Story Solutions.

#181

Hi Nucleo,

A. In dealing with shifting time periods, the important thing
is to modify the events without changing the story’s message
and characters. Things doesn’t always have to match-up exactly
to the original story (sometimes that’s not possible) so the key is
to look at the story from a Different Perspective!!
Take the situations and conflicts that the character faces and
think about how that same conflict can be found in modern times.

As an example, let’s say it’s a story about a servant boy
mistreated in medieval times, a parallel to that can be a modern
office worker filing away in a cubical 24/7 to keep his job.

Even if nothing else stays the same, keep the story’s basic structure
flow, the characters’ personalities/relationships and the story’s
theme/message constant and you will be left with, at the very least,
a solid replica that is sincere to the intent of the original.

B. In turning a book to a screenplay, what kind of problem are you
having? Is it too long? Is it that you can’t convert events in a book
onscreen like internal monologues?

I’m not sure if there’s a formal way to convert from one medium to
another, but what I like to do is scene-mapping.

It’s basically like laying out a summary of the story and taking all the
scenes that must absolutely be there for the story to work.

As a pointer:
DO NOT select scenes just because it makes up the events of the story.
You’ll wind-up with too many to handle and they can easily turn to fluff.
Instead, select scenes because it makes up the style of the story.

Every book has scenes that give the book its certain flair.
Take those scenes and convert them into the screenplay,
then build the story plot around it. It’ll make the process
a lot simpler and more enjoyable.

As an example, let’s say there’s a great deal of tension between
two friends in the book that lasted for a long period of time and
it’s something that can’t be replayed onscreen. So, in the
screenplay, wrap that tension and relationship into a dialogue,
it’ll move the plot along faster and add movement to the story.

Books are more closely related to emotions whereas films can also
appeal to the senses. So if you can’t reach that deeply into the
emotional element, then makeup what you can express with pictures
but not with words.

My opinion is that it’s better to come up with an entirely new scene
that COMPLEMENTS the book rather than follow the text exactly but
still mess-up in conveying to the viewers what the story is REALLY about.

ThinkStory

#182

First of all thanks very much for this. For turning a book in a screenplay the problem i have is exactly what you said… its mostly internal dialogue. There is a dialogue in the book but we never know who they are, its like 2 people talking about this guy and they say the story like a narrative but the author never says who they are and how they now the hero… not to mention that the dialogue start at the middle of the story

I think thats how i should start the story, otherwise if i try to follow the hero its gonna be complicated and iam not sure if can handle it… ofcourse thats the easy solution right? having someone with, either a voice over or by setting up a dialogue of two people saying gossip about this guy… but it sounds great so far, and it seems it fits the plot.

Thanks again man :applause:

#183

Hi ThinkStory. Thanks for keeping this thread open for so long, and putting in the time to answer everyone’s questions.

I’m starting to write a story, but I’m wondering how I know if I have enough info to write one. To be honest, I really don’t have a lot of details, mostly just a very general, rough idea of what want, and a few scenes pictured in my head. Is this enough to get started? What’s the best place to start? Is it bad to start the process with scenes in my head, rather than a complete story?

I know these are pretty basic questions, as this is really my first writing. Maybe it would be better to make it a short to start with? Then expand it? Is that a recommended process?

Sorry for all the questions. I know I want to say something (with my story), but just not quite sure what.

Thanks for your help!

#184

Hey Chinnr,

I know you’re waiting for Thinkstory’s opinion, but I thought I might give you my opinion as well with regards to your situation.

Everything starts as a simple idea. Often times, those “few scenes” can be the root of an entire story. What I would do is think long and hard about those scenes you have in your head. Ask questions about them. “Why are these characters in this situation?” “Who are they and how do they relate to one another?” “How did they get here and where are they going?”.

These general questions can potentially branch off into many other ideas you might either take or throw away depending on how well they work into you overall view.

I usually start with one idea in my head. Be it a “scene”, a word, or an obscure relation. You can really start from anywhere no matter how small or large. Which means, no. In my opinion, you don’t need all of the subject matter in order to begin the story writing process. Try to always be creative with your ideas. Maybe write about things that matter to you – that you feel strongly about.

Hopefully some of this helps. If not, I’m sure Thinkstory will help you. :slight_smile:

  • Joe Burnham
#185

Hi Joe - glad you didn’t wait to jump in. I appreciate any feedback I can get my hands on. I like what you have to say, it makes me feel like I’m at least not going about it the wrong way. I will definitely explore my scenes more, and the characters in them. Right now I feel like I have a few puzzle pieces from different puzzles, and no picture to help me put them together. I’ll get there though…eventually.

