Getting ideas for a story
Often aspiring writers will ask the question, “Where do you get your ideas?” As if the most important, difficult part of writing were getting an idea to write about. And many writers, aspiring and otherwise, will say things like, “I have an idea for a story, tell me if you think this is good.” Or “I had an idea for a story, but then someone else stole my idea.” This usually means that someone else produced something similar—not that the idea was literally stolen, but that someone else had a similar enough idea that it seems redundant now. I find this particularly interesting: an idea can be so precious that we think of it as “stolen,” but also so commonplace that two people can have the same idea without ever talking to one another.
Getting a great idea for a story is exciting. It feels precious. And yet you haven’t “gotten” anything—no one comes up with an idea for a story. They just arrive. Sometimes it seems a certain idea’s time has come, and everyone seems to have the same idea at once. In some way, every idea is “stolen,” as all our stories are variations and elaborations on stories we’ve heard or seen told before. A producer once told me, when I asked her what makes a script attractive to her to produce, that you want the idea to be 15% new. The rest should be something we immediately recognize, something familiar.
Two problems I hear from writers, especially aspiring writers, are that either they don’t have any ideas or that they have too many ideas and they don’t know which one to work on. I think these are really the same problem. They don’t know what would be a good idea for a story. First of all, it’s important to say that a good idea for a story is one that grabs you. It’s the idea you keep thinking about. And a good idea for a story probably includes a main character that’s meaningful to you, and you have some idea how it begins and how it ends. Maybe you don’t know how it starts or how it ends but you know a fair amount about the middle. This is great. If you just have an idea for the beginning of the story and you don’t know much about the main character or how it ends, it might not really be a story yet. It might just be an idea, and not all ideas are stories. They can become stories, but stories often start out as an image, or a question, or an idea for an interesting scene. An idea for a scene is not necessarily an idea for a story, but the one can come out of the other.
So it’s important to know the difference between a story and an image, and it’s important to know what grabs you, what makes you want to write. But other than that, we don’t necessarily know in advance what’s a good idea for a story. We often don’t even know after we’re done writing the screenplay. We don’t know even while we’re making a movie. Evidence indicates that while they were making the movie Jaws, their main concern was whether the movie would be acceptable. Not whether it would be the greatest movie of all time. They didn’t want people to think it was ridiculous. They were afraid it would be embarrassing. They were worried they wouldn’t be able even to finish the movie, that they wouldn’t have anything worth showing. They were rewriting the script the whole time they were shooting. One of the actors wrote his own monologue because none of the writers working on the script was doing a good enough job. This was an adaptation of a hit novel—they knew it was a good story, but they still didn’t know whether they would tell it well. Some people consider Jaws one of the greatest films ever made, but they didn’t know that at the time. They just hoped it wouldn’t be a disaster. Telling the story well is easier when you have a good idea, but it’s not guaranteed. Having a good idea for a story is helpful, but it’s just the beginning.
That said, let me offer some guidance in how to find ideas for a story. First, let’s talk about whale watching. If you have ever been whale watching, you know that most of the time you are not watching whales, you are watching the ocean. Then at some point you see a spray as one of the whales comes up to respirate. The boat rushes over, and then you spend the rest of the time waiting to see if the whale comes up again in the same area. Usually it does—sometimes there are a few whales—but there is often a pretty long wait between whale sightings. You’re just looking at the ocean surface. The ocean surface, while ever-changing, is not as exciting as a whale.
As you’re waiting for the whale to resurface, not knowing exactly where it will show up, it is tempting to scour the surface of the water with your eyes, searching for the first sign of a whale. Every wave appears to be the dark shape of a whale surfacing, every bit of sea foam could be the start of a whale spout shooting up. This is exhausting. Your mind becomes fatigued as it searches the ocean for the whale, your attention drifts, and by the time the whale comes back up to the surface, you’re not even looking at the ocean anymore. A much better approach would be to look at the ocean in a relaxed way—after all, looking at the ocean is a famously restful activity—and avoid searching for the whale at all. As it turns out, when a whale appears, it is easy to see. If you are looking in that general direction at all, your eye will naturally be drawn to the sudden spray of white. There’s no need to search the ocean with your eyes. It is more sustainable to simply look out, without directing your attention in any particular way, at the ocean as it is, calm and undisturbed.
What happens when we look for something in the surface of the ocean, is that we stop seeing the ocean itself. We stop seeing what is there, and instead we see an image in our mind of what we’re looking for. We see whales where whales are not, trying to will the whale to appear in one particular spot instead of waiting to discover where the whale actually is. This tension makes it harder for us to wait and harder to see the whale when it actually arrives.
The ocean surface is a chaotic, turbulent visual field, but it’s nothing compared to our own minds. And the ideas for stories that come to us are much more varied and fabulous than even the majestic whales.
Whale watching is a lot easier, it must be said, after you see your first whale. You know what to look for. If you have never written a story (this is unlikely, but I will take your word for it) then the most important thing is to write a story. It doesn’t much matter what the idea is, just grab whatever is at hand. You need to write a story, so that you recognize what an idea for a story looks like. You need to finish the story, even if you aren’t sure how it ends. If you really can’t finish it, then write something else. If you really have trouble finishing stories, take a break. You are starting too soon. If you have trouble starting stories, start before you think you’re ready. But write a story, the next one will be much easier. If all your stories seem terrible to you, try combining them with each other. Maybe when they band together they can convince you to love them. Just write a story.
Once you have a little more experience, you can relax a little. Breathe. That’s what the whales are doing. When we watch whales, we’re watching them breathe. That’s why they come to the surface. They have to. If the whales are there, you will see them. And I promise you, the ideas are there. You’re not going to miss the idea for the story when it comes. It will be unmistakable. It might not be a great idea for a story, or it might be your greatest idea yet. You won’t know in advance, and that’s fine. You will only know if it grabs your attention–and if it does, then it’s time to write.
One of the exercises I have used when trying to generate ideas for a screenplay is to come up with 100 ideas for a screenplay. Write them down, one after another. Each one should be no more than a sentence or two. It can be something simple: Dog turns into a human, falls in love. Sad ending. That’s an idea for a story. The story has a main character with a problem to solve, and I have some idea how it ends. There’s more work to do, certainly, but it’s an idea for a story. Now come up with 99 more. They can be a bit more involved than that example, but the point is to get the ideas down, one after another—not to flesh them out or judge whether they’re any good. For some people this exercise seems impossible, but try it. Maybe you only make it to 20 before you give up. That’s still 20 ideas for a story.
The point of the exercise is to take away the fear and anxiety around getting ideas. There are enough ideas. We aren’t running low. When you finish the exercise, do not go back and search the list of ideas like you are searching the surface of the ocean for a whale. Put the list away. Go to a museum and look at art. Go to a movie. Spend time with people you love. Spend time with people who irritate you. They are the same people. You are surrounded by the stuff stories are made of.
Then wait to see what grabs you. Something will. And start writing.
