It sucks thinking of them. The worst aspect of screenwriting, lol. I enjoy writing scenes and thinking of ways to advance a storyline, but the original idea to get a story going is so difficult.
Does anyone else agree? Or am I the only one that has difficulty finding (and often liking and settling) an idea to write?
I've just backed out of the script I'm writing because the story, although somewhat there, was just eh and just didn't work or flow with the thing. It was flawed from the start. I kind of just wrote some scenes based off characters and didn't think about what I wanted to happen. Than randomly stuck a story in that didn't work and it was all too juxtapose. Plus I wasn't compelled to write the story anyway...
So now it's back to the drawing board and I've gotten rid of my protagonist, lol. Not liking my protagonist was definitely a major problem, lol. Anyway... what do you guys do to get ideas? What if you already have three characters and there personalities set up?
Right now I have:
Guy 1 - good, stupid, outgoing, spontaneous, emotional
Guy 2 - perceptive, smart, quiet, sarcastic, clever, witty
Girl - dominant, smart, sexy, flirtatious, quick, clever
Guy 1 and 2 are friends (don't have to be I guess... ) and girl could or could not be relative/friend/etc from the get go, could meet her along the way. In my original story I had her be a theif/con and guy 1 and 2 have a bit more depth, but I'm trying to start from scratch. I did have another character, who was my main guy, but he was boring and I can stick some of his traits into Guy 2 if I needed.
What do you think I should do? How should I go about getting ideas of where the hell to go with this story?
I could have the 2 friends meet the girl when going across country to move to LA because Guy 1 wants to be an actor. Guy 2 is going along for the ride and falls for a girl he sees. It'd be a typical rom-com. Maybe work in that she is a theif/con to add to the uniqueness? Who knows.
I could have the girl be one of their sisters and be more of a sister to both of them. When she decides she's going to move away from them they try to get her to stay, but she won't. They try a lot fo different ways and try kidnapping her, but it goes wrong.
Maybe Guy 2 is already with that girl and they run into Guy 1 and he messes with their life (somewhat of a You Me Dupree thing but doesn't have to live with 'em).
I mean, I can think of some things, but I hate them all and eh... I feel like I'm so mentally blocked. Then I go ask my friends and family and they make it worse. They either can't think of anything or just give me ideas for scenes and stuff, which isn't what I want. I just want ideas for an actual story, you know? A goal for a certain protagonist. From there I can think of scenes and struggles and ways to build tension until the protag does or doesn't get what he wants.
My problem is the damn story, that one sentence that would be covered in the logline. The spark to start it all... I dunno what to do!
Oh and don't even get me started with throughline. I don't know if I'm suppose to go thinking of a theme/throughline first and then fashion a story around that or find a theme/throughline to work into a story idea.
I need help.
And I'm incredibly sorry for my very lengthy post.
Thanks for all those who read. And even bigger thanks to all those who actually reply to my craziness!
Phew, I'm done now. Rant over.
Does anyone else agree? Or am I the only one that has difficulty finding (and often liking and settling) an idea to write?
I've just backed out of the script I'm writing because the story, although somewhat there, was just eh and just didn't work or flow with the thing. It was flawed from the start. I kind of just wrote some scenes based off characters and didn't think about what I wanted to happen. Than randomly stuck a story in that didn't work and it was all too juxtapose. Plus I wasn't compelled to write the story anyway...
So now it's back to the drawing board and I've gotten rid of my protagonist, lol. Not liking my protagonist was definitely a major problem, lol. Anyway... what do you guys do to get ideas? What if you already have three characters and there personalities set up?
Right now I have:
Guy 1 - good, stupid, outgoing, spontaneous, emotional
Guy 2 - perceptive, smart, quiet, sarcastic, clever, witty
Girl - dominant, smart, sexy, flirtatious, quick, clever
Guy 1 and 2 are friends (don't have to be I guess... ) and girl could or could not be relative/friend/etc from the get go, could meet her along the way. In my original story I had her be a theif/con and guy 1 and 2 have a bit more depth, but I'm trying to start from scratch. I did have another character, who was my main guy, but he was boring and I can stick some of his traits into Guy 2 if I needed.
What do you think I should do? How should I go about getting ideas of where the hell to go with this story?
I could have the 2 friends meet the girl when going across country to move to LA because Guy 1 wants to be an actor. Guy 2 is going along for the ride and falls for a girl he sees. It'd be a typical rom-com. Maybe work in that she is a theif/con to add to the uniqueness? Who knows.
I could have the girl be one of their sisters and be more of a sister to both of them. When she decides she's going to move away from them they try to get her to stay, but she won't. They try a lot fo different ways and try kidnapping her, but it goes wrong.
Maybe Guy 2 is already with that girl and they run into Guy 1 and he messes with their life (somewhat of a You Me Dupree thing but doesn't have to live with 'em).
I mean, I can think of some things, but I hate them all and eh... I feel like I'm so mentally blocked. Then I go ask my friends and family and they make it worse. They either can't think of anything or just give me ideas for scenes and stuff, which isn't what I want. I just want ideas for an actual story, you know? A goal for a certain protagonist. From there I can think of scenes and struggles and ways to build tension until the protag does or doesn't get what he wants.
My problem is the damn story, that one sentence that would be covered in the logline. The spark to start it all... I dunno what to do!
Oh and don't even get me started with throughline. I don't know if I'm suppose to go thinking of a theme/throughline first and then fashion a story around that or find a theme/throughline to work into a story idea.
I need help.
And I'm incredibly sorry for my very lengthy post.
Thanks for all those who read. And even bigger thanks to all those who actually reply to my craziness!
Phew, I'm done now. Rant over.
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