Thanks for your input Joe!

#186

Hi Chinnr,

I absolutely agree with Joe’s comments, 100%.
Right on with which questions to ask and that
no idea is too small to start!!

In terms of where and how to start, there really
isn’t an overall “right” answer. At least that’s my
opinion, I’ve met some colleagues who would
disagree but I think it’s really a subjective matter.

Some authors need to start writing as soon as they
have an idea or else they’ll forget or get writer’s block.
Others need to have the story all lined-up and
planned-out to every little detail before they can begin.
Both methods have their pros and cons.
And then there’re those that do a little bit of both,
write—think—write—think—rewrite—rethink—write
.

So it all depends on your personal style.
But that process may take a while to figure out too.
As others may tell you, it could take years before a
writer finds the “right” method.

My personal philosophy is to find out your personal
style before you begin.
What motivates you, what inspires you, what makes you tick?

If you’re a verbal person, start writing to get ideas,
if you’re visual, start with sketches and scenes of
your head and fill in the gaps, if you’re kinesthetic,
talk about the story with other people or with yourself,
if you’re a perfectionist, start planning ahead but remember
to be flexible, if you know you’re the kind to procrastinate,
then stop searching for a method and just start writing.

From your previous post, it sounds like you’re a visual
with a link to secondary kinesthetic but are getting a
sketcher’s block so I would suggest to seek out somebody
to review and talk through the story with even if that person
is yourself. That probably sounds weird but try revisiting
what you have from a different perspective just to generate
more ideas.

If you have only pieces without something to string
everything together, it’ll probably be better to throw-in
a few more ideas and form a story scheme, to know
approximately where the story starts and where it
should lead to before you begin.

What do you think?

ThinkStory

#187

Hi Thinkstory! Thanks for your response and all of the useful advice you’re handing out here to everyone. I think your assessment of me is right on. I would defintely consider myself a visual person, so that makes me feel a little more at ease with coming up with my writing via seeing scenes. I guess now it is like you say, making sure I have enough storylines to consitute a story. I also need to remind myself that it’s not going to happen overnight (I have a bit of a problem with patience at times).

I guess my next step is to start storyboarding the scenes I have written, and maybe that will help spark ideas for connecting them all together.

Thanks for your help Thinkstory and Joe!

Chinnr

#188

hi ThinkStory,
its my pleasure to find a person like you… and im wondering if you have a little time for me.
i’m looking for a short story… 3-5 minutes for my showreel (animation reel).
i use to have some ideas, but they doesn’t convey a strong meaning that could bind the audience into the screen for 4-5minutes:sad:…

could you plz help me in developing an intesesting Storyboard.

thanks
deb

#189

Hi Deb,

sure, but I’d like to get some of your input,
what kind of story are you looking for?
Action, adventure, comedy, drama, romance, etc.
Limitations such as number of characters, sets, lip-sync?
What kind of characters do you want to work with
like humans, animals, objects?
Is there an original story/idea that you’re thinking of?

JUST AS A GENERAL NOTE:
Originally, I started this thread with the intention to
help those who have somewhat of a story in mind but
don’t quite know how to pull it off. However, all types
of story questions are welcomed! I give a lot of respect
for everybody’s ideas and have always been very strict
about keeping other people’s property theirs. But if the
request is free for me to make-up the entire thing, I
just ask for the same consideration and that I do get
reference/credit for it. Thanks, everybody!!

ThinkStory

#190

Hey there thinkStory, i posted this in a seperate thread a few days ago but got no response. Then i noticed this great thread so I thought i’d give it a shot. This is my original thread.

Hey, i’m trying to make a short machinima using the MMORPG World of Warcraft. I’ve come up with a rough story outline and I thought i’d just post it here to get some feedback and advice. Keep in mind this is a very rough outline and I havn’t come up with many of the details.

Basically it’s about a guy, who is the captain of the stormwind (the human city in the game) guard. He has a wife and a small son. Some group of rebel bandits kill his wife and child. This (obviously) sends him into a downward spiral of rage and anger.

A few months later, when they’re on some sort of mission, they come across a village of these same bandits. Blinded by rage, the captain orders the whole village to be destroyed, including the women and children.

The king of stormwind is furious that this captain would do something so rash and against the “stormwind way”, and boots him out of the city. The captain has been corrupted by the events of the last few months and has a thirst for revenge. Killing the village didn’t fulfill his bloodrage, and he vows to take revenge on the city that threw him out into the cold.

