Education

Story Ideas From 6 Little Words And Your Favorite Movies And Novels

If you’re looking for story ideas, there’s no better place to start than with what you know. With six little words and a list of novels and movies, you have all you need to generate dozens of story ideas. You probably learned about the six little words, crucial to every story, all the way back in grammar school:
Who, What, When, Where, How and Why
Below is a list of popular novels and movies. Note the format I use in describing them. This format becomes important later on.
Novels/Movies
Star-crossed lovers meet a tragic end due to their families’ bitter rivalry.
Young man trains to be a knight when war comes to his land, in the process discovering a dark side to his family history and the father he never knew.
Private eye must discover where an artifact is located and why it’s so valuable, after his client is murdered and thugs think he has the object.
Expatriated American bar owner in Morocco, secretly part of the local resistance movement, helps a former lover and her husband to escape the Nazis, losing her a second time.
Unadventurous romance novelist is catapulted into danger and intrigue after a treasure map mailed to her leads her to Columbia’s jungles and into the arms of an American adventurer with designs on the map himself.
When a young man inherits a ring of invisibility that must be destroyed before he is captured, the ensuing pursuit sends him on a quest that brings together representatives of all the races and pits them against the massive forces of evil, and sometimes against one another.
Children displaced by war in England discover a wardrobe that leads into a realm, ruled by an evil queen, where it is always winter but never Christmas, until a deeper magic is revealed by the ultimate sacrifice of a mysterious lion.
Titles Romeo and Juliet OR West Side Story, Star Wars, the Maltese Falcon, Casablanca, Romancing the Stone, Lord of the Rings, The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe.
Now What? Notice the first synopsis, concerning star-crossed lovers, had two examples. This is a perfect illustration of how a generic summary can become more than one story just by changing some or all of the six story elements. In this case, each of the six story elements was changed.
Since we are trying to come up with our own unique stories, we are not interested in any other details. In fact, the more generic our storyline, the better. To illustrate how to take one synopsis and turn it into several stories, let’s go through the process with the movie Star Wars. The easiest way to do this is to open a word processing or spreadsheet program, so you can manipulate the information easier. But a good old pad and pen will also work if that’s your writing medium of choice. Put the synopsis at the top. Then make two column headings below that – Original and New. Now down the left side list the six story components. It should look something like this:
SCENARIO I – Young man trains to be a knight when war comes to his land, in the process discovering a dark side to his family history and the father he never knew.
Original
Who Young man
What Trains to be a knight
When A long, long time ago
Where In a distant galaxy
Why To combat an evil empire
How By studying with a master
The last step is the fun part. Substitute people, places, etc. under the “New” column. There are no wrong answers except one – you must not keep any element from the original, not even one that is thinly-disguised. In fact, you should add one more element, genre. Here are some suggestions:
New
Who Middle-aged woman
What Goes back to music school
When Modern Day
Where Cleveland
How By walking away from a lucrative business
Why To save her sanity through pursuing her passion
Genre Romantic suspense (original is Science Fiction)
Middle-aged woman goes back to music school in Cleveland, by walking away from a lucrative business to save her sanity through pursuing her passion.
There. We now have the spark of an idea for a story. Create as many “New” lists as you can think of that might fit. Let’s do one more to make certain you’ve got the idea.
SCENARIO II – Unadventurous romance novelist is catapulted into danger and intrigue after a treasure map sent to her leads her to Columbia’s jungles and into the arms of an American adventurer with designs on the map himself.
Original
Who Romance novelist
What Is catapulted into danger and intrigue
When After a treasure map sent to her leads her to
Where Columbia’s jungles and
How Into the arms of an American adventurer
Why With designs on the map himself
Genre Romantic Intrigue/Adventure
New
Who Dweeby museum docent
What Gets transported through time
Where Into the Wild West
When After he discovers a peculiar-looking pocket watch is out of place at the museum
How And learns it is actually a time machine
Why Which he uses to trace and follow a time-traveling thief and murderer
Genre Science Fiction/Mystery
Dweeby museum docent gets transported through time, into the Wild West, after he discovers a peculiar-looking pocket watch is out of place at the museum, and learns it is actually a time machine, which he uses to trace and follow a time-traveling thief and murder.
Use other synopses from the list that caught your fancy to create your own. Or find synopses in a TV listing publication. If all six elements are not included in a story description, add your own. It’s that easy.

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