10 questions for a story concept

Randall_Oelerich

Randall_Oelerich

Veteran
After reading books and books and books, especially recently having read Rob Tobin's "How to Write High Structure High Concept Movies", I made a list of 10 questions to answer before I move forward on a story (most of the questions are from Tobin's book). Just sharing them here; add/delete/use/lose 'em. It is a tall order to answer all ten of these questions, but then I figure it is one hell of a gauntlet to run to sell a screenplay or produce one's own screenplay so that it succeeds, so I do not want to waste 1-2 years writing and rewriting a feature screenplay unless it is high concept high structure.

FOR A HIGH CONCEPT + HIGH STRUCTURE STORY:

Story = A flawed hero struggling to overcome that flaw in order to achieve a worthwhile (high stakes, high concept) goal against significant opposition. Answer these ten questions before going any further on a story, to see if it is worthy and ready to sequence and outline:

1. What is the THEME / CENTRAL IDEA / MORAL PREMISE of the story? (universal to all people anywhere anytime; e.g. hate destroys but love builds, dishonesty leads to downfall but honesty leads to success, etc)

2. What is the protagonist's FLAW (related to visible goal) hindering hero in some way? (e.g. meekness when courage will be demanded [horror and slay the dragon stories]; loser mentality when confidence is needed [Rocky])

3. What is the Protagonist's worthy VISIBLE GOAL? (it must be worthy, have serious consequences if the protagonist fails to achieve the goal, otherwise the goal is not interesting)

4. What inciting LIFE CHANGING EVENT forces protagonist to pursue the visible goal and deal with her character flaw (which is related to the obstacles to the goal)? This makes the visible goal clear to the reader/viewer.

5. Who is the ALLY who will help protagonist confront protagonist's opponent and character flaw? (the ally is often the character who spends the most time with the protagonist, even moreso than the opponent; for example Danny Glover in Lethal Weapon, the Donkey in Shrek; Red in Shawshank Redemption)

6. What high STAKES are at risk if protagonist does not win her goal? (If there is not much to lose if the protagonist does not achieve her goal, I will not care to read the screenplay or watch the movie)

7. How does giving up her character flaw help the protagonist win her visible goal? (e.g. in horror stories it is usually the hero giving up fear for courage to slay the dragon)

8. What special characterization or situation adds intrinsic conflict or comedy to the story? (For example, A Peter Pan who has forgotten who he is until his children are kidnapped by Captain Hook: Hook. A mathematical genius at MIT who works as a janitor: Good Will Hunting. A man finds the woman of his dreams, but she is a mermaid: Splash.)

9. LOGLINE (Premise)? (include as many of these as possible: protagonist, life changing event [propels Act One into Act Two], ally, battle, opponent)

10. Am I passionate enough about this story to invest two years of sequencing, outlining, writing, revising? If the answer is no, review steps 1 through 9 then return to this question.

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I've come to almost completely disbelieve these checklists. Real writers will adopt (or ignore) these elements instinctively because real writers have a talent to understand story instinctively. I think these books have ultimately done a disservice to filmmaking, convincing people they can "learn" to write. You can't learn it. It's not like operating a camera or NLE. If you are unable to write something right now that shows some brilliance, you never will be able to. If you can write something that shows some brilliance, then you just have to keep writing a lot, and skip the reading of these books entirely.
 
If that were true, you would have just belittled the hopes and dreams of 99.9% of the people on these forums. People are not born great writers, they are products of their genetics, their environment, and most importantly the way they think and feel. Anyone can follow these ambiguous guidelines and see them demonstrated time and time again in media. What makes a great writer is his or her ability to see things in a new light or from a new angle; which can only be acquired through life experience. What you need is a unique idea and a creative mind. In order for either of these to develop, you must spend time writing and reading. If you sit down and write something, and it isn't immediately "brilliant", don't give up.

/rant

Anyway, thanks randall!
 
momentfilms said:
...Anyway, thanks randall!
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Hey like I said for that checklist, use it or lose it, :beer: some might find it useful, others not. I am 99% perspiration 1% inspiration so I need checklists! I just worked through the checklist for my horror feature I am working on and it is helping me loads and giving me confidence that my story will be high concept and highly structured. I kicked out a ton of new written material for my story today from those 10 questions that is blowing my mind (CSI brain splatter alert, LOL). I think some might be natural writers that have that list in their head and internally unconsciously do not need it, but I need that list staring me in the face, going to tape it to my wall. I also ordered a huge cork bulletin board yesterday, going to lay out my 3x5 sequence and scene cards on it, work that angle for several months before I then write out a lengthy treatment.

As I look at hit features, I would almost wager a week's pay that 90% of those blockbusters incorporate almost all of the 10 checklist items. At least I figure by trying to utilizing all 10 my story will stand a better chance at getting read, and picked up. I can dream!
~randall
 
It's interesting all the various terminology and approaches to writing...for myself, I am very pleased to see that on top you ask the most important question. Without the theme there is nothing to hold it together...there are many writers that have great dialogue and structure but lack anything common to all humanity that we can all relate to that holds the entire piece together. I've read countless scripts that sound clever and witty and have all the beats and acts down to a tee but leave me with nothing much to think about...they read well but are forgettable on screen.

