What's your mental checklist?

Question

When you get an idea for a script, how do you figure out whether to write it or not?
Do you think about whether it's high concept enough, whether it's in a genre you've written successfully, whether it will take too much research, if it makes a point you believe in, presents a unique idea, is too similar too something else that's already been done, , , ?
Lois

Usenet · Accepted Answer

[nq:1]When you get an idea for a script, how do you figure out whether to write it or not? Do ... idea, is too similar too something else that's already been done, , , ?[/nq]
All of the above.

"You don't write because you want to say something, you write because you've got something to say."
F. Scott Fitzgerald

Usenet · Answer

[nq:1]When you get an idea for a script, how do you figure out whether to write it or not? Do ... idea, is too similar too something else that's already been done, , , ?[/nq]
If it keeps coming back and pestering me, and gets better each time, I figure maybe it's worth actually writing down.
cd

The difference between immorality and immortality is "T". I like Earl Grey.

Usenet · Answer

[nq:1]When you get an idea for a script, how do you figure out whether to write it or not?[/nq]
By how much I like the characters and whether I want to let them loose or not. I've got about 8 scripts I want to write, but laziness and procrastination have a big say in all this. And some of those characters are getting a bit past their prime in the meantime. (Anyone need a happinin' dude, scrawny, red hair done in an afro, who wears a "Keep on Truckin'" teeshirt, corduroy bell-bottoms and digs rapping?)
[nq:1]Do you think about whether it's high concept enough, whether it's in a genre you've written successfully, whether it will ... idea, is too similar too something else that's already been done, , , ?[/nq]
Nah. I just go by my two story requirements: 1) Do we give a **** about the character(s)? and 2) Does something interesting happen that makes us want to turn the page? If I understand "high concept" it just means an idea that immediately grabs your interest and I've read that these are very rare. I think my ideas are unique but, since I've had no success, I just write in the genre I enjoy which I describe as "weird." Research? Huh? As for "making a point" no. I think that is a great way to take a story and turn it into boring propaganda. The "point" (if any) should come naturally at least that's the way I look at it.

(Man, when I get into rambling mode I can't get out.)

RonB
"There's a story there...somewhere"

Usenet · Answer

[nq:1]When you get an idea for a script, how do you figure out whether to write it or not?[/nq]
Up until now, it's been: "Do I want to see this movie? Is somebody else likely to make it if I don't?"
However, as I grow tired of banging my head against the wall to get stuff read, I'm switching more towards, "Will this get the right people excited? Can I inject something I find interesting into it?"

-Ron

Usenet · Answer

[nq:1]When you get an idea for a script, how do you figure out whether to write it or not?[/nq]
Hi Lois -
Like a lot of people, I get a lot of ideas for stories. The first thing I do is to quickly try to get rid of them so I don't have to think about writing them.
If I absolutely can't stop thinking about the "what if's" of the thing and how I could successfully shape it into something that would at once be interesting/exciting to write andwould have a good chance (in my limited estimation) of (1) getting the good read (2) getting purchased (3) actually getting produced, only then am I probably already on the case.

It's got to scream... possibilities.
It has to make me want stop working on what I'm currently working on at the time.
It has to already have a title that will keep on inspiring me through the many drafts and rewrites. (I usually get a cool title and that starts the whole creative process for me.)
I need to think carefully about what it really is trying to be. Does it have the "weight" of a full length feature, with enough subplotting to flesh out all aspects of the story being told? Or is it a MOW? (I've never written a MOW, but I've gotten ideas/concepts that just scream "MOW" all over them. I file 'em all.)
It has to be an idea that makes me think that I might well learn something new either about myself as a person or as a writer. (If you're writing just for the apos;s, you're probably being underpaid.)

And here's one that I've always kind of done, but never really consciously considered until fairly recently.
The movie story, although it will certainly have its moments, scenes, and perhaps even sequences, that are "negatively jarring" to the reader, (and theater audience by extension) will ultimately have a far greater "positive" affect than a "negative" effect.

