Actor, writer, producer—Carl Reiner has done it all. He told WGAWest about how he develops his stories:
“I start with a blank page, and I put a line on it. I’ve done this a lot. I just put a line down, anything. And then I ask questions about it. The best example was a book I wrote called All Kinds of Love. I remember, from nowhere, I wrote the line – and I had nothing in my mind – I wrote, “He didn’t realize that hiring the Japanese tutor would have the impact in his marriage that it did.”
Now, that’s a funny line. I said, “Who is this guy and why is he studying Japanese?” Maybe he had to go to Japan sometime. “Why did it impact his marriage? I worked it out that he hired a man, but it turned out to be a Japanese woman who was very pretty and his wife got jealous. And it went on like that and became a rather good book.
I’ve done that a few times. I’ve certainly done it with short stories.”
I’m not sure I’d trust that method for developing an entire plot for a novel or screenplay but I can certainly see it working for shorts stories, one-act plays, monologues, etc.
If you’re stuck, give it a try.
