Go On Your Own Quest — Week 2: Concept
“The Quest” moves into Week 2! From over 1500 entrants, I selected these eight writers to participate in a 24-week screenwriting workshop under my guidance — for free.
The first eight weeks, the Questers and I will delve into screenwriting theory, a different subject area and principle each week, a part of the curriculum I call Core.
This week is Core II: Concept. The Questers will be reading six lectures I wrote expanding on 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?
[By the way, I will be teaching Core II: Concept through Screenwriting Master Class beginning Monday, August 6. More information on that and an opportunity for Quest entrants to take the class for free next week.]
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 and I described the concept here:
The first eight weeks, we will focus on eight essential screenwriting principles, mirroring 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 16–22: Plot
July 23–29: Concept
July 30-August 5: Character
August 6-August 12: Style
August 13-August 19: Dialogue
August 20-August 26: Scene
August 27-September 2: Theme
September 3-September 9: Time
Then on September 10, you can move into the next phase of Go On Your Own Quest, where you spend six weeks prepping your story.
And on October 22, you can type FADE IN, then over a ten week period write your first draft.
We are putting together a whole separate message board for those of you who wish to Go On Your Own Quest, including [I hope] private forums so you can upload your story notes and script pages for peer review [more on that soon].
For now, we can kick off the discussion here 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?
I strongly encourage you to Go On Your Own Quest. First off, you can’t sell a script unless you write it. Second, you can’t get better as a writer unless you write. Third, if you don’t write that script now, when are you going to write it?
This week, you can do some serious reflection about the nature and importance of a screenplay’s concept. If members of the GITS community really engage in a wide-ranging conversation about the subject, there’s no telling what insight each individual can gain, perhaps even a critical key to unlocking your understanding of the subject.
So consider this your very own Call To Adventure. Will you heed the call?
For background on “Go Into The Story: The Quest,” go here and here.
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