Black List writers on the craft: Story Concepts (Part 3)
“I listen to people talking about life when I’m out. Little seeds can come out of overhearing people. Even if it doesn’t launch an idea for you, it can launch or shape a character.”
Over the years, I have interviewed 50+ Black List screenwriters. Over the next four weeks, I am running a series featuring one topic per week related to the craft of writing.
This week: How do you come up with story concepts?
This next group of answers reflects writers who source story ideas from the real world and in particular their own interaction with it:
F. Scott Frazier: “Mostly my story ideas come from the world around me.”
Justin Rhodes: “I don’t really come up with ideas so much as I come across some bit of information that triggers an idea. It could be a conversation, something I read, or even something that happens to me in my daily life.”
Joshua Golden: “There are just little moments and little things that kind of jump out at you. Having worked with kids for so long, I think it helps also because I’ve gotten little ideas just from conversations I’ve had with them… I want to tell stories that remind me of the things that I loved growing up.”
Carter Blanchard: “I listen to people talking about life when I’m out… like hiking Runyon Canyon when you hear someone bitching about their relationship or something. Little seeds can come out of overhearing people. Even if it doesn’t launch an idea for you, it can launch or shape a character.”
Kelly Marcel: “They just come into my head. Normally triggered by something I see or read or something someone says. A lot of ideas spring up from things that have happened in my life.”
Geoff LaTulippe: “I pull from real life a lot. The Everyday is an limitless well from which to draw inspiration. For me, anyway. So if something funny or scary or interesting happens to me, the first thing I think is, ‘Can I turn that into a script?’ Which I think makes me kind of a concept whore, but I’m okay with that.”
This line of thinking reminds me of an interview I read with legendary blues musician Willie Dixon:
How often do you write songs?
Well, whenever the various facts come to your mind that you think are interesting, it can do somebody some good.
Where do you get those facts?
From life. Life itself is a fact.
From life. Life itself is a fact. That’s what these writers above are suggesting: Whatever ‘facts’ they need to inspire stories exist in the world around them. Overheard conversations. Observed interactions. Little moments. But the key is to be aware of those ‘facts’. They have to register in your consciousness as a possible story idea. Like Geoff LaTulippe says after an idea hits you ask, “Can I turn that into a script?”
Maybe you can. Maybe you can’t. If the latter, no problem. Because for writers, the fact of life is there are stories all around us in the real world.
How about you? Do you look to experiences you have interacting with the world as inspiration for story ideas? Have you written stories based on such experiences? If so, please stop by comments and share with us.
For Part 1 of the series on story concepts, go here.
Part 2, here.
Tomorrow and for the rest of this week, we will learn how other Black List writers I have interviewed generate story concepts and the variety of ways they engage in that practice.
