From Idea to Sentence

Express the idea in a sentence.

We’re descending just a little from the clouds of thinking up a story idea to expressing the idea in a sentence.

Write your story idea in a sentence.

Any sentence. 

Just say it. Write it. Over and over again.

Don’t worry. I’ll go first.

Before I teach, I do. 

If I’m going to teach students how to take a portrait photo, write a monster story, or make an iPhone movie, then I take that portrait, write that story, and make that movie. I go through that process first and for several reasons.

The most important reason is that I need to know what I don’t know. I learn a lot going through the whole process. I need to know what gave me trouble and what might give the students trouble. It’s amazing how much I improve my lesson when I go through all the steps on my own and walk my talk. Also, I need to prove to the students that it can be done. “Look. You can do it like I did and just as badly, and that’s okay!”

So I’m taking my own advice here and walking my talk. I’m telling you that once you stumble upon a story idea — or, more likely, work an idea over in your mind for what seems like eternity — you should try spitting out your story in a sentence. This step precedes loglines. We’re just riffing, taking that concept and saying it, out loud, now!

Sounds easy. Of course, I know it’s not. I know it’s not because people who are not writers never make it this far. They have that story idea and text you, “Hey, I have a great idea for a movie,” or “Hey, this could be your next novel!” And their idea is still in the idea phase. It’s a situation, a quirky hook, an observation. There’s no hero or desire or conflict, and it’s not in a sentence.

So making it this far is a big deal. You have an idea, you may (or may not) have found a way to project yourself into the hero’s perspective, and now you need to just blurt it out. What’s the story? Say it.

So here’s me taking my own advice. 

If it’s so easy to just “say it,” why don’t I do it? 

Fair enough. 

I’ll run through a few of the sources for story ideas I made up in the last entry (“Story Ideas”) and try to write a sentence for each.

And by “try to write,” I mean I’ll be staring at the screen for two hours and rewriting sentences in my head . . . and then I’ll type them in.

Below you’ll find the prompts in italics, my sentence in bold, and a bulleted note.

An argument between lovers at a party | A sudden inheritance enables a chef to open his first restaurant while his fiancée argues they should use the money to travel the world.

• Note: I had to make up something for them to argue about, and there’s nothing better than money! I needed two competing visions of what makes a good life: he wants to plan for tomorrow; she wants to live for today. He has a calling and wants to pursue his craft; she doesn’t have a calling and wants to explore the world. I like it. I can feel the drama. And it’s a nice fantasy: money, good food, travel. Who wouldn’t want to live these lives vicariously?

A reworked premise from a book/movie | A hard-partying career woman gets demoted to intern and has to compete against another intern, a gruff and efficient retiree, to get her job back.

• Note: I wanted to rewrite The Intern (2015) because neither character had a desire that was driving the movie. The characters played by Anne Hathaway and Robert De Niro had life problems and a wise-man/troubled-youth kind of relationship, but they weren’t working for a common goal or competing for the same thing. In the version I came up with today, these two representatives of different generations are competing for the same thing, and the stakes are higher.

Reacting to something in world driving you crazy | In Running From Office, a mild-mannered young man engages in increasingly scandalous behavior to sabotage his election, for the third time, to the US Senate, but he has to find out who’s manipulating the system before his whole life is wasted just to maintain his party’s majority.

• Note: Politics! Now there’s a subject you can’t ignore! Hackers, voting machines, gerrymandering, voting restrictions, manipulation of the democratic process by foreign actors: I thought if you could manipulate the system by computers and all that, then a guy who doesn’t even want to be elected could keep getting elected. I’ve had the title in my head for years but not the story. I think there’s something here that would make a funny Groundhog Day-meets-The Candidate story.

The Alexa in the room | An extended blackout forces a blind young recluse, previously dependent on Alexa/Siri for navigating his life in his New York penthouse, to venture into the city for food and water.

• Note: I was in New York in August 2003 during the blackout. I remembered that experience as I was thinking about this story idea.

Adults state their desires with the bold innocence of children | When his boss announces her engagement, a heartbroken middle-aged bachelor decides to state his day-to-day desires openly and frankly at work, but when his colleagues follow his lead and remake the office into an efficient utopia, he’s promoted to work alongside the woman he loves . . . and the lies begin.

• Note: I know this sounds like another man-boy story (starring Will Ferrell or Zach Galifianakis), but I’m envisioning something more comic utopian, like Office Space written by Guy Davenport.

Parents attend empty-nest seminar | On the verge of divorce after their adult children move out, a couple attends an Arizona seminar for empty-nesters, but when they invite a down-on-their-luck couple to return home with them, they have to resolve their differences before this couple kicks them out of the nest.

• Note: I like the irony of this reversal, especially because my wife and I are currently empty-nesters . . . sort of.

Whew.

So much for just “saying it.”

That took over three hours . . . with coffee breaks and snack breaks.

Self-burn.

I’m tired. My brain hurts. Coffee break!

Okay, I’m back.

And that’s why I do things before I teach those things. I need to know how it’s actually going to go. And that did not go the way I thought. I thought I’d just crank out some sentences. Pow! Bang! Zammy! No such luck. I slid into logline territory. I took it way too seriously. I spent a lot of time.

But that’s good, yeah? I guess I needed to trick myself. I needed to tell myself, “Just write a sentence. Who can’t write a sentence? Easy! Just do it!”

And that tricked me into starting when maybe, if I’d set the high standard of writing a strong logline, I wouldn’t have started at all.

This reminds me of Michael Chabon. I remember once reading that he tells himself to write one sentence a day. Why? It’s because, no matter what, he has to go through the same long process just to get his ass in the chair (wake up, clothes, breakfast, coffee, sit down, turn on the computer, open the document, take out your notes, get your mind right, summon the world of your story back into your imagination, etc.). Who can’t write one sentence? Easy, right? So he goes through the whole process of getting ready, and he’s feeling good, feeling confident. 

When he starts writing, he never writes just one sentence.

It’s a trick of perspective. Tell yourself the mountain isn’t a mountain. It’s one sentence. And so you climb the mountain feeling good. Now, on the other side of the mountain, you just keep walking. You’ve made it. You’re here. The view looks good. Keep writing.

So get your story idea.

Write a sentence.

Take breaks. Have a snack. Blurt it out. Work it over. Try again.

Who can’t write a sentence? 

Write your sentence. There. Finally.

Enjoy the view.

Keep going.

_____

PHOTO: A view of the mountains of North Carolina