When going to conferences [and being around other humans was a thing for that matter,] I always enjoyed listening to talks from working writers about their time in the trenches, thoughts on the grand water tour, and my favorite, all of the unique breaking-in stories.
No matter what, when the mic was turned to the audience, the first question from our peanut gallery and answer from the stage always sounded something like this:
“Where do your ideas come from?”
“My brain.”
“No, but where do you think of these cool concepts, memorable scenes, and lines?”
“From walks. Lots of walks.”
“But like–”
“Look, I pretty much work my ass off writing a spec for years that everyone loves and no one wants to buy, I take a tour around Hollywood and I do OWAs and call it a career.”
“…”
“…”
“So how much did you sell your last spec for?”
Quick reality check:
Name the movie
It’s tough to explain where good ideas come from.
It’s tough to even get good ideas.
Ideas are tough. Specifically, ideas worth a full story are even tougher.
A working writer once told me that you probably get five good ideas in a lifetime and that’s it. You have to mine and dig and dig and dig and dig and dig and–
I couldn’t disagree more.
In my egotistical opinion, cool ideas are about a dime a dozen, but you might get to execute only five great stories in a lifetime… I feel like saying that deserves another caveat because there are many great novelists who have had far more than five great works: Stephen King, CS Lewis, Charles Dickens, and others for example purposes.
So what’s the point of this post?
Simple. I have come up with great ideas for stories worth spending years on and I want you to gain this power as well.
I WANT YOU TO LEVEL UP AS I HAVE LEVELED UP.
So here’s five tools for your story belt to think about when working on your next story that I apply:
1. Ask yourself “What if…?”
This is one of my biggest writing “secrets” as it were. It’s not even that big of a secret I don’t think, though people always surprise me when they don’t think past the initial cool thing.
For me, I’m always wondering what other people are thinking, which helps develop ideas for characters. Another would be simply wondering what the movie would be like from someone else’s perspective, or who really is behind the dang proverbial curtain (visa vie).
As an example, take one of your favorite stories and ask what the story could be from the POV of a sidekick or an NPC, or the backup singer. Ask a really big question, like what if this all WAS a simulation (Neo) or what if I could go back in time and fix something that happened (Deja Vu, Back to the Future)? A new spin, a hot take, a unique twist… These are all buzzwords an agent or studio or publisher is looking to hear. Take Evan Daugherty, who wrote Snow White and the Huntsman from a school assignment where the writer takes a new twist on a classic fairy tale. It certainly helped get his career going (and it’s never slowed down!)
2. Make a few lists
This one has helped me a time or two. Make a few big lists of things you love, things you hate, things that scare you, themes you love, movies that you treasure, etc. Then, mix and match things together until you find something strange and exciting.
An example of this would be I love magic and spy movies and Ocean’s 11. That would give you something like Now You See Me.
3. Compare and contrast with existing stories
Years ago there was a website called Stuff Masher, where for the purpose of brainstorming fun, you could click movies, tv shows, and video games and mash two titles together. They weren’t all gems like “Halo” meets “Minecraft”, but I definitely got a few good ideas from it like “Men in Black” meets “Warrior.” Please don’t steal that.
The site is gone now, but this is still a fun way to come up with interesting ideas. What about “Snow White” meets “Salt?” or what if you took “Flubber” meets “The Rocketeer?” Give it a go!
4. Do the cells in your story divide?
Does every idea, line, character, scene, etc give birth to something else? When you have an idea that you think is super cool, does that idea come back to you again and again and offer new ideas for the story?
So you’ve got an idea for a book. You have this thought about an epic fantasy that takes place in a cyberpunk type world and you think it’s the coolest thing ever. When you think of the idea, do more ideas come to you like the characters in this world, the shops, the people, a common issue that could drive a plot, etc?
Those ideas that birth more are the best. You’ll know you have a good one when things really start to multiply!
5. Test the strength of your concept.
The last thing to do is really ask if what you’re going for is big enough to be a novel or script.
To do this, pitch the logline to a few friends and say what they see.
I did this at a party a few years ago in LA. The Winter Olympics had just wrapped up and people were stoked about the US male team winning the gold in curling for the first time in…ever?
(checks wikipedia)
Yeah, ever!
So I thought, let’s do a biopic with Seth Rogan, Danny Mcbride, and the Franco brothers. I had nothing to lose, so I pitched to a bunch of different people.
Crickets.
I got a few of these:
“Ohh, yeah okay.”
(blows air through nostrils)
“Yeah they could do that.”
“Oh. Hmm.”
Worthless.
But this is what you want.
I repeat, this is what you want.
Stories are about extremes, and if you don’t get some sort of extreme reaction, it might be time to go back to the drawing board. This movie would be made, probably get a small box office income (or streaming, shudder) and be for sale at the Dollar General the following year for maybe $3.
Most importantly, no one was excited by this idea.
And that is what you want. You want people to go “OH HOLY CRAP IN A PITA” or “DUDE YES” or “YASS QUEEN YASS” when you pitch them your logline. This has happened to me twice. Maybe I’ll get a few more, who knows, but I had to do the work. I had to dig and mine and take my time crafting.
If this post does anything, I hope it helps you develop stronger ideas in the future for your stories.
Best,
~Nic
