Story concept suggestion

In one of the Go On Your Own Story posts this week, I asked readers how they go about generating story concepts. There were some interesting observations. Here is my response:

An interesting array of approaches. It goes to show that just as there is no right way to write, there is no one right way to generate story concepts.

However I do STRONGLY recommend this: Be proactive.

Try this: For one month, commit yourself to spending a half-hour each day working up story concepts. Whether it’s just you sitting with a pad of paper and pen, noodling with ideas, flipping through the yellow pages to look at a variety of jobs to see if something pokes out at you, going through loglines in Halliwell’s film guide, reading obituaries, browsing through unusual online news sources, whatever it is, each day for a month, commit the time to proactively conjure up story ideas.

The premise: To get your brain used to doing that. I find that if I’ve got at least one track of my mind on the ‘lookout’ for story ideas, I’m much more in tune with that process and more apt to sense them.

Also I believe the hard work you do in conscious effort can pay off in those moments where you’re showering or out of run or standing in the grocery line, when — BOOM! The idea suddenly hits you.

To cap off this week’s discussion, let me remind you of this fact: The story concept is of singular importance for any spec script you choose to write. Any of you who have queried managers know this. Why? Because you send them loglines for consideration. If they declined to read your script, that’s because your story concept didn’t grab them. If it did grab them, chances are that’s the primary reason why they agreed to read your script.

It goes way beyond that. The story concept is the shorthand by which anyone involved in that script’s development refers to it. It is the touchstone for how the story gets developed. It often is at the center of how a studio markets a movie.

All arising from the single moment of inspiration you have when you come up with a story idea.

So why not try my suggestion? Each day for one month, be proactive and try to generate story ideas.

Remember: The key to coming up with a great story idea is to generate a lot of story ideas.