George's point about the ending is correct.  You do gotta have that.  I think so, anyway.  Otherwise, you are just, like, driving around with no particular destination in mind.

It's the middle that can drive you nuts...

Yeah that middle, it kills great ideas. The beginning and end are easy compared to it..

I must admit, I struggle with pre-writing. I like to formulate the idea completely in my head, may write a short synopsis. Develop ideas for act 1,2,3 (plot points, climax, resolution, starting with a bang etc..) and create my main couple of characters...I then go from there.

If I need a sub-plot or more conflict, I usually add it after the first draft and see if I can tie it in.

...BUT I must admit, since my first full length screenplay, I'm struggling to get through my next one and be happy with it. I completed one shortly after my first and it's sitting after the 1st draft. I think I'll leave it for the time being and continue to concentrate on my next project.

I usually come up with the end of the first act event first. Once I have that, I write act one to get up to it. From there, it's get to the pinch (act two mid-point), then make my way to the crisis (left or right?), then the climax and out.

These little plot points will save your writing. They are my religion. An example of a start of mine is under the Work in Progress thread on "A Thriller I'm Concocting." I laid out the whole plot, and we even discussed fo a few posts. I haven't started it yet because I keep getting off track.

With me, it's not that I get tired of the idea; it's that I have so many that I end up writing two or three things at once. Right now, I am getting a start on Fempiror 4, Vengeance 2 & 3, and this Thriller thing as well as plotting episodes for my Fempiror virutal series, as well as a few episodes for two other virtual series called Guardians and Foster. I'm also working on rewrites on The Soul Keeper and Vengeance 1. Some say writers should write, but maybe I should take a break...nah!

And if that wasn't a paragraph on shameless self-promotion, I don't know what is.

At the same time, Wesley, "borrowing" ideas is almost inevitable and dates back to Shakespeare who "borrowed" the plot for Romeo and Juliet among other things. Only about 6 plots have been identified in the history of writing (I sure wish I coulod remember them right now), so you're bound to hit on one of them.

What's the key? Using what you know and twisting it and crafting it into something new. Alien and Jaws are the same basic movie. Just different situations. Slasher movies all follow exactly the same basic plot...but they are also (mostly) different. Deep Space Nine and Babylon 5? Deep Impact and Armageddon? Halloween and Friday the 13th? Almost every chick flick ever written? You will repeat someone else's formula, but the way you craft it is what makes your creation unique and specal.  

If you like a certain genre, feel free to watch movies and take notes, but also take note that you must craft the old ideas into something new or you're just taking someone else's idea.

You hit the nail on the head there, George. There's lots of ways to to tell a story but you'll usually draw elements from one or more of the following.

Achilles: The fatal flaw
Candide: The innocent abroad
Cinderella: The dream come true
Circe: The chase
Faust: Selling your soul to the devil to bring riches
Orpheus: The gift taken away
Romeo and Juliet: Boy meets girl, boy loses girl etc
Triangles: love triangles

That's 8, I read once that there were 20 but these 8 pretty much cover it for me.

Perhaps it was 6 primary and then several twists on those parimary ones... I also remember something about 20, though. Like I said, I don't remember, but most love storis and chick flicks follow the Romeo and Juliet plot beat for beat. Really it's the subplot and supporting characters that do the unique stuff. West Side Story attributes its entire plot to Romeo and Juliet, and yet it has some originality in it because it updated the plot to a different setting entirely.

And every story's main character should have a flaw of some kind. Achilles' difference was not that he had one, it's that his was physical and he was unable to overcome it. You could apply this fatal flaw to War of the Roses. Both characters were flawed and in the end, both refused to overcome their flaws even though the overcoming would have solved their problems.

So, what if a script follows all 8? I guess you go into a script with the intention of being 100% original and than take shortcuts or maybe they are just so hard to avoid that in fact it's gotta be done.

Can't have a chick flick without girl meeting nice guy and can't have an action hero without the bad guy, also a love interest but Bruce WIllis in Die Hard kind of killed that mold because his love interest was in fact already his wife ha-ha I believe. It's been awhile.

Originality still exists and can still be done. The story is where you find the originality, but you will unlikely be able to escape the classic plot devices. A wise man (named Soloman in the Book of Ecclesiastes in the Bible) once said, "There is nothing new under the sun."

You'd never know with hundreds of remakes and things based on other things... It seems only a couple original films are made a year and the rest are low budget flicks that we never hear of until 5 years later.

I will definitely agree with the level of laziness we see come out of the industry. It seems some producers are afraid to stick out their neck with something that is fresh and go with the tried and true stories that everyone loves. Some people (those non-industry moviegoers who audience only; you know, the people we write for) just want to see the same old predictable story so they KNOW they will love it.

I hear it all the time around here. "Oh, that sounds so good." Or after watching Van Helsing, "That was really good." I smile and nod and move on, because everyone really hates my opinions because on some movies I have tended to go on and on about what all was just horrible about whatever movie (or just horribly predictable). They hate it when after 5 minutes of watching, I can tell th entire plot and how it ends.

I have been commanded by my wife to just enjoy the movies and don't analyze them so everyone else can enjoy them too. Oh, well. I do admit my affinity for James Bond flicks, and I do give them some latitude to enjoy them, but I guess that's kind of clear frm my avatar.

Sometimes a bad movie can be very inspirational.  The movie may not be bad because of the script but other things, like bad acting, bad directing, not enough budget, etc.  Sometimes a story may be told better in a different genre.  An example of this might be writing 'Encino Man' as a drama (minus Paulie Shore's character).  

Don't forget that cheesy 1950's sci-fi flicks were the inspiration for Rocky Horror Picture Show.


Phil

You don't like Encino Man? Come on, I enjoy Pauly Shore for what he was, a 90's legend ha-ha Just kidding he was like the Screech of film, annoying and weird to the naked eye.

I enjoyed Pauly though, he's even got his own t.v. series coming on TBS soon which means somebody else likes him as well.

Paulie Shore is thte cinematic equivilant of scratching your nails on a blackboard.  The fact that he has a television series coming out means nothing.  Paris Hilton has two of them now.


Phil

But Pauly didn't make it here on his looks and sexual abilities alone, unlike somebody else. Pauly probably had to work to get what he has, what has Paris ever done? "Oh That's hot" other than that I'm not sure.

Are you going to fault the man for doing what he had to do to make himself a 90's star if you will? Paris will never actually have a career to retire from, her and Pauly would make the perfect couple though.