Further, the Theme will help you determine the characters you need because the characters should fit into the theme. What is their point of view on this idea and how do they fit into it. You can then develop balanced characters and that will lead you to plot...Plot will come because CHARACTER is PLOT. Ask any great writer...Gary Ross (Seabiscuit, Dave,Pleasantville) is a good one to ask. He will confirm that character is plot.

The story is the most important element of any film...it is the foundation...make it good...everything else should serve the story and the writer (if he is good).

My 2 cents,
Stan The Man
 
Hemingway said all first drafts are shi*. (his words not mine). M. Night Shyamalan did I think 20+ rewrites of Lady in the Water. I think even for the best writers there must a great deal of perspiration with rewriting and revising, viz that it does not always come so easy and natural.
 
momentfilms said:
If that were true, you would have just belittled the hopes and dreams of 99.9% of the people on these forums.
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Whew! I'm glad I'm in the .01%! I just write for kicks, and I like to spin a good yarn.But, writing is like anything and everything else- the more you do it, the more you research how to do it, you will get better. Unless you are a colorblind painter... In which case, lots of luck with that :)
 
I think if you are writing a screenplay to sell, and you are a complete unknown, then you are better off looking into this kind of thing. Even if you have your own ideas, you should still know about the formula.

For example if someone tried to sell the Lost in Translation screenplay (which I really like) as an unknown I think it would go to the bottom of the pile, they would read 10 pages max and decide they didn't want it. Not because it's a bad script, but to them, they're looking for lots of money. You are not a person, you are another 110 pages that they have to read before they can sleep.

I would save LIT for my own film to shoot, for example, and if I was trying to sell a script to Hollywood I would probably go with a more formulaic approach. Having said that, you still have to be more than 1% inspiration I believe, because, your script can be the best example of formula, but the most boring script ever read. On the topic of horror, I find most mainstream hollywood horror films to be boring as hell. I haven't seen a single Hollywood horror film in a long time that I actually found scary or interesting. The best ones are foreign, and don't always play by the rules.

Big Hollywood studios produce these safe, junky horror movies with cookie cutter characters, make money, get terrible reviews, then make more. Then the art house film comes out made for $1 million bucks and gets the critics raving. "This is how movies should be made". But it just simply can't be the case. Those art house movies are so much more interesting, but the sad truth is the general popcorn suckin' audience just loves cheap entertainment. I know lots of people who loved Friday the 13th (2009) (non film people), they thought it was scary and clever. I thought it was one of the worst films I've seen in while. I didn't like Transformers. But it plays by the rules and makes lots of money.

But again, to sell it to Hollywood, as a first time writer, you probably want to play by the rules - AND chuck in some personality. Start the script with "You mother poo pooer!" and let it roll from there.

As for the talent issue - writing is like music. A good composer or songwriter is naturally talented, and you can tell when they are. You still have to learn the theory - or at least look into it somewhat, in some way, but it's much easier for people naturally gifted because it just makes sense to them and once they know the rules they're good to go.

Someone with less natural talent who is writing a song, will spend months reading about structure of a good song, when to use hooks, different types of melody, blah blah blah.

Now good songs come out of both ways - some from people who just "write" and others who spend months putting it together like a jigsaw puzzle. And that's fine, either way can work. But it's much harder the jigsaw only way to get a unique style.

One thing a lot of people seem to forget is to be good at something, no matter how much natural talent you have, you HAVE to practice. I'm surprised as hell at the amount of filmmakers who go to film school without having made a film before. Never even made a short. They go to film school and think they'll learn to be a Coppola. No. You make a dozen short films, learn the technical stuff as you go along, and you develop as a filmmaker. You don't sit there and read 15 books,make one short film and then say "thats it! I can make a feature now". 1 in every million people might make something awesome on their first go like this but even the greats practiced their craft for years before they got any serious projects happening.

Same with writing. They say you have to write 12 screenplays before you sell one. Are you kidding me? 12? It should be more like 50. If you're ultra talented naturally, then maybe 12, sure. If you're a real passionate screenwriter, you should just sit there, and write like hell every day. Not because you have to but because you WANT TO. You should read every script you can get your hands on. Reading a screenwriting book and mastering a formula, then knocking out a few screenplays will NOT make you a good writer. It will make you a machine. Even if you are a natural writer and can bake something up with crispy edges and a cherry on top, you still gotta practice! And that's what people seem to forget somehow.
 
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Randall_Oelerich said:
M. Night Shyamalan did I think 20+ rewrites of Lady in the Water.
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He should have done 21.

Anyhow, I don't think I'm belittling folks on the forums to say that most can't write and never will be able to. They can do other things very well, I'm sure. And the sooner they realize it, the better their films will be. Very few great directors write their own scripts, after all.

I totally agree you shouldn't give up though. I fyou have some promise as a writer, it will still require a lot of persistence. I guess the problem is, who is going to tell you whether you have promise. Maybe no one can. You might be terrible, and yet still no one is ever going to be able to definitively say you will never write anything worth reading.
 
