Screenwriting : “How do I come up with ideas for scripts? It’s Like Making Popcorn.” by Tom Stohlgren

I uploaded my 85th feature script onto my loglines page on Stage 32. In a subsequent exchange of comments, RB suggested that I write a blog about how I develop my ideas for scripts. I’ll use my latest script, “Who is Betty Andrews?” as an example, but all of my scripts originate from an insatiable curiosity about life. I imagine millions of un-popped kernels of corn as “possible ideas for a script.” From all of the books in the world, I happened to be reading “Lysistrata,” an ancient Greek comedy by Aristophanes. I had read it in community college and remembered it had an anti-war theme. Its 31 pages written in 411 B.C.E. were remarkably relevant today given the wars around the globe and how little we’ve evolved as a species to eliminate violence as a means to resolve conflict. POP! I knew that Greek women protested the war by denying their husbands sex (POP). In my research, I discovered that the comedy play (POP) was banned in the U.S. from 1873 to 1930 (POP)! More interesting, I learned that the book had as much to do with women’s rights (POP) as it was about the anti-war theme.

I thought, how could I bring this important message into a contemporary film script?

I picked an average unassuming 12-year-old female for the lead (an every-girl). In this case, a bit of an underachiever who makes “mistakes” in life by using two-page summaries on Google to help with her book reports. She selects an unapproved book, “Lysistrata,” rushes her shabby book report, and gets her parents hauled into the school’s counselor’s office in the first scene (POP), where she secretly records the counselor on her smartphone (POP).

From then on, the kernels start popping left and right as everything gets blown out of proportion. There’s a social media “Mega-Influencer” who turns up the heat by sharing the story online (POP, POP, POP). There are repercussions among the lead character’s friends (POP), and at home (POP), church (POP), and school (POP). Add in a coming-of-age element to complicate the young woman’s and POP. You get the idea. I outline the characters (backstories and their arcs), and the “beats” (taking liberties with Save the Cat), and I spend a lot of time enjoying the popcorn in Act III.

In my scripts, I like to explore aspects of elevated human behavior and decision-making, typically with smart characters (often women and under-represented leads) who rely on critical thinking skills, science, and moral human nature. I draw on decades of training diverse graduate students in university settings and travels around the globe.

It may be unhelpful to know that Ideas for scripts come from everywhere: books, TV, films, work, travel, home, conversations, and experiences. That doesn’t narrow it down, and it shouldn’t. Find a kernel that POPS for you and find your reason for writing. My reasons for writing are similar to Kurt Vonnegut’s, who said, “not to get money and fame, but to experience becoming, to find out what’s inside you, to make your soul grow.” POP!