Go On Your Own Quest: Week 2 — Concept

The 2013 version of The Quest starts Week 2 today. Don’t let this opportunity pass you by because you can Go On Your Own Quest by following the structure of The Quest to dig into screenwriting theory [Core — 8 weeks], figure out your story [Prep — 6 weeks], and write a first draft [Pages — 10 weeks]. It’s a 24-week immersion in the screenwriting process and you can do it here — for free!

Plus you can join The Black Board, the Official Online Writing Community of the Black List and Go Into The Story, another free resource to help keep you inspired and on target at you Go On Your Own Quest from FADE IN to FADE OUT on the first draft of your original screenplay.

This week, we are reflecting on the subject of Concept, mirroring the content the Questers are engaged with in Core II: Concept, working through six lectures I have written building off the 2nd Essential Screenwriting Principle: Concept = Hook.

If you have spent any length of time covering this site, you know how much emphasis I put on generating the best story concepts possible. Simply put, story ideas are the lifeblood of the Hollywood movie system. But only good ones survive.

So many writers elect to write stories based on inferior concepts. Read what two professional screenwriters have to say about that:

“Most aspiring screenwriters simply don’t spend enough time choosing their concept. It’s by far the most common mistake I see in spec scripts. The writer has lost the race right from the gate. Months — sometimes years — are lost trying to elevate a film idea that by its nature probably had no hope of ever becoming a movie.”

– Terry Rossio (Aladdin, The Mask of Zorro, Shrek, Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl)

“Ideas cost NOTHING and require ZERO risk. And yet, oddly, the LEAST amount of time’s usually spent in the idea stage before a small fortune is dumped on a whimsy that’s still half-baked… Ideas cost nothing yet have the potential to yield inexplicably long careers and happy lives.”

– Kevin Smith (Clerks, Mallrats, Chasing Amy, Dogma, Zak and Miri Make a Porno)

If you plan to participate in the Go On Your Own Quest challenge, you have 7 weeks before we move into the Prep part of the process. If you generate just one story concept a day, you will have nearly 50 of them from which to choose.

You may already have a story you want to write in GOYOQ. Fine. But there’s no reason why you can’t spend these next several weeks coming up with more ideas. First off, you should have three scripts under your belt when approaching Hollywood buyers, so you need additional story concepts. Second what if you come up with an idea in the next month or so that trumps the one you already have in mind?

Why not use the structure of this 24-week workshop to Go On Your Own Quest? That was an idea that gathered energy among many members of the GITS community which I described here:

The first eight weeks, we will focus on eight essential screenwriting principles, reflecting the content of what the participants in The Quest will be learning. The content I present publicly won’t be nearly as in-depth as that in The Quest proper, but the subjects and some of the ideas will be the same. What I’m hoping is that each week as we work through these eight subject areas — Plot, Concept, Character, Style, Dialogue, Scene, Theme, Time — the GITS community will engage in a wide-ranging conversation that will deepen and perhaps even change your understanding of screenwriting theory.

During this phase, I will be challenging you to do two things: (1) Generate story concepts with the goal of coming up with a killer idea for you to write as you Go On Your Own Quest. You may think you have a good idea now. Fine. Use these next eight weeks to come up with a better one. (2) Read scripts and watch movies that are similar but different to the story you want to write. This is not only about research, it’s also about priming your creative juices and centering your energy in that specific story area.

Here is the schedule for the first eight weeks of Go On Your Own Quest:

July 15–21: Plot

July 22–28: Concept

July 29-August 4: Character

August 5-August 11: Style

August 12-August 18: Dialogue

August 19-August 25: Scene

August 26-September 1: Theme

September 2-September 8: Time

Then on September 19, you can move into the next phase of Go On Your Own Quest, where you spend six weeks prepping your story.

And on October 21, you can type FADE IN, then over a ten week period write your first draft.

Again all of this is free.

For now, we can kick off the Week 2 discussion with this question:

* If there is one story concept of a movie that you could have created, which one would it be?

I think I’d have to go with Groundhog Day. Genius idea. How about you? Which story concept? And why do you adore it so much?

If you’d like to access the same Core content as the writers participating in The Quest, I will be teaching Core II: Concept starting Monday, September 2. More information on that 1-week online class here.

Why wait? You can have immediate access to the content of all eight Core classes by signing up for The Core Package. This enables you to go through all of the Core lectures (48 total, each written by me), tips, techniques and optional writing exercises on a self-paced basis as well as take any of the 1-week classes as I offer them. Plus The Core Package offers a nearly 50% savings compared to if you took each Core class separately. For more information on this unique offer, go here.

For more information on Go On Your Own Quest, go here.

Onward!

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