and of course, when listening to music! This gives me the most motivation and I find myself flying through different landscapes, periods of time, where I turn into an apple, then a bird, then a pile of toxic ooze. Weird? Definitely!

No…you can have a cool idea, but it is just the BACKDROP for the core story. Those core stories are generally timeless. That is why Shakespeare will always be relevant. Just start thinking of the characters first and then lay them OVER the cool idea. You’ll get there Jason, I have no dount, ;).

Like the other day, I saw a show on wormholes and came up with a creeepy psuedo-sci-fi story, but after the initial thought passed my mind, I started thinking: What’s the inciting event? Who’s the antagonist? (Original idea had no antagonist or protagonist) Where’s the conflict?

After thinking all those thoughts, I freaking just threw my hands up. Wtf? I mean, now I can’t just have a cool idea, I have to hack the crap out of it before it’s even out of diapers.

Children’s movies are some of the best to watch and study plot. They almost always employ mythic structure. I actually recommended someone watch G-Force (movie with the Guinea Pigs as spies) for help on their antagonist (this person writes historicals). But this kid’s movie did an excellent job and the antag was very well done. Worth studying. Bob Mayer also turned me on to watching series and looking for the arc in individual episodes, and then over the span of the series. Talk about working your writer muscles! Thanks, Karennina for taking the time to comment, :D.

At first glance, I thought the kindergarten teacher’s name was Sarah Wrap. LOL

Great point about watching movies and studying them for plot. I saw Toy Story 3 this week. It’s an awesome example of escalating conflict/stakes/tension. I don’t want to put spoilers, but if you’ve seen it, you know what I mean. 🙂

Yeah…*backs away slowly.*

Now it seems so much clearer why writers hang out with writers, LOL.