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ChrisHurn said:
... On the topic of horror, I find most mainstream hollywood horror films to be boring as hell. I haven't seen a single Hollywood horror film in a long time that I actually found scary or interesting. ...
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I wouldn't mind having a slice of the residuals for the horror flick The Ring [see boxoffice] :) But yeah, most horror films are junk to me, except for a dozen titles or so. And yeah the popcorn jumbo drink guzzling teens often love the simple slasher horror cheap violence lots of sex horror films even if the plots are thinner than gumbo. =) I rented this horror film that got 0 out of 5 stars on blockbuster, watching it was worse than getting ***** slapped by a stinky dead carp-- yet a 17 year old neighbor watched and says "It wasn't all that bad, I kind of liked it." Enough said. :/
~randall
 
Capt Quirk said:
Nope, not me. Oh... you were talking about all the others. Sorry :)
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Well as for me personally, I am aspiring to be a freelance screenwriter. But I am also dabbling in filmmaking-- shorts starting out, just to have fun working with actors and editing, music, etc. Perhaps make an indie feature someday if I can come up with a great KISS screenplay. But I would be perfectly happy doing just the screenwriting if that ever materializes-- sip cold drinks on a warm coastline somewhere someday; that works for me!
 
Capt Quirk said:
I've got a great Kiss idea for you! Gene Simmons impregnates the entire West Coast, and it is up to Peter Criss and Ace Frehley to stop him before he can reach the East Coast!
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Great idea! I was also thinking of a creature horror-- Godzilla versus one of those big transformer bots from Transformers, and purposefully cast Japanese actors and somehow do a Reanimator thing and bring back Raymond Burr to play a role? And of course have Morgan Freeman narrate or star in it since he is in every other movie on the DVD rental rack. =)
 
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stan harrington said:
It's interesting all the various terminology and approaches to writing...for myself, I am very pleased to see that on top you ask the most important question. Without the theme there is nothing to hold it together.....
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Totally. Without theme, I could not maintain the motivation to stick with a screenplay for all it demands. My first screenplay, a supernatural thriller, needs work to bring it up to high concept, in spite of it being a page turner (one of the fastest reads ever according to my mentor who guided me through writing it), and yet I love the theme in it, and even when proofreading a 3rd or 4th draft of it I get all choked up reading many of the scenes because of the theme, and hell I wrote it and revised it and revised and they are just words on a page but damn if they don't get to me emotionally! I started outlining a creature horror story a few weeks ago, and it has grown into something so much more because of theme-- now incorporating issues of hatred and love, racism and tolerance/intolerance of differences--those are what will carry me through the writing of it far more than the supernatural creature. Theme rocks!
 
ChrisHurn said:
As for the talent issue - writing is like music. A good composer or songwriter is naturally talented, and you can tell when they are. You still have to learn the theory - or at least look into it somewhat, in some way, but it's much easier for people naturally gifted because it just makes sense to them and once they know the rules they're good to go.

Someone with less natural talent who is writing a song, will spend months reading about structure of a good song, when to use hooks, different types of melody, blah blah blah.

Now good songs come out of both ways - some from people who just "write" and others who spend months putting it together like a jigsaw puzzle. And that's fine, either way can work. But it's much harder the jigsaw only way to get a unique style.
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Who is more admirable? The writer who doesn't have natural talent but plugs away day after day, night after night and becomes successful, or the artist who gets by on instinct and natural talent alone and gets paid millions of dollars for one job and are lauded with expensive gift bags when they to show up to Sundance.

Now here is where the rub is. I get the impression from the media outlets that cover the arts in general, that they love the early success stories of young artists who make it big in their early 20's, yet those that work their bums off for 15+ years are not really of much interest. I don't know what it is, maybe it is just not sexy to have to think of all the hard work that is necessary to be successful?

As for tools and techniques that help me in my screenwriting, I'm all for trying anything just to see how it either helps or hinders me. If it doesn't work I'll throw it out. One thing I've found is that the more I learn about the technical aspect of the craft of screenwriting, the easier it is for me to figure out the beats of a story and get going on the things that really matter, like character and structure and just having a good time writing instead of worrying if any of it will make sense in the end. Before I had some instinctual things that helped me, but not enough to get me going on a project as fast and efficiently as I can now. I'm no expert, but I think things like this list of 10 questions will be helpful to me.

I've actually seen this list before and am glad to have been reminded of it. I copied and pasted it into Word and printed out a copy to put in my writing bag so that I'll have it with me when I go to the library. Looks like I'll have to check out Rob Tobin's book too.
 
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You can learn to write better. Or, at the very least, you can learn to adapt novels well (which is probably just as good).
 
Eximious said:
You can learn to write better. Or, at the very least, you can learn to adapt novels well (which is probably just as good).
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Depending on the novel, I think it is usually much easier to craft your own story from the get go. Of course Hollywood doesn't want specs like they used to, but adaptations and remakes so the skill of adapting novels, comic books, and re-imagining old works would be useful to any writer looking to work in the industry and actually get paid for their writing.

I'm most interested in creating new stuff that hasn't been seen before. I didn't get into this to adapt someone else's stories, at least not as the end goal.
 
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