Make Sure Your Story Works Before You Start Writing
One mistake many people make is they try to turn an event from their own lives into a screenplay. This typically means the writer obsesses over telling their life story rather than developing screenwriting skills. Even worse, they rarely stop to think if their life event would be interesting to anyone in the first place.
Before you start writing, start with your story idea and decide if it’s exciting and interesting enough. One recent flop at the box office is “Here”, an odd movie, based on a graphic novel, that focuses on one part of the world. Specifically, the movie shows the life of two people in a house as they grow old.
Does this sound like an exciting story?
“Here” has such a weak premise that it’s no surprise it’s bombing at the box office. Now compare the description of “Here” with “Jurassic Park”:
- A man clones dinosaurs to create an amusement park, but then the dinosaurs get loose.
Right away this simple description for “Jurassic Park” sets up the unique story (a dinosaur amusement park) and then introduces the conflict (the dinosaurs get out). Although we don’t know the exact details of what will happen when the dinosaurs get out, it certainly promises interesting conflict.
Try creating a simple description of any good story by following this formula. First, describe a unique situation. Second, introduce a problem that can’t help but create conflict. This is how this works in the following movies:
- “Top Gun: Maverick” – A former Top Gun pilot is assigned to train Top Gun pilots for a dangerous mission, but then has to choose whether to send his best friend’s son on the mission where he might not return, or hold him back and risk angering him even more.
- “Ready Or Not” – A bride, on her wedding night, is asked to maintain a family tradition by playing a game, but the game turns out to be hide and seek where she must hide from her in-laws for the entire night while they try to kill her.
- “Little Miss Sunshine” – A little girl dreams of competing in a beauty pageant, but she must overcome her fears (instilled in her by her father) that if she doesn’t win, she’ll be a loser.
- “Abigail” – A team of mercenaries band together to kidnap a little girl and hold her for ransom from her rich father, but the little girl turns out to be a vampire.
Notice that these simple descriptions summarize the unique setting of the story and the conflict. By simply describing your story idea using this formula, you can see if your story would be interesting to others.
In most cases, writers who focus maniacally on turning a major life event into a screenplay fail to notice whether their story will appeal to anyone or not. As the writer and the person who experienced that event, that event of course feels momentous, but to an outsider, most people’s life stories may have a unique situation but often lack any form of conflict whatsoever. (Think of the lack of conflict in “Here”.)
Conflict forms the heart of any story and if your story lacks conflict, you literally don’t have a story.
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