How to Generate and Critique Story Ideas (Part 10): Challenge Yourself

Challenge yourself to come up with a killer story concept. Set a timer. Lock yourself in a room with no distractions. Go away for the weekend. Pitch ideas back and forth with a writing friend. Do whatever it takes, but push, push, push yourself, and your creativity.

“The best way to have a good idea is to have lots of ideas.” Those are the words of Dr. Linus Pauling, the only person to ever win two Nobel Prize Awards. This is sage advice, especially for writers. A strong story concept is one key to the commercial viability of a novel, short story, or screenplay.

Over the next two weeks, I will run a ten-part series: How to Generate and Critique Story Ideas.

Today in Part 10: Challenge Yourself.

Today I want to share a story from this 1990 NYT article about the spec script boom of that time:

Brian Helgeland and Manny Coto conceived ”The Ticking Man” in a telephone conversation after Mr. Helgeland joked, ”Let’s not hang up the phone until we come up with an idea we can sell for a million dollars.”

Says Mr. Helgeland: ”We started throwing bad ideas at each other. Then Manny said, ‘What if a nuclear bomb becomes sentient?’ Within minutes we had our robot.”

I remember when the script for Ticking Man went out on the town. They actually sent it out with a package which was ticking. Open it up, there’s the script… and a ticking clock. Would not work in today’s world!

Yet some things never change. Strong story concepts are still essential for a successful spec script. Indeed, given how challenging it is to set up original stories in Hollywood nowadays, it’s imperative to be working with the strongest story concept possible.

I’m not going to say you will come up with a million dollar script idea like that, but the fact is Helgeland and Coto did. Ironically that script, which did sell for a million dollars, never got produced, but Brian Helgeland has gone on to have a long screenwriting and directing career with 22 writing credits and Manny Coto has done well, too, on the TV side of things with series such as “24” and “Dexter.”

So I think it’s safe to say that one instant of creative insight — What if a nuclear bomb became sentient — not only resulted in several hundred thousand dollars being deposited into each of their bank accounts, that spec script jump-started their respective careers.

Of course, you will notice the presence of those two magic words: What if?

Takeaway: Challenge yourself! Challenge yourself to come up with a killer story concept. Set a timer. Lock yourself in a room with no distractions. Go away for the weekend. Pitch ideas back and forth with a writing friend. Do whatever it takes, but push, push, push yourself and your creativity.

Sometimes pressure is a good thing, indeed, the best thing for the creative process. It can force your brain to use different synapses, make you think outside the box. And just like Helgeland & Coto, it can happen in a moment.

Part 1: What if…
Part 2: Halliwell’s Film Guide
Part 3: Images
Part 4: Titles
Part 5: Gender-Bending
Part 6: Genre-Bending
Part 7: Think International
Part 8: Franchise
Part 9: Test Your Concept

Tomorrow, some final thoughts on generating and developing story concepts.