I don't know how often I sit down with the intention of creating an idea (or at least how often I did it before I started coming to this site - now it's part of a daily routine!) but it is a little more than just waiting for ideas to strike. I think it's mostly just an openness to the possibility that I'll encounter something in any number of situations throughout the day. An image, a feeling, a line of potential dialog, a news story, a dream, something - none are yet ideas unless I'm on the lookout for it. So I always have something to write with and write on (thankfully it's just my phone now, but for years going back into high school it was a little note pad and pen always in my back pocket) so that if a tiny glimpse of inspiration (or a full concept, as has happened before) hits me, I'm on the ball enough to write it down. Then later, I write it in a master doc that has a ton of ideas at various levels of development. When I try to crack down on what to write next, I start there and then try to build up pieces of strong ideas into strong concepts.

Fifteen years ago I produced a little book called, "The Thinking Person's Guide to Advertising." It was blue covered, about the size of a Reader's Digest book and had only blank pages and became nicknamed, the 'Think Book'. They were produced for distribution to advertising agency creative directors marketing me as a copywriter. I kept a lot of them, and now I have many filled with jottings and ideas about story, for stories ... pretty much a collection of observations and 'arrivals'. I keep several of them on the go at all times. I use the 'Think Book' for exploring story ideas and keeping things in that occur to me as I travel or sit to cogitate. Whenever I see something that interests me at a personal level, I make a note of it, for example a story on how badly we treat whistleblowers, or the facts about homeless people to come from a report, or an exploration of how the economics of people smuggling works ... I generate story ideas on an ad hoc but regular basis. Often sitting in bed thinking upwards from a single point. I'm always looking for the 'thing' that makes it a story idea, that is the moment near the end when it becomes a story. I often trail back through the 'Think Books' looking for the unusual moment that could become a story. I also reference Polti's Thiry-six Dramatic Situations occasionally, looking for ways to apply a dramatic situation and working up a story-starter from that, there are certain triggers in that work that can point to current day situations that helps turn the situation into potential drama.

Scott, Shouldn't Concept come before Plot? Greg

In my opinion it does, Greg. But there are times when you make a decision (or at least have an inkling) of the kind of story you want to pursue ... political thriller for example, or crime story ... where to some extent the structure is presenting itself almost synchronously with the concept. I find myself nutting out an idea and then asking, "What would this be like as a fantasy? How would it be different as a Science Fiction story?" ... That kind of thing. And because story is always about character, I'm always placing my character at the centre of the discussion, regardless of concept, plot. So there's a sense, at least to me, that these activities are not so much linearal activities as parallel, like multi-tracking.

I have yet to really sit back and purposely think of a story concept, per se, however, since my inspiration tends to come from life experiences (whether my own or not), I find that once I focus on a certain aspect of a situation that's occurred, I will consciously try to elaborate on it further (usually when I'm driving, which I'm sure isn't good haha). Recently, I've also found that I tend to think of new concepts when I'm trying to generate scenes in my head for existing concepts. So basically I've ended up with 5 different concepts in the process of trying to develop just one! I just fear that in this wandering state of mind I find myself in that I'll garble too many ideas together instead of capably separating them.

churnage, if you're talking about the actual process of crafting a script, sure. Start with concept. But The Quest begins with 8 weeks of Core, immersing the Questers in a character-based approach to screenwriting, and I like to start with Plot which is where every single conversation about screenwriting seems to begin. Fine. Let's go there, turn their thinking around to approach plot [and everything else] through character, then move into the other subjects such as concept. Since GOYOQ is mirroring that 8 week approach, we started with Plot, then moved into Concept. When we get to Prep, assuming a writer has a story concept in mind, we begin with the Protagonist, then build the story out from there.

Let me just reiterate this point: An aspiring writer should be trying every way possible to surface great story concepts. Perhaps that writer can generate them through fleeting inspiration. Excellent. More power to them. However for the masses, myself included, we have to come up with a lot of ideas to squeeze to life a few gems. So those writers who are intentional about generating and developing story concepts have a leg up on those who do not.

Definitely understandable. Thanks for emphasizing that point, Scott! I also imagine it's very easy for someone who is attached to a concept they've developed to become very caught up in the idea of what it could be, whether it is actually a high concept or not is a different story I'm sure, and therefore, it becomes more difficult to steer away from and generate other concepts. From what you're saying, I think it would be safe to assume that immersing yourself in anything (books, etc.) for inspiration should never be deemed a bad thing.

Curious that you identify Plot as the point where "every single conversation about screen writing seems to begin." It could be perhaps because I live in a screen-writing desert, but I'd have thought most conversations centre on the character, and what happens to them rather than the other way around, which would be what happens, and who was involved. Not that it's an important point, just a curiosity.

Kevin, while I don't read any of the screenwriting 'gurus' books [apart from Syd Fields which I read back in 1986], I hear all the time from people on the blog or in my classes what they have learned from that world out there. And that content is almost always focused on screenplay 'structure' which apparently means to them plot. Character seems to get short shrift. So perhaps be thankful you're in the 'desert'. I side with you: Start with character, and plot should emerge from there.

Something Scott has talked about a lot in previous posts is the idea of keeping your eyes and ears tuned to the news. This caught my eye today--it has far reaching consequences, I think.

Almost 80 years ago an English man named Byrne sued a man named Deane. Deane owned a golf club, and someone had put a nasty post up about Byrne on the club noticeboard. Byrne wanted it taken down. Deane failed to do so. Despite not having actually written the post, Deane was found liable in defamation as a publisher.

This is almost a scene setter for Midsomer Murders. But apparently this precedent is still being evoked in modern day cases. Here's the original article for those intersted >> Defamation by a Thousand Likes

I've also been trying to apply this method for idea-generating. Just out of curiousity, are there specific websites you frequent more than others?

