A Story Idea Each Day for a Month — Day 30

This is the fourth year in a row I’ve run this series in April.

Today’s story: 30 Abandoned Places That Look Truly Beautiful:

The Maunsell Sea Forts, England

Sunken yacht, Antarctica

Russian military rocket factory

El Hotel del Salto, Colombia

Have you heard of contained thrillers? Pick one of these cool-ass locations and you have the basis of a contained thriller.

I pictured just four abandoned places. There are 26 more. Each of them could contain a story idea.

How about you? What would you do with any of these abandoned locations?

And… that’s it. An entire month of story ideas, one per day.

As a reminder why I do this every year.

[clears throat]

BECAUSE STORY CONCEPTS ARE FREAKING IMPORTANT, OKAY!!!

I am not exaggerating when I suggest that the value of a story concept to a spec script can translate into 50% or more of its value to a Hollywood buyer.

Therefore once again into the breach with Nobel prize winning scientist Linus Pauling: “The best way to have a good idea is to have lots of ideas.”

Okay, now that I’ve spent a month driving home this point, we have to follow up on the next area of focus: How to shape a story concept into a strong logline.

Well, nice timing. We have The Quest Initiative coming up starting May 20. And in the run-up to that submission period, I will be running a series of posts about story concepts, loglines, and related subjects. Look for that starting soon.

That said my question to you: Did you learn anything from the Story Idea Each Day for a Month series? Has it changed the way you approach thinking of story ideas? Most importantly, have you started to think more actively in terms of generating story ideas?

Thanks to everyone who participated in this month-long series with your brainstorming! May your creative efforts help you generate a great story concept!

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