Why Most Fiction Writing Tips Are Useless

Most screenwriting tips flop.

“Get your plot points right.”

“Write snappy dialog.”

“Start scenes late and make them short.”

“Write character bios.”

“Use expressive verbs.”

“Write every day.”

On and on.

These specific tips might be correct in that they could make your writing better. But like most writing tips they miss the big picture. The fatal reality. 

These tips are not fundamental to writing a must read, saleable story.

Most all scripts that fail to get bought or rocket careers do not fall short because they don’t use enough expressive verbs, don’t have a perfectly placed inciting incident, or don’t enliven us with the villain’s snappy repartee.

Most scripts fail and get deleted because they have failed concepts.

I repeat:

Most scripts fail and get deleted because they have failed concepts.

Their basic big ideas were not developed, original, or clever enough.

In way too many scripts, snazzing up the verbs is like putting lipstick on a pig. Sorry.

If you want the doors of managers, producers, and execs to be yanked open for you, you must get the big front-end story ideas of your script right. Story development is king! Everything in a story depends on its foundational ideas. This is similar to getting the structural beams of a skyscraper exactly right before you put in the walls and windows. Let alone what pretty wallpaper you will use.

Once your big story ideas are firmly established, focusing on smaller narrative elements will be much more effective in enhancing the impact and appeal of your script.

Great Films Minus Their Big Ideas

Don’t believe me, hey?

Consider the following examples of great film stories without some of their big ideas:

Die Hard. Would this story rivet us as much if John McClane was not having marital problems with his wife and if he weren’t sexist? And if it wasn’t set during Christmas?

Would the suspense in Predator be as gripping if the monster was not alien, invisible, and has higher tech than the humans?

Would we care much if the protagonist of Casablanca wasn’t broken by a failed love affair and if the main story of the film was about the action plot of what to do with the letters of transit?

Would Tootsie be remembered at all without its theme and arc of its lead character learning to be a better man by becoming a woman?

Would we be invested deeply in Zack in An Officer and a Gentleman if this drama were solely about him overcoming the physical hazards of boot camp and didn’t dramatize his self-destructive ideas and choices to be a loner and schemer?

Without these big foundational ideas these classic stories would have been fatally less compelling and audience involving. Most probably they wouldn’t even have been bought and made. And certainly they would not be classics we watch again and again. BIG IDEAS!

Actionable Writing Tip

Writing stories is FIRST all about the big stuff. The ideas, themes, values, plot situation, and conflicts that determine the quality of the concept and the depth of the characters.

How good is your story concept?

I can’t encourage you enough to check objectively if your story has BIG IDEAS and if these are fully developed. I strongly recommend that you to get this vetting performed by real story pro. Aunt Matilda don’t count! And if your big ideas are lacking get a writer, editor, or producer to give you notes of where your ideas are lacking so you can make your concept the killer it needs to be.

After this big concept formation work is done you can then focus on the lesser ways to develop and lift your story. Afterwards!

Please don’t spend potentially hundreds of hours on the lesser writing stuff in your script until you get the big stuff squared away. A story dies and lives by its big ideas.

If you are stumped re the lack of resonance of your stories, I will give the first 3 responders with CONCEPT a free written analysis of their concept.

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