Nicholas at 2009-04-22 17:56:00:

I try to come up with at least one concept a week. Occasionally I hit a goldmine in my mind and come up with several a day, over the course of several days. In the past week I have come up with about 7 concepts, all just very randomly.

As an idea generator, I highly recommend the website Digg.com. A news aggregate, the articles posted there have on numerous occasions been interesting and unique enough to act as stepping stones for concepts. I have a bookmarks folder in Firefox full of ideas found mostly from that side.

terraling at 2009-04-23 01:05:00:

I'll go against the grain here and disagree with your emphasis on generating ideas. Probably a lot of the readers seeking advice from this site are unpublished/unsold. These writers will never ever ever sell anything based on concept or pitch or even a lengthy treatment. Their (our) only hope is to sell a completed work, or something based upon a completed work. While you have to be open to new ideas and stories, that's a far lower priority than writing, writing, writing.

There will never be enough time to write up all of the ideas you have, so make an evaluation of what you've got, choose a story and stick with it through to the end. Make notes about new story ideas in the meantime, of course, but don't let them distract you from the number one priority, which is to write, write, write.

If you've already made it, have representation etc then, yes, the business side of screenwriting becomes much more important.

Some people will be better than others at being able to develop ideas in parallel, but, again, for unsold writers your main goal has to be to develop a body of work.

Like what you have to say about pitching...

Luzid at 2009-04-23 15:00:00:

As Scott said, ALWAYS WORK ON GENERATING NEW IDEAS.

A writer who cannot conceptualize new ideas all the time is one that will not succeed -- creatively or financially. Coming up with new ideas is part and parcel of great writing. You can't get to the latter without the former. Ignore that, and you end up with derivative hackwork.

And Scott's right about another thing -- never throw away a random idea, no matter how iffy it seems. I know from experience that no pro would have requested my last script if I had tossed the premise before I ramped it up. And because I worked to make it shine, I've now had a very successful pro (who sold a pitch to Spielberg in the room) respond very well to that idea, enough so to allow me to drop his name when I query with it.

You never know where the next great idea, twist, or character will come from. Work the process, and it'll work for you.