I have a handful of concepts that are in my mind, and before I add them to my pipeline to write, I test the concepts with friends, family, and strangers to hear their reactions. I would say that I actively test my concepts and much of the result of this test comes from listening to their raw reaction after hearing the concept. If it's a WOW again and again, I know I'm on to something, if the group sounds ho hum - I know it's probably a ho hum concept. So, I actively test and, from there, I slate them into my own pipeline based on my enthusiasm for the concept.

I'm lucky to have an opinionated family. All ages, all interests, all film fans. All with a complete faith in my ability to survive, "Well, that one sucks, Sis!" :) I use them - and everyone they know - to test concepts on. If I get through that gauntlet, it's probably worth another look. That's when I start noodling with genre and audience and how to make it produce-able. Then I run it past some industry-buds - who incidentally, also have no problem with "It sucks, what else ya got?" If they don't beat me with my index card, I'll noodle it some more. If they go, "Yeah, let me see that when you're done," I'll likely do something with it. The responses I hate to hear are "Yeah, that'd be really good! But no one will ever make it." Ow. Sometimes I do them anyway, just for me. There's a few other ways I test the water too... Logline.it, my writers' group, the "put it in a box" test - whether, after a month, I'm still excited about it. I think though, the ones I've enjoyed success with have been the ones that gave me that little jolt right from the beginning. A little zip. Yup, it might have legs.

I ask myself if the idea is worth the ten years it will take to get it made. If I see myself still excited a decade from now, that's usually a good sign.

Thinking about concept, I dug through Evernote to review all the notes and ideas I had. Meh, nothing really jumped out at me, and if it's not jumping at me, how can I expect it to jump at anyone else? But on a drive into town, there was a vague memory of a story I needed to enter into Evernote, but what was it? Ah, yes, that's what it was. Got home and started scribbling notes, then all of a sudden it took over. It grew, I asked the story more questions to explain itself, more questions came up, more answers, and then it was there. Everything. The characters, the story, the concept, the "what" and the fable beneath all the dressings. I got physically sick, dizzy, nauseated, and had to move away from the maniacal stack of notes and notebooks and index cards. It had been hiding from me because it was dangerous and it hurt. But now the core concept is there and making out with the logline, and I know it will take a lot more work for me to understand everything about it, but... Yeah, I think I'll go with this one, and for nobody but me. It took a lot of digging to find the story I needed to tell myself and why it was so important, but now I have it. Yes! I think this one will have me AWOL for a long time to come :-)

I mostly rely on my own obsession. If, after putting the story down a couple of times, it still percolates up into my dreams or I find myself thinking about it during the day *and the heart of the idea is consistent* - I figure it has enough spark for me to make it into something. If it doesn't ever keep me awake or interrupt my work, it's not going to be strong enough to pull me through the process. If it's inconsistent, that is, the idea keeps shifting, but it's strong - then I consider it worth playing with to see if it finds a stronger heart.

For me, it's about which characters vie for my attention and won't stop until they get it; which pester me and wave their hands while jumping about like petulant children, begging for my "yes, what is it?"; which jostle me from sound sleep just to say "HI" and to make sure I've not forgotten about them; and those characters who whisper, scream or giggle in my ear at seemingly the most inopportune moments .. just because they can. When characters want their stories told so badly, I tend to at least hear them out. If they build a valid case for me agreeing to hang out in their worlds for weeks/months on end, then I just may succumb to their whimsy. Sure, I may wonder whether something is "high concept" enough .. but that's not the end all for me. Maybe it should be, but if I'm being honest, for me it's more about which concept's characters most invade my life, yearning for their crack at a Hero's Journey, and for a chance for their names to hang on my writing wall, for their muck and their glory to drain through my fingertips while they tap and shove me from behind. Oddly, if you ask me about nearly any other facet or scenario in life, I will blatantly tell you that I loathe the concept of "the squeaky wheel getting the grease". But .. somehow in my little writing world, that loathsome feeling gets flipped on its ear. Go figure!

Oops, didn't finish my thought..... As for criteria, I try to stay simple and be as honest as possible by asking certain questions. Oh, and I never think about budget. Ever. Someday I might, but right now, nope. My questions are all about "Can I SEE this movie?" and "Would I pay $$ to go see it in a theatre?" I don't need over the top huge spectacles of stories, but neither do I want to be teeny tiny or boring. God forbid "boring"!! I ask myself if I can entertain someone with this story. Can I inspire? Can I elicit emotion? Can I have someone relate to the story? Can I build a world people want to roam around in for a few hours? Can I create characters who people wouldn't mind having over for dinner, or being stuck in an elevator with or .. in some cases, run over with their cars! Will someone else give a shit about this story and these characters? Like .. honestly? Because if not, it's too great an investment of my time and my own emotions to make it feel worth it. And I wanna share what I write, sooooo I better be thinking about all this. Okay, now I think I'm done! :-)

"Can I SEE this movie?" Perhaps the single biggest question you can ask when assessing a story concept. Screenwriter John Swetnam did a live sitdown with one of my college classes and he said the exact same thing: When you sit with a story concept, ask yourself is this a movie. Can you actually and honestly see it opening on 3,000 screens this weekend. Can you see the billboard. Can you see the trailer. Is this a movie. I hammered home this point before the recent Quest Initiative entry period. Really be brutally honest with your assessment. And I was amazed at how many loglines I received that were clearly NOT a movie. Many were, most failed that test, at least by my standards. So I guess one thing to do with this piece of advice -- Is this a movie -- is to raise your level of expectation. How to do that? Well, before you sit down to consider the question, flip through your newspaper's movie section and take a look at all the movie advertisements. Now try to imagine YOUR movie there. Does it fit? If so, how? Why? Why would a studio exec be motivated to buy YOUR story? Why would a moviegoer be motivated to buy a ticket to YOUR movie? It's a great question, but each of us has to be honest and realistic in using it to assess our story concepts.