New Twists on Old Themes -- Anyone Have A Method?

I have a script called "Eclipse" that seems to have done pretty well in feedback terms. One note I had from a PAGE reader last summer was "Despite the combination of two well-worn genres, I found your overall story to be very original. Not an easy feat these days. The juxtaposition of werewolf mythology and the religious supernatural was well handled and for the most part interesting. I was impressed with how you cleverly married the two." So that felt good, but what we all need as writers, I know I do, is a means of generating "more" of that "the same, only different," where the twist on old themes and concepts gets someone interested. Does anyone have any "methodology" they use to generate such as that? I'm trying to find my way past "waiting for inspiration" to have such ideas.

Hi Ron,

"More of the same, only different" does seem to be one of those ubiquitous catch phrases, doesn't it? The problem with trying to turn that into a methodology, I think, is that you end up trying to write to the market. If you aren't writing from something that inspired you then your writing won't be very inspired (damn, that sounds hokey).

I like to gather as many ideas as possible and consider each one just to see what sticks in my mind. When I read articles or books (on whatever subject) I try to think about how their different themes and events might work in a script. Sometimes it doesn't go anywhere, and other times something sparks and I continue developing an idea.

In terms of resources, I have a couple that tend to get my creative juices flowing. One is a set of three books called "The Great American Bathroom Book Vol. I-III." It's a collection of synopses of great works of literature and poetry as well as articles on influential works of nonfiction. There are all kinds of ideas in there. The other one is Christopher Vogler's book, The Writer's Journey. It's not a collection of ideas, per se, but for whatever reason, I often tend to have moments of inspiration after (or while) reading it.

Message edited by: Aaron Silverman on Apr 10, 2009 1:42 PM

That is more the kind of thing that's likely to work for me than those books full of writer's prompts, which I never seem to use, alas.