He amasses a small group of other stormwind exiles, all of whome wish to take revenge for whatever reason.

And this is basically as far as i’ve gotten. The way I wanted to tell the story is to start off near the end, where the captain, for whatever reasoning, has decided to return to stormwind, and you see the stormwind guards arresting him, and throwing him in jail. Then in his cell he reflects on the events that led him to where he is today. Then i wanted to finish it off by continueing the events that we saw at the beginning, if that makes any sense.

I had come up with an idea where he has some sort of contact within stormwind, and he comes back to get himself arrested. Then his contact releases him in the middle of the night, and they open up the gates and let his army in, and i’d continue it from there. That seemed to much like the trojan horse story though and it just didn’t seem to fit with what I wanted.

So what i really want to know is how do you think i could finish this off? What reasoning could he have for returning to the city knowing that he’ll get arrested?

I’m sorry about the disorganization of this post, i was just writing down thoughts straight from my head. I’m going to start putting something down on paper now, but i thought it would be a good idea to get some feedback from someone who knows what they’re talking about.

Thanks for any help you can give me!

#191

Hi gooms9,

the way to conclude this story should be simple

once you know what you want your audience to
get out of it.

People who’ve been reading this thread are probably
getting really fed up with me for saying this so often
but here it is again
who’s your audience, what do you
want to be the take back message?
Does that sound too philosophical, let me know if it does.
But know that not all stories needs themes, I can’t count
how many stories I’ve either made-up or critiqued that
have no message whatsoever but still “works.”

But some stories do, and will be empty without it.

Your idea is one of them.
It’s about revenge, drama, acts of crime and justice.
It needs depth—therefore requires that extra layer.

So, to get there, we need to decide on one thing:
Is your character a good guy or a bad guy?

There’s no problem with telling the story backwards,
it’ll help in presenting your story both ways, I’ll show
you what I mean once we figure out if the audience is
supposed root for this guy or not. But if it’s one of those
things where a line can’t be drawn, then it’s really going
to get philosophical but that’s okay. Just let me know
what you want, don’t want, or even if you don’t know
what you want and we can work it out from there.

Uh, does that make sense?

ThinkStory

#192

What I wanted to show, was that the “villain” is not actually some diabolical evil maniac, but more of a broken man. He lost his family, and his city, and everything he held dear to him, and something in his head just snapped.

I dont want the audience to exactly cheer this guy on and hope that he destroys stormwind, but i do want them to be able to relate with him and understand where he is coming from to a certain degree.

#193

[left]Hey very cool thread. I will try to go back and read more of your suggestions later.

I hope no one tries to steal my story idea:

I’ve been playing around with an idea for a black-comedy which takes as its’ central character one of the nameless thugs that we’ve seen gunned down oh so many times… it’s still pretty sketchy now, because I thought of it as a film parody screenplay first, then just dropped it, but recently I’ve been wanting to give this idea some form, either as a comic book or short film script. I’ve discussed it a few times with people, and it always becomes a hilarious brainstorm of laughter and absurd ideas…

All I have so far is an opening which is like the climax battles of Arnold movies: Some huge steroid rage … storming a (cliche) gangster hangout, culminating in the extermination of this guys buddies, and the central idea that he comes to the existential realization that he is basically a one-dimensional evil guy, destined to become cannon fodder … I’ve got some scenes, but its hard to write this because I’m trying on purpose to create a flipped view of good and evil, but funny, violent, and its hard to make the audience care for someone that you want them to despise and ultimately want to kill off…
[/left]

#194

Hi gooms9,

okay, understood.

Since this character is supposed to be the “bad guy” (even though
he’s the not so bad guy type) character, we need a “good guy” or
an opposition for his role to develop a meaningful conflict between
the two. I’m selecting the king of the city for this position because
that seems to be the most obvious one presented in your description
unless there’s a preference to bring in somebody else which might
complicate the story a bit, with two against one, but not undoable if
that’s what you’d prefer.

Anyway, here’s the set-up:

Originally, the captain was a good guy, he was a good leader and
a person everybody in stormwind looked up to. Then he started
to get too powerful, the king, fearing how the captain can turn
the army against him or win over the city’s loyalty and ultimately
the throne, was the back-hand supporter behind the rebels/secret
service/assassins that attacked the captain. While the main character
is, of course, unaware of this.