Monique, here are some websites that constantly tickle my brain, educate and entertain me, and supply an endless stream of story ideas. They all offer RRS feeds & email newsletter options: Dan Lewis's Now I Know Maria Popova's BrainPickings Greg Ross's Futility Closet I'd love to know what websites other people frequent for ideas, too. While the above sites are good... I find that as long as I am feeding/stimulating my brain, I spontaneously generate story concepts. I can be listening to (/eavesdropping on) other people, reading the news, reading tech and science articles, reading fiction, watching TV or movies...the more input my brain receives, the more output it generates. Reviewing other people's work gets my brain going, too. For the writer, a well-fed brain is a happy & productive brain. PS If you don't want your inbox to get swamped with newsletters, most email clients will let you set up "rules" that automatically file newsletters in a specified folder, where you can retrieve and read them at your leisure.

> By the way, what would you think if a Hollywood screenwriter who had sold 4 spec scripts in 2 years decided to go on his on Quest? I say, go F. Scott Frazier, go! The best writers I know, writing in any form or format, are constantly looking for ways to improve, and many of them look for ways to be more systematic and intentional in their writing. I wouldn't be surprised if we got more pros and people with sales to their credit along for this ride--at least I hope so. > How do you generate story concepts? Are you intentional about it? Or do you just wait for an idea to hit you? Security expert Bruce Schneier talks about having a "security mindset"--paying attention to security systems and always mentally exploring and probing systems for security flaws. I had the good luck to be raised in a family that cultivated a "story mindset"--always asking "what if" and looking for the story in the events and information around us. As a result, I'm rarely intentional about generating story premises, because I feel like there's a process running constantly in the background of my brain that generates premises faster than I could possibly write them. But, on occasion, a situation comes up where I want to brainstorm premises, especially to meet specific parameters (an opportunity to submit on a project, for example). When I want to be intentional about coming up with story ideas, I run through a brainstorming process that I've never formalized (I arguably should) that goes something like this: - what is interesting/crunchy about any specifications or limitations that I'm working with (budget, style, setting, anything) - where can I get ideas from established stories (the Bible, Shakespeare, classical mythology, fairytales, public domain literature on Project Gutenberg, zeitgeisty trends and concerns) - what happens if I change any of the following elements: * main characters: gender, race, sexual orientation, religion, occupation, class, status * the setting: time period, geographic location; move to a western, on board a ship, in space; move between urban and rural, etc. * the POV: what if the villain is the hero (e.g., Nottingham); or a minor character becomes the protagonist (e.g., Rosencrantz & Guildenstern are dead) * if I put MYSELF or someone I know well in real life in the story--how would the choices and outcomes change; what kind of story would I wind up with * the road not taken--what if a pivotal early decision was different: how would that story change * the psychology of the story: the power & relationship dynamics, the motivations, the social pressures * the starting point of the story: what if I told the story of what happened beforehand that led to this point, or what happened afterward * what if I changed the "pattern" of the story, and told it as a fish out of water story, or a tragedy, or a rags to riches story, etc. * what if I changed the genre - what if I combined elements I like from more than one story or idea and mashed them together - how *hasn't* this (kind of story) been told before? where *hasn't* this story gone before? I also find that trying to brainstorm BAD ideas is like telling my brain not to think of a white rabbit: my cantankerous brain is determined to disobey me, and the harder I try to come up with bad ideas, the more good ideas I spit out. (It's fun: try it some time when you're feeling blocked.) Another fun brainstorming tool: take one or more premises and run it through the TVTropes.org Playing with a trope page. Most of the ideas that generates are on the absurd side (which is probably more of a reflection on me than on the process), but the breadth of ideas it generates is astonishing, and it often triggers other, incidental ideas (my cantankerous brain insisting on playing outside the line again). If anyone plays with any of these tools (especially the TV Tropes page), I'd love to hear how they work for you. PS About writing intentionally: I used to be the house writer for a theater company years ago. We'd take commissions (for conventions, corporate parties, etc.) and often I had to turn around a 3-act play, rehearse it and act in it, all inside a week; one summer we were trying to set up a deal where we'd perform a live serial comedy show, essentially a live sitcom, where I'd be writing a new 2-hour, 3-act show every week (while holding down a day job). (Thank god it fell through after about 3 weeks--it was fantastic but was clearly going to kill me.) Writing to deadline meant I had to brainstorm and write intentionally, and with much more confidence--there was no time or energy to second guess myself. In order to churn out the scripts at that rate, I found I was focused on a very simple premise (which often was dictated in part by the nature of a commission; e.g., a murder mystery for a fabric store employees' Christmas party), followed in order by: strong characters with strong goals, and then the relationships between the characters. Once the relationship dynamics were in place, the plays almost wrote themselves. Thank heavens.

> For the writer, a well-fed brain is a happy & productive brain. Ag! That came out sounding so pompous! I meant to write: "For THIS writer"... Sorry.

* How do you generate story concepts? Are you intentional about it? Or do you just wait for an idea to hit you? I would have to say, both. Ideas come and go all the time. I do my best to write down the ideas that rise to the top. I may be driving, at a zoo, reading an article, or even watering the lawn when BAM, a decent idea may pop into my warped mind. I whip out the BlackBerry and email myself the idea so I don't forget it. From this point it becomes much more intentional. At a later date I will look through the ideas and realize some are horrible for film, while others have a lot more potential. From there I analyze and tweak and push the ideas until the best few rise to the top. Once I have a basic story premise built around one of the ideas, I start telling it to friends and ask which of the stories they would like to see as a movie.

Thanks for those. Here is one I like: http://publicdomainreview.org/ I will say it has not yet given me a lead on a story concept I ended up working on, but it is good brain food.