How Ideas are the Key to Writing and Fixing Great Stories

If you need support to find and develop the most compelling ideas in your story, reply RSR.

Ideas are the deepest foundation of every story. If you work on the big ideas level of your story you will create a more compelling, professional, and marketable script.

I want to show you a deeper way to think about your stories. I call my story system the Resonant Screenplay Roadmap (RSR). Its logline is:

Stories are ideas in conflict and action; by finding and dramatizing the primary ideas, a creator can best develop a compelling, resonant script.

A screenwriter creating a story is fundamentally conceiving ideas, building the clash of ideas, and concretizing ideas. (Even style expresses ideas!) That is what pro writers understand, explicitly or implicitly, and that is the level they work on.

Following are the five main elements of my Resonant Screenplay Roadmap of how to create stories. The first stage in this progressive, logical method of creating a screen story is arguably the most important. Concept.

A Captivating Concept

The core of every story, of every script, is its central conflict or premise. Or what is often called in Hollywood, the idea. (I use idea, concept, and premise interchangeably as the same thing.) The premise of a script is essentially its big main ideas related to character motivation, conflict, hook, and stakes. These basic ideas must fire the imagination and be original in some way. If these foundational ideas of your screenplay concept are cliched, reflect small values, or are one-note, your script will be flat and unenticing. Delete!

As an example of a captivating story concept, let’s look at the inventive, layered, and high value ideas in the premise of the classic action film Die Hard. Consider the following idea layers in the film’s concept:

Original (then) location and problem -- innocents and rescuer trapped by terrorists in a locked down skyscraper. Intriguing lead characters of a tough, sexist New York cop and his successful, estranged businesswoman wife. Poignant thematic idea in the character arc of the sexist protagonist -- of him learning to accept that his wife isn’t subservient to his needs but is and should be an independent and successful individual.

The key story element that lifts Die Hard to the level of a drama is the high personal stakes -- this cop is lonely and loves and wants his wife back and has come to Los Angeles to do that. At Christmas time! But then she is taken farther away from him in the worst possible way. A hostage to terrorists.

All these captivating story and character elements in the Die Hard premise are ideas. And when such diverse and dramatic ideas are fused into a single film concept, they form the core of an original, exciting, and poignant story that we hunger to experience.

Without having a story premise with such a complexity of high-stake ideas as those in this Die Hard premise, a creative would really struggle to develop a gripping 110 page script.

In short, a great screenplay has zinger, layered big ideas in its premise.

One vital element in or implicit in a story premise is its theme. The idea that the story is really about. Developing an engaging theme for your screen story is the second stage in the RSR.

An Emotionally Arousing Theme

The theme of a story is its deepest main abstraction or meaning – the idea that underpins and unites all the parts of the story. (A narrower way of looking at theme is that it is the message of a story.) A script should be about something; its parts should add up to an important value proposition about people and life. If it does, we care. Why would people want to watch a film about nothing? Why would we deeply care about characters who believe in nothing, whose choices and actions are not soul and/or life changing?

Ironically, it is abstract ideas that create the strongest emotions in audiences. Consider such classic films as Casablanca, The Godfather, An Officer and a Gentleman, and Gladiator. These films create strong emotions in their audience because each is about an important idea or message. The Godfather, for example, is a cautionary tale about succession that warns us not to betray ourselves. Casablanca tells us to fight for life and love. Saving Mr. Banks shows us how we must deal with childhood psychological issues so we can fully enjoy our adult life.

We become stimulated watching such life lessons play out before us.

One of the key ways to create deep emotion in an audience via theme or ideas is through character arcs. I’ll develop this idea in the next section. For now, I want to give an observation about the importance of theme from my own experience as a screenplay consultant:

Every good script I’ve ever edited and every good writer I’ve ever worked with all had the same problem with their story and storytelling: An inability to work with theme.

For instance, one recent true-story bio pic script I worked on dealt with an intrinsically interesting setting, especially its specific sports arena. But the basic thematic ideas of the script were confused and undeveloped. Consequently, the story and characters added up to little so had slight resonance. A common disappointment in scripts and films today.

The best screenwriters when working at their highest level create conflicts and events that express important thematic ideas. Great writers have trained their minds to do this. Applying the RSR framework, I help creatives develop a theme to apply to their story events so they will have meaning and thus be much more involving for their audience.

When screenwriters have the theme of their story diamond clear in their minds, they can best develop characters who will intrigue and involve an audience. The next related stage in the RSR is creating characters that not only move a story but also an audience.

Empathetic Rounded Characters That Seduce

Every good fiction character is a unique and believable amalgam of specific types of ideas. For example, you will often read that the key to characterization is giving a character a goal or want. That is partly true. A character having a main goal is vital to creating a motivated character. A one-layered one. A scriptwriter needs to learn to create three dimensional or rounded characters. This means learning how to create in a character idea layers such as premises, values, and traits. And then devising the consequences of these ideas such as their look and mannerisms.