It will be designed to carefully move the reader through the story to a conclusion that may, in fact, be unexpected, but also satisfying. (In a broad sense, "enobling of mankind and our possibilities" within the context of the story being told.)
And... like my posts. They sometimes take on a life of their own and go on forever... and ever... and ever...
Interesting topic.
Hope this helps, at least in some respect!
Doug
Just a virtual guy... in a virtual world

Usenet · Answer

[nq:1]When you get an idea for a script, how do you figure out whether to write it or not? Do ... idea, is too similar too something else that's already been done, , , ?[/nq]
One question: does it want to be written?
Sure, I ask other questions, but they're all after-the-fact, not the real motivation. I've never written a story that didn't specifically ask me to, and I've never refused one that did.

Stephen Mack
"Nobody's smart enough to be wrong all the time." -Ken Wilber

Usenet · Answer

[nq:1]One question: does it want to be written? Sure, I ask other questions, but they're all after-the-fact, not the real motivation. I've never written a story that didn't specifically ask me to, and I've never refused one that did.[/nq]
I once turned down a story that wanted to be written very badly.

She said she was a tad over 120.
I didn't know if that was in pounds or years but, in any case, I sent her packing. No time for a heavyweight drama.
I suspected she may even have had purple prose. You know, the kind that wraps itself around you and won't let go? Forest for the trees sort of thing.
Yeah. It was kind of a shame to let her go like that. But there'll be other stories to tell. Good stories. The kind of stories that seem to somehow tell themselves... with a little help from yours truly.
"Dogs" Darrow
Just a virtual guy... in a virtual world

Usenet · Answer

[nq:1]When you get an idea for a script, how do you figure out whether to write it or not? Do ... is too similar too something else that's already been done, , , ? Lois[/nq]
Usually ideas float around in my head for a while before I even notice they could be stories you know, fascinated by the way X happens or how Y always Zs when she clearly should P. ahem. sorry. anyway, I don't think I have a checklist, certainly not at first...

once the character/plot thing has iterated a few times, I look at the kind of story it is, play, t.v., movie, book. Stories about the effects of something on a person over time are often book ideas, stories set in one or two narrowly constructed times and places (2pm at the doctors, an hour later at home) I tend to think of as short story or play, esp. if they have very few characters. Movie ideas are usually those that I'd want to see myself, something where the locale is part of the plot, where there are one or two strong themes instead of a tangle of related ideas working themselves out, where what's at stake can be shown externally, and the external can well represent the internal conflict.

I don't compare my ideas to other stories usually at all until after first draft, and then only as an exercise to try and explain what kind of movie it is to folks who ask. I don't usually come up with ideas that are just like ideas already out there, except my ill-fated forensic anthropologist movie that I couldn't get the spine fixed for before Crossing Jordan came out. My story was a movie story, but with all the forensics on t.v., it wasn't worth trying to fix for a few years at least.

Hm, now I'm worried I should have a checklist!
mysti

Usenet · Answer

[nq:1]When you get an idea for a script, how do you figure out whether to write it or not? Do ... idea, is too similar too something else that's already been done, , , ?[/nq]
Don't really have a checklist; it's more a case of thinking about something in a particular way, or from a particular angle, and then (usually suddenly) seeing it from a different angle. Private detective, murdered girl, femme fatale, blah, blah, blah... wait a minute, what if the femme fatale IS the murdered girl?

THAT'S when I write.

Life Continues, Despite
Evidence to the Contrary
Steven

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I'm writing my first screenplay now. So maybe my opinion isn't worth very much. But I ran across an event in history that fascinated me beyond all other events and I read a lot of history. The Heroes are more dramatic than any fictional hero .. Villains so venial, callus and cynical they make **** Cheney look like a Saint. Spectacle, tragedy, triumph and pathos enough to drown a soap opera. I told friends about it and no one had ever heard of it but all found it as fascinating as I did. People couldn't stop asking me questions about it.
I was going to write a novel. But in my mind the story was dramatically visual. So I decided to write a screen play.
I have a "day job" so I don't care too much if no one thinks its commercial. I think it is but I don't make movies. But it is a *** good story and I want to share it.

~~
"Now is the time the tries men's souls." Tom Paine

Marc

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