…Well, don’t have one in the first place.
No, not a trite answer, despite how it sounds. The trick is to always have ideas. Always let the ideas flow. They’re like butterflies and you have to catch them. And then you have to squeeze them into little boxes to make them look pretty to other people so they’ll go “Hey that’s pretty neat” and not recoil in horror at the half-crumpled dead insect you have in your hand.
Okay, maybe I took that analogy too far.
Let me explain.
An idea for a show or a movie usually comes in two forms – an image or a “what if…” It comes out the blue, WHAM, and suddenly you feel like you have a great idea for a movie/tv series You see it in your head, or you imagine a situation – and your brain quickly extrapolates it out – you think “I want to see that movie!”.
That’s your butterfly. Catch it.
Because that is exactly how you want people to feel when they read about your show in the paper or online. You want them to feel the way you did at that moment. Because at that moment it is a great idea for a movie.
Basically in writing you start with a brilliant, perfect idea then stretch it into 30, 60 or 110 minutes without fucking it up.
But a great movie or TV show needs to do lots more than just be one great scene or image. A great script has to do lots, lots more. But, you need to catch your butterfly and write it down.
Yes. Have a notepad with you. Or something like Evernote. Or iOS Notes. Capture what you thought.
Now you need to fit in the presentation case, or if the dead butterfly with the pin in it analogy is upsetting you, you need to create a lepidopterarium, or butterfly house, and yes I did have to look that up.
I’ll talk more about that in the next post… but in the meantime, here are the key takeaways.
- Carry a notebook with you
- Learn to recognise story ideas
- Learn to catch them in as few words as possible…
Back soon
photo credit: Pencil, books, and notepad via photopin (license)