. That might be the ticket.

[MsManhattan]

I was thinking of writing a story that revolves and exploits raw human emotions... I want to explore the human nature, to translate its beauty and ugliness into a movie.

It seems to me that it's possible you may be experencing writers block because you are looking for your subject from a pretty lofty place. Essentially, as you know, all good stories should revolve around emotion in some way... Try to tackle it from a more specific point of view, eg, "I want to look at what happens when a relationship goes bad." Then you start to look at all the ways a relationship can go bad -- a whole range of possibilities to explore that will give you a foundation. And, then, instead of focusing on, "First this happens, then that happens, then that happens...", look instead at who are the characters in the relationship? Where do they live? How do they live? How old are they? What's their background? Following from understanding who your characters are combined with your basic foundation, with luck, the story will start to come out on its own. Thats one approach...

I haven't tried this with script-writing, but with short story writing, one technique that works when you're stuck is to write a series of letters in the voice of your protagonist, or maybe an exchange of letters between the protagonist and the antagonist. It's very freeing, because you're under no pressure with structure/form -- the letters themselves are not going to make it into the final product, so you feel less of a need to make them "perfect." But they give you an entry point into the character's head, and you might discover things they feel or things they've done that you didn't know about before... And then that material becomes the basis for your story -- or, in this case, your script.

And finally, even though you may have worked things out very soundly from an emotional vantage point, in the execution remember to show, not tell -- the hallmark of all good writing, but especially good script writing.

Keep us posted on how it goes!

[Zak Forsman]

that's good advice, ms. manhattan. develop your characters and they will lead you to a story. for the past three years i've been cultivating a premise about the impact an urban environment has on relationships, and further, to show Los Angeles as it really is, not how its typically depicted in films and tv. well, three years later, that story has evolved into a woman seeking out the only father figure she had growing up and their ensuing relationship.

[Zordon Film]

the $64,0000 question.
Once you really understand filmmaking, it really takes you years before coming up w/ a good story that works in cinema. Last project I worked on wraped in 2003. The short made it into two festivals. Since then I've had a tough time coming up w/ a story. I'm finally understanding the process of story telling......Hope that makes sense.

good luck

[brianluce]

zordon is dead on. screenplay writing is the second hardest thing in the world. the first hardest thing is coming up with a good idea. most people never come up with any. hollywood will pay real money for an idea--you don't even need a script. there are a lot of really really really talented screenwriters that never sell anything and have miserable, horrible lives of frustration and pain because they can never come up with a good idea that anyone would want to buy. these people usually end up killing themselves. there are other people that can't write their way out of a paper bag that make it big because for whatever reason--they come up with ideas that are good and are able to exploit/execute their idea--one way or another. these people usually marry supermodels and get laid a lot.