Good one, Scott. One thing I'd add: all those stories also had great characters at the heart of them. I find my first what-if idea is half the idea - next I need who the what-if is happening to. Then I'm on fire! Do you agree? Charles Harris http://www.screen-lab.co.uk

Charles, absolutely. Great characters, great plotting, great writing, all of that. Not to diminish the importance of those AT ALL! However in my humble opinion, you can have ALL that, and if the story you're working on has an average to mediocre story concept, at best what you are looking at is a decent writing sample, not a project that has much possibility for translating into a sale. Perhaps let's look at it this way: Give our characters, our plotting, our writing a story concept STRONG ENOUGH to be WORTHY of our time and effort. Give the process of DEVELOPING story concepts the respect it DESERVES. That's really my point: A writer can spend all the time in the world studying theory, watching movies, reading scripts, writing pages, honing their craft, but if they short-shrift the story concept process, they do themselves and their potential to succeed in Hollywood a disservice. Finally let me say this: Anybody who knows me and follows this blog ought to know how much passion I have for characters. In my view EVERYTHING flows from them, that's why I call what I teach 'character based screenwriting.' A strong story concept will by DEFINITION have enormous potential in terms of its characters, even super commercial high concepts. A great logline just leaps out at a reader or buyer in part because they can immediately see the potential for the key characters, especially the Protagonist (or Protagonists), and even potential set pieces and plot dynamics. So the very foundation of generating, developing and assessing story concepts is bound up with sourcing a story with strong characters and a strong plot. Again my point: Developing story concepts deserve respect equivalent to any other aspect of the writing craft.

Anybody here believe they can identify a strong concept, let alone think of one? If so, let's hear your secret. The only thing I can do is think of ideas that make me want to go through the trouble of writing them. I never know if they are strong concepts, even if they happen to be one.

It's so ironic to see Terry Rossio chiming in on "story concepts" especially since his credits read like a corporate clearing house of in-house, pre-branded entertainment properties handed down by execs. (And sequels!) What does he know about story concepts again?

[…] Why Story Concept Is So Crucial To A Spec Screenplay’s Value […]

cranky, I teach an entire 1-week class in the Core curriculum on concept. You can read the entire first lecture for free as serialized: Part 1 Part 2 Part 3 Part 4 If you Google search the blog, I'm sure you can find posts I've done on how to generate story ideas, even assess them. Bottom line, you're aiming for a concept which you can pitch succinctly and when you do, people just nod their head and say, "That's a movie." I know. It's hard. No, it's SUPER hard. But that's the nature of the movie business.

[…] 5. A spec script will not sell unless it has a strong story concept […]