Ask these questions to be original in your story

If you want to produce a story attractive to actors, distributors and audiences, a fundamental way is to develop at least one original element in the concept of the story. Following are 11 ways you can be original in your story concept, with film examples:

*Take old characters and put them in a new arena. (Star Trek and Star Wars are westerns in space.)

*Mash genres. (Hellboy fuses demons and Nazis/war.)

*Introduce a new theme. (The Fountainhead and egoism.)

*Dramatize a new problem that has never been depicted before on the screen. (Jurassic Park and its unleased cloned dinosaurs.)

*Develop a new twist on an old conflict. (Indecent Proposal, where a woman is offered money for sex from a good man whom she can love.)

*Reverse a good but now cliched conflict/relationship. (Without a Clue reverses the roles of Sherlock Holmes and Watson.)

*Find a new location/world. (Fantastic Voyage, whose key location is inside the human body.)

*Use a new type of character, such as a geneticist or time traveller. (The Time Machine.)

*Play a new danger/problem. (The Naked Jungle, The Poseidon Adventure.)

*Introduce a new villain. (SMERSH, Darth Vader.)

*Adapt an event from history or current affairs not shown before. (The tragedy of the Yazidi women, the invasion of Ukraine.)

Writing Takeaway

When developing your story always ask: What is one new element never seen before?

If that is too broad ask each of the above ways to be original as questions of your story idea and let you subconscious pop!

What did I leave out of my list of ways to be original in your story concept?

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