Ideas

“Everything that can be invented has been invented.” – Charles H. Duell, Commissioner, U.S. Office of Patents, 1899

In his column in the January/February 2009 issue of Creative Screenwriting, Karl Iglesias offers a list of screenwriting resolutions.  I already follow several of his suggestions – Experiment in a new genre, Eat less junk food and exercise regularly, Never stop learning, Develop new relationships – but one very tangible goal that I’d like to adopt, even though I’m already behind by 3 months, is to develop a new script idea every week of the year.  That’s right, Mr. Iglesias suggests 52 new script ideas in 2009.

That’s a lot.  In my lifetime I’ll be lucky to write a total of 52 screenplays, so why bother trying to drum up a new idea every week?  There’s no way I’ll be able to turn more than four dozen concepts into feature length stories before some of the concepts lose their timeliness.  I think that’s one of the benefits of Mr. Iglesias’ suggestion.

For every great screenplay idea I have (no, really, I’ve had a few) I have many, many sub-par ideas.  In some cases the concept itself is unimaginative, while other times there simply isn’t enough meat there to cook a worthy stew.  So playing the percentages I’m bound to come up with at least a few ideas worthy of the transformation from concept to 100 page masterpiece.

It’s easy (and dangerous) to believe, similarly to Charles H. Duell, that every great movie idea has already been thought of by someone else.  It’s commonly suggested that only seven basic plots exist, so the trick is to choose one of the seven and tell it in a new way.

You never know where the inspiration for that new great story will come from – newspaper, magazine, book, mall, highway, backyard – so it’s best to be prepared and always looking to turn even a simple occurrence into a scene, character, or entire plot.  My problem is I don’t carry a tape recorder or notepad around with me, but I’m considering one or the other.  I’d hate to forget my idea about dinosaurs created genetically and placed on an island amusement park.  I think that idea could have some legs.