Ideas For Inventing A Plot For Your Play Or Movie

By Author: Terry Sanders
Total Articles: 37
Comment this article

One of the questions that is often asked of writers is where they get their ideas for plots. Even writers ask this question. And the answer is anywhere and everywhere.
A lot of story ideas are based on real life events. A glance through the newspaper will reveal many situations that can easily inspire fiction. Sometimes the creative writer only has to change the names and adjust the facts to make the story more believable. Nobody would ever believe some of the things that happen in real life.
People in politics and show business live lives replete with drama. They make fascinating subjects for fiction. One of Agatha Christie's most baffling mysteries concerned a famous actress meeting a fan who had changed her life years earlier.
But a plot doesn't require people who are rich and glamorous. Any problem that ordinary people are faced with can be developed into a story. For example many people are concerned with the problem of how to get rid of bugs.
If the bugs in question are an endless army of flesh-eating African ants marching relentlessly toward your cattle ranch the result could be the terrifying ...
... tale of Leinengen Versus the Ants. If you wake up one morning and discover you are the bug everyone is trying to get rid of you have the beginning of Kafka's Metamorphosis. Further contemplation on the bug question can lead to stories about the unexpected consequences of pesticide use or the revelation of dark secrets in a family that suffers from bug-related phobias.
When you introduce radiation and other science fiction ingredients a story about household pests can become the Horrors of Spider Island, Spider-man or The Fly. A plague of rats can inspire a story about government corruption as was the case with The Pied Piper. Fleas can inspire thoughts of bubonic plague and that can inspire thoughts about all sorts of plagues.
A plague can be a public health concern or it can be a metaphor for any societal ill that has gotten out of hand. Almost any problem or situation can be the basis of a plot. What the writer does with it is what make it a story.
There must be something in the situation that requires or inspires someone to take action. A semi mad scientist who has just received an eviction notice in a city plagued by some unpleasant pest could be inspired to invent a new pest poison. Whether he makes the problem better or worse is up to the writer.

customized essay