How are you "creative" in your writing?

[Coldkilla]

I've been looking into filmmaking colleges and feel that in order to make it in this industry, I need to be creative in my writings. I do not worry about my grammer or ability to tell a story, but its the story itself is where my problem lies. I was wondering how some of you guys may be able to creatively tell a story that is interesting and gripping to the reader.

The thing is, I've got no interesting stories about myself that I could put in the context of a screenplay for a film or something, and fear that without the constant flow of ideas, my career in this industry will not go far. What I'm looking for is for what others use as a potential source that can spark creative thinking (aside from drugs, of course ). So, where would you guys get your ideas from in order to tell a story? The genre, topic, year, does not matter.

Some ideas so far:
Newspaper, taking the a fact and fabricating a fictional story behind it.
Film, taking one of the more interesting features and creating a story behind it.

 

[ConstipatedVigilante]

I like to write espionage stories. Lots of description always helps bring a reader into the story. Just look around yourself and imagine what would be cool. Look at other peoples' story lines - video games, movies, books. Use your imagination. Maybe that guy next to you on the bus is a CIA operative. Maybe the driver is an executive down on his luck, looking for a way to kick it back to the top.

 

[sash1]

here's what i would suggest. i'm actually an english major at Wake, and i've directed/written/acted in short films. to improve on my writing ability i actually took a Play Writing class. i felt that this helped me a lot, and especially for film making, i think it might help you. plays focus on dialogue to push the story, much in the same way a movie does. this class helped me to be able to write more convincing and believeable conversations/dialogue and thus my overall writing ability. i typically draw off occurances in my own life to write about. if i can't do that, i base stories off other things i have seen/read (movies/novels/news/etc)

 

[xanis]

Don't base you're writing off of film. Looking to them for creative ideas is fine, but you can make those ideas MUCH better by writing them down. Look around you at the world and see what's going on. Read the newspaper, observe people... basically do a lot of research before you start writing. Twist reality and make it believable (or not), pair it with a strong mastery of the english language, and you're golden. If you can do those things then you can can write well.

EDIT: What I said above applies to fiction. If you're writing nonfiction you need to work things a little differently. You need to present facts to the reader in a creative, yet informative way. Keep the truth there, but have fun with it.

 

[PepePeru]

i enjoy writing. some of my stuff isnt good. i think some of it is.
i just try to write something everyday.
i look for things around me in everyday life to write about.
taking something mundane, like a game show on TV and expanding on it.

 

[sdifox]

My best creative writing is my tax return.

 

[child of wonder]

With what Hollywood is putting out these days, you could probably just take a dump on a piece of paper, smear it around, and get a $40 million budget to bring it to the big screen.

Seriously, observing life around you is the best way to get creative. Go to a park and chill out on a bench for a while. Sit in the mall. Watch the news. Get some extra sleep (and extra dreams).

 

[jagec]

Make up an interesting and inflammatory alter-ego, and post a series of your escapades on ATOT.

See:
dennilfloss, JLGatsby, PAB, Casiotech, zanejohnson.

 

[mooglemania85]

rip off material dating from 20-40 years ago, anime, foreign films/stories

worked for Tarantino

 

[Syringer]

Originally posted by: jagec
Make up an interesting and inflammatory alter-ego, and post a series of your escapades on ATOT.

See:
dennilfloss, JLGatsby, PAB, Casiotech, zanejohnson.

Best idea yet.

 

[dennilfloss]

One can always use the monkey+typewriter approach.

Take a dictionary. Flip the pages, close your eyes and see on what word your finger lands when you poke the page. Do this three times and try to link the three words. That should give you an idea to start with.

 

[PingSpike]

Another vote for taking a dump on a piece of paper. Poll please.

 

[lyssword]

Originally posted by: dennilfloss
One can always use the monkey+typewriter approach.

Take a dictionary. Flip the pages, close your eyes and see on what word your finger lands when you poke the page. Do this three times and try to link the three words. That should give you an idea to start with.

Manatee "idea" pool. Hehe <3 Family guy
http://www.stoopers.com/index~id~167.htm

 

[mordantmonkey]

as far as writing believable characters: a good exercise is to take a fucked up story from the news and write an account from the first person perspective of the perpetrator. It gives you good experience in justifying motivations and making a characters actions seem believable.

once you can make the extraordinary seem believable, you can allow your imagination to consider many outlandish scenarios.
plus writing about fucked up things in the news will give you fodder and ideas about exactly how far people can be pushed by circumstances.

 

[Coldkilla]

All great idea's guys. *Bookmarked for future reference*

 

[wheresmybacon]

Read as much as possible. Copy your idols but develop your own style. IMO coming up with story and dialogue out of thin air is incredibly difficult and you're ultimately limited by god-given ability, but there are exercises you can do to improve. I think. At least that's what I've heard.

I know the reading part helps though.