Let’s now consider creating rousing emotions in an audience via theme in character arcs.

A character arc is a premise (motivating belief) that a character has and changes during a story. The most emotional part of many films is a climax where a character makes a big final choice/change and is thus able to succeed in a life changing quest.

Consider the importance of John McClane’s character arc as discussed above: McClane finally chooses to love and accept his wife as an individual with her own needs and ambitions (that is, a career).

Also consider in Casablanca, where the protagonist Rick Blaine in the climax makes his final, irreversible choice between isolation and involvement that he has struggled with throughout the whole story. Without these two crucial ideas being at the core of Rick’s internal conflict during the film and being the base of his final choice, this climactic scene and film would not be memorable.

Also consider the emotional reaction the audience has at the end of Saving Mr. Banks when it cheers protagonist P. L. Travers finding resolution with her tragic past and finally making her climactic decision to accept Walt Disney’s offer to buy her Mary Poppin’s novel.

My RSR also instructs writers on crafting character arcs that foster audience empathy. Imbuing characters with big relatable beliefs and values, then transforming these values through dramatic arcs, cultivates profound audience empathy and emotional investment.

Creating motivated, rounded characters who intrigue an audience is intensely difficult, but the RSR approach achieves this by focusing on the deeper layers or ideas of a character.

Once a screenwriter has the basic ideas of his characters clearly in mind, he is better able to develop the best conflicts of his story. Creating enthralling conflicts is the fourth logical stage of the RSR writing method.

Compelling High-Stake Conflicts That Excite

Conflict is the essential element of every story. A story, simply, is a logical series of escalating conflicts between two characters that leads to a resolution. At a basic level, a conflict is the clash of ideas characters are acting on. That is, character conflicts (and choices) are fundamentally the clash of ideas. A compelling script dramatizes the clash of ideas of a life and death nature, physically or psychologically.

Consider this classic literary example, Les Miserables by Victor Hugo:

Because of his love of justice, the protagonist Jean Valjean protects the downtrodden, especially Fantine and Cossette. Valjean clashes with his main antagonist, Inspector Javert, because this policeman enacts his belief in a cold law devoid of compassion and true justice. This titanic struggle of big opposing ideals and values forms the story spine of Les Miserables and causes volcanic emotions in the audience.

In summary, the more high-value conflict your screenplay has, the more compelling it will be. The deeper you can work in the arena of value-rich ideas, the more intense will be the conflicts and events you will create. Which brings us the ultimate stage in the RSR.

A Resonant Plot

What is the purpose, the end, of having a Captivating Concept, Emotional Theme, Empathetic 3D Characters, and Compelling Conflicts?

To create a riveting and memorable plot.

That is, a logical and escalating series of actions/events that leap off the screen to skyrocket the thinking and emotions of an audience.

What is the best way to create an exciting plot?

A scriptwriter first develops the above four key story elements (and others). The key to plotting is then to use these basic ideas to develop a logical series of integrated, escalating events. Note that these events flow from the actions of the characters. And that these actions flow from the character motives and conflicts. That is, the actions and events of a plot express the ideas in the premise, theme, goals, and conflicts.

To state this vital story creating point another way:

The fundamental way to create the events of your plot is to take the story premise and milk, twist, escalate, and climax its basic ideas to create a logical and dramatic plotline.

Notice that a plot must be climaxed to resolve all the character goals and conflicts and in a way that deeply moves an audience.

How many times have you seen a film where its climax and payoff were duds? This happens often because the key thematic ideas in the script were not properly developed and climaxed. This can have terrible consequences on a story. It is a film’s climax and final payoff scenes that an audience most talks about after a screening. These conversations are vital to a film’s word of mouth and resonance; to it being an unforgettable experience and repeat engagement. Or not.

To emphasize the key principles of crafting a plot using the RSR methodology:  

When you are intimate with the basic ideas of your story, it is much easier to create the most dramatic and memorable conflicts and events for your script.

To emphasize this point in a negative way:

When a screenwriter hasn’t clearly developed the foundational ideas of his story, it will be near impossible to develop a logical and exciting plot.

If you understand the importance of ideas as the base of your stories, your screenplays will be an integrated whole of values, conflicts, actions, and events deeply personal to the audience. Your stories will create a resonance that will deeply move producers, distributors, financiers, and talents reading your script. And film audiences.

How You Can Create Resonant Scripts

The RSR writing system is a principled and practical guide of HOW TO create stories.

With the RSR, I show my clients the basic meaning of the key elements of a screenplay and then I show them how to apply these principles to their own specific script. I don’t, for example, just tell them what a plot is. I also show them how to develop their actual plot. I don’t just tell them what a character arc is. I also show them how to create and progress their actual character arcs.

The best way to create a compelling story is to understand and focus on the fundamental nature of a story. Its Ideas.

Reply with RSR if you want to learn more about how we can work together to show you a method to create resonant scripts.