Techniques for generating story ideas?

Randall_Oelerich

Randall_Oelerich

Veteran
What methods do you use, if any, for brainstorming story ideas for screenplays? Especially for coming up with high concept story ideas. Sometimes I will just get an idea out of the blue, usually while waking in the morning. I also use a gadget widget on my google page for news stories, perhaps helpful. Any methods the rest of you use?
 
Anything that I experience in real life will spark an idea alot of the time, even if it's not related to what I just experienced.

Also, watching films sparks ideas for me.
 
Here's How to Write Any Story

Here's How to Write Any Story

Randall_Oelerich said:
What methods do you use, if any, for brainstorming story ideas for screenplays? Especially for coming up with high concept story ideas. Sometimes I will just get an idea out of the blue, usually while waking in the morning. I also use a gadget widget on my google page for news stories, perhaps helpful. Any methods the rest of you use?
Click to expand...

1. Create a character who wants something.

2. Make that character go get that something

3. Make the person who owns something the character wants want the same thing or the opposite (James Bond wants to stop a plot, Dr. No wants to make it happen; Alex wants to rob and rape, but the state doesn't want him to, and he doesn't want to stay in prison. Frodo has a ring he has to get rid of and the baddest MF is after him, etc).

For high concept (a meaningless phrase) make your main character a cop/soldier (male or female) on a mission (Mission Impossible) or in disgrace (the Bourne films).

How to write: Butt in chair, recording medium ready (Mac, PC, typewriter, pencil and paper, whatever) and get your character from point A (he or she knows they want or need something) to point Z (standing amid the smoldering wreckage, the character faces the villian and impales them with a broken Nikon lens that triggers a minor air-fuel bomb explosion)

Still hung-up? Writing is an intimidating process. Well, take a moment and write down all the things you have to do, and I mean that you have to do to go shopping or get a haircut. Now make shopping Dr. Evil and you're good to go.

FYI - I teach Creative Writing and am a published writer. I hope this helps.
 
Definitely relate to that--I got so much more writing done at coffee shop I write at most days before they got wi-fi internet; once you are trying to write and have internet, the temptation is always a click away to ignore the writing task and go do some fun surfing and email reads, dvxuser posts, etc.

mburgh said:
... take a moment and write down all the things you have to do, and I mean that you have to do to go shopping or get a haircut. Now make shopping Dr. Evil and you're good to go. ...
Click to expand...
 
Randall_Oelerich said:
Definitely relate to that--I got so much more writing done at coffee shop I write at most days before they got wi-fi internet; once you are trying to write and have internet, the temptation is always a click away to ignore the writing task and go do some fun surfing and email reads, dvxuser posts, etc.
Click to expand...
There's a story right there. Good luck with your work. I feel your pain.
 
Yes, ideas for a story can come from anywhere: social news items, personal life experiences, observations and relationships, historical personalities and current celebrities, images in books, magazines or album covers, single lines in song lyrics, historical events, dreams or fantasies, classical legends or modern myths and conspiracies, or just by researching favourite subjects and unearthing fresh material. To save being overwhelmed by the openess of the sheer amount of choice though, I try to explore myself first. What sort of stories excite me? What do I love or hate about these genres, subjects or themes? In other words, what do I get passionate about -- if I write about those things, maybe the writing will be passionate as well? And after I make a list of such inspirational loves, obsessions and outrages, I then try to find some unique angle to work them (a USP). Again, I need to find out how I like to handle a subject, as well as being confident that the subject itself is right for me. Often I start with a broad subject and keep refining it until it can eventually be written as a mission statement (a recognisable premise). From this, and all the notes I might make along the way, I hope I can communicate the passion that I felt originally from the subject and the excitement I felt from the new way of seeing it. A few times I have had a passionate telephone conversation with a friend, and then put the handset down to return to the drudgery of my current writing project -- clearly, I am writing about the wrong things! I should be writing something along the lines of that passionate telephone conversation: it was effortless. I always know when I'm writing the wrong thing: it's such hard work and I can't believe I'm still only on page twenty-nine. When I'm in love with what I'm writing, it's frictionless.
 
Last edited:
Not sure if a high concept story is in that, but yeah it does show how many things can spark an idea. With wifi almost everywhere now, it is easy to see how a writer could get really frustrated with obtaining a goal of using a laptop to write without the temptation of the omnipresent annoying MS Windows pop-up showing internet available, etc., to distract the writer, etc.

mburgh said:
There's a story right there. Good luck with your work. I feel your pain.
Click to expand...
 
I try to start with an exciting (to me) issue or an event, then I try to build a character to work on or with that issue somehow. Then I try to build a story around it.

In terms of the movie, I start at the end and work backwards. For instance, in my P/C family movie, the first thing I thought of was the final end. Then I said "OK, that's interesting, now how did we get here?" then I start working backwards and constructing scenes to get to my ending. If it were a house, I'd be starting with the roof first, then the trusses, then the walls, then the foundation and then I dig the basement.

Most people probably look at that and say "Damn, thats backwards." Pretty much. It probably would not work for alot of other people, but it helps me put together a story. I have honestly never had a problem with ideas. My problem is always getting them onto paper so that they read well before I lose my train of thought.

I find that writing about an issue personally impoprtant to me helps me keep the train of thought and the drive to finish the script. I can take my passion for the issue and channel it through my fingers and turn that into the drive to keep going if and when I start to run out of steam on something or reach a point of frustration.
 
I like how dara marks explains how to generate a story from theme.

You find a topic that you want to say something about.
For example Narcotics.
Then find out your perspective on drugs. like. Drugs are bad.
Now you can develop the characters and the plot to tell your thematic point. This gives meaning behind you script and helps your focus when writing :)

Works for me!
 
Once I have a general idea of what I want to write about I love to do research and surround my self with as much info about that topic as possible. I like to create picture montages that relate to the theme. I try to get in to the right mindset. So I'm experiencing the world I'm writing about.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top