Then, like you said, the captain looses his mind in rage but eventually
finds a clue that his exile might have been planned from the very beginning.
The only contact that might possibly know about this is currently hidden
and put away in jail, so he purposely gets captured to find this guy in
seek of the truth.

At the end of the story, he of course finds out and launches the
army against the king of the city. There’s several options you can
take on who wins out.
But if you want continuity, then maybe they both fall from battle and
probably a young second or third main character, somebody like
the captain’s pupil, takes the throne. This character should be brought
out from the beginning though and not just put there to wrap things up.
The story should conclude as having this new king, seeing the captain’s
previous mistakes might prepare him to be a wiser ruler.

And you can tell this from the middle of the jail scene.
Like I said before that it works both ways because, you can open the
story with him as a good guy being put away to jail by the corrupt
government or a bad guy caught by the good guys or perhaps his
own pupil? For this story, it seems that either way works.

What do you think?

ThinkStory

#195

You read my mind with the whole pupil idea. I had originally planned to start it off by showing the pupil (who has since been promoted to captain) riding through stormwind, and then into a grungy bar where the corrupted captain is sitting, and arrests him. Then the story starts.

I like the idea of having the corrupted captain and the king fall in battle, and having this pupil rise to the power of king. I could even have it so the evidence that the corrupted guy (i really need to think of names for these people) points to the king, but at the end, you find that the pupil was behind the whole thing all along in a plot to rise to power. That might be a little too much though, seeing as i’m aiming for around 30-45 minutes.

But i really like these ideas you’ve given me. I think i’m going to take them and maybe play around with them for a little while and see what I can come up with. Thanks for the help.

#196

Thanks thinkStory.
ur right, actually im currently working on some character concepts… so im kindda late in replying… i will show u the characters as soon as i develope their concept… and any initial story if im able to frame with them. i want to use the least number of chacter (will be all humans [probable]) But i want to create a BIG appeal… may be related to some burning issues we are facing… or some some important issues in our personal which we neglect… i m looking not for any fun story… but i want to touch the heart of the audience with a story.

thanks

#197

[left]
[/left]
[left]I’m working on a treatment right now and would like to get some feedback. New to this forum but went back and read the thread… really cool of you to offer your advice to people!
keep up the good work!

The bigget problem I’m having is with “story”. I have a visual sense, and a strong idea of stlye, and what I want to do/say/not say, but I find myself stuck outside the box, so to speak, and I cant get INTO the scripting. i also find myself coming back to the same ideas again and again, even though I cant seem to make them work, or breathe…

[/left]

#198

Hi Dam,

Just start putting it on paper. Write-think-write-rewrite-think-rewrite as Thinkstory said. Just review your script before you start rewriting. It will put you in the mood. I usually do that. I usually give the script to some of your close friends and ask them to read it. In first one or two pages the reader as to get involved with the story.

When you first start it, it will be sure difficult. You can also read scripts of same genre to get some idea.

Carry a Journal all the time with you and write down something that inspires you.

Regards,
Hari

#199

I am trying to figure out a story for a short (less than 10 minute animation). I always seem to have a million ideas but when I try to work out all the kinks I always hit some sort of snag that seems insurmountable making me have to trash the whole thing and look for another idea for a story… is that typical or should you just keep working on it till you find an answer to the problem?

Anyway, my latest thought is a story about alien abductions… the twist is that the aliens don’t abduct people. They’re actually relativly small aliens and they abduct ‘stuff,’ thus explaining how you always seem to loose things like your keys, your wallet, that sock from the laundry, etc.

Any ideas on how to create a fun short around that idea?

#200

Hey ThinkStory, I PM’ed you a link to our screenplay I would love any help you could give us.

… not to butt in on your job ThinkStory but… Jessup, the problem it would see you face is, you need to find a problem for your story to solve.

You have a great premise, you just need to break it down and find from the core elements of your story where the problems might arise for a main character.

The aliens are tiny: Great potential for a fish out of water story, conflict arising from a difference in size.
The aliens abduct normal things: Somebody has something abducted that they really need.

Here are a few concepts maybe to consider:
The main character has a favorite shirt that he thinks is lucky and he really needs it today, because of a hot date. The problem is the missing shirt, the film is him trying to get it back, or learning to live with out it.
The aliens abduct more than they can handle, maybe they abduct a cat, which then chases them and terrorizes them through their ship. The problem is obviously having accidentally brought this cat into their world, the film is them trying to either get rid of it or befriend it.

Just come up with a simple and clear objective for the main characters to solve, hopefully one which would be intrinsically tied to the premise, and the film will write itself.