How to Generate and Critique Story Ideas (10 Part Series)

Scott Myers
Go Into The Story
Published in
2 min readJun 17, 2019

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How important are story ideas, the central concept upon which a script is based? Consider these quotes from professional screenwriters:

“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)

“The idea is still king. Spend 90% of your time working on the idea.”

— Tony Gilroy (The Bourne Identity, Michael Clayton)

There’s no right way to come up with story ideas, just like there’s no right way to write. However for the last two weeks, I have featured a series of posts with tips on how to generate and assess story ideas. Here are those links:

Part 1: What if…
Part 2: Halliwell’s Film Guide
Part 3: Images
Part 4: Titles
Part 5: Gender-Bending
Part 6: Genre-Bending
Part 7: Think International
Part 8: Franchise
Part 9: Test Your Concept
Part 10: Challenge Yourself

My advice? Bookmark this page. Go through those posts. And get yourself into the habit of looking for and generating a story idea each day. That’s right. Every single day. Because as Nobel Prize-winning scientist Linus Pauling said: “The best way to have a good idea is to have lots of ideas.”

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