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Where do I find my story?
The seeds of a story can come from any source.
Once you start looking for ideas, you will find them everywhere.
It's an excellent habit to carry a note-book around with you and
jot them down before they slip away. You'll soon accumulate quite
a list and your next problem becomes: selecting the one which has
the most potential.
What makes a good story?
Here are a few initial questions you should ask
yourself:
Does the story idea
excite me?
An important consideration; not only because of the time you will
invest in writing it; but also because, if it doesn't excite you,
the chances are good that it wont excite an audience either.
What is it about this
idea that interests me personally?
Remember, there are no accidents. If a story does excite you, there
is probably some connection with your personal life. Investigate
this because it is the path to uncovering deeper meaning and other
levels.
Is this a real story?
Dont make the mistake of confusing an abstraction or situation,
however interesting, with a story. "Men working on an oil rig",
for example, is a setting. "Wife beating" is a topic; "grief", an
emotion. A story takes you on a journey through time.
Is this story filmic?
An obvious question maybe, but it's surprising the number of film-scripts
that are written which should really have been novels or plays.
There are no hard and fast rules, of course, but a story with a
strong external line of action, interesting conflicts, and an original
premise, is the definitely the one most likely to get made. |
