The following sections will help you get started compiling your list of story ideas. Of course, this list is in no way conclusive. You will probably find many other wonderful points of interest.
1.1 School days
It doesn’t matter whether it was grade school, high school, college, grad school, medical school, or law school; if you dig up enough dirt, you will find something hidden in the shadows worth discussing. Ask yourself the following questions:
• What happened to you during your school days?
• Were you bullied until you learned to defend yourself?
• Did you pursue a major for the sake of pleasing your parents?
• Were you partying so much that you ended up cheating just to get passing grades?
Movies such as Fast Times at Ridgemont High, Mean Girls, and Heathers aren’t based on true stories, but they are all about the trials and tribulations of high school. If you want to write about your school days, watch movies (nonfiction and fiction) to get an idea of what the audience wants in a school-based movie.
1.2 Children
You may want to write stories for kids about adventures you and your friends had, or you may want to write about your children and the struggles you have had with them.
• Were you blessed with a baby when the doctor told you that you only had a 10 percent chance of conceiving?
• Did you want a girl, but ended up with a boy and realized it was a boy you really wanted all along?
• Did you try for a baby for years, then stop trying only to become pregnant the next month?
• Did you and your childhood friends have a great adventure? (Even though Stand by Me isn’t a true story, it is a good reference for a group of kids bonding while searching for adventure.)
You may want to write about a darker time in your teenage years. A good movie to watch is Thirteen. Nikki Reed co-wrote and co-starred in the movie. Reed was a teenager at the time of writing.
1.3 Animals
Stories about animals can be funny or inspiring. If you are an animal lover, maybe this is a topic at which you can excel.
• Do you love your pet so much that you are single because you always put your pet first?
• Did you lose your pet and swore you would never adopt another one?
• Do you have funny or inspiring stories about your pets?
• Did you ever work in a pet shop or veterinarian clinic and have funny stories to share about the customers and their animals?
1.4 Family traditions, religious experiences, and vacation
Every family has their own holiday rituals. Some of them are hilarious. For example, does your family have a ritual of take-no-prisoners chess matches and Monopoly games during the holidays? Or maybe your family has a unique way of decorating the tree?
There are also religious traditions. Who doesn’t have an insanely religious aunt or uncle who would make a great movie character?
• Did you fall in love with someone of a different race or background and have to flee the country just so you two could be together?
• How do you feel now about your family’s passed-down traditions and beliefs? How will those traditions affect your children?
• Did you have a religious awakening after a traumatic life event?
• Are there family feuds that continue from year to year at family gatherings?
• Are you so religious that people find you to be a fanatic?
• Did you refuse to date someone you really liked because you and this person did not share the same religion?
• Did you attend an awkward funeral for an eccentric relative?
• Is your birthday one of your favorite or least favorite holidays?
• Which holiday is more significant to you? Valentine’s Day or New Year’s Eve? Has that changed over the years?
Pieces of April is a fabulous movie about a daughter attempting to prepare a Thanksgiving dinner for her estranged family. Another example is A Christmas Story, which is a movie classic, from the memories of Jean Shepherd (based on the book of short stories In God We Trust, All Others Pay Cash).
People love memorable vacation movies. Take the time to watch box-office hits such as Home Alone and any of the National Lampoon’s Vacation movies. These movies may be fictional, but audiences loved them!
• Do you have any funny vacation stories that you can share with the world?
• Was there ever a particular vacation that brought you so much pain that you wished you could have skipped it?
• Did you have a vacation that did not go as planned where one bad thing happened after another?
1.5 Siblings
Sibling stories can be funny or serious and may include stories about sibling rivalries, or adapting to living with step or adopted siblings. In serious drama, conflict between siblings can be fatal (e.g., Michael and Fredo Corleone in The Godfather).
• When you were growing up, did you cherish your baby sister or brother?
• Did you have a love for your older brother that other people found unusual (e.g., consider Angelina Jolie and the media frenzy that occurred around her relationship with her brother, James Haven)?
• Did you model your behavior after your older sister because you thought the world of her? What’s the relationship like now? Is it the same or different?
• Did you wish you were an only child because your sibling received all of your parents’ attention?
• Did your sister or brother pick on you and blame you for everything? Or did your parents automatically blame you for something your brother or sister did?
• Are you still close with your siblings, or are you still on nonspeaking terms?
There is a discussion about sibling rivalries in movies at www.aceshowbiz.com/news/view/00017186.html.
1.6 Love and heartbreak
There are numerous stories about love and heartbreak. The key is to understand what moves you in life and whether or not your story will be moving for the audience. What could be more universal than writing about one of your great loves?
• Did you meet someone online? If so, did you lose all sense of reason when you found yourself engaged after only knowing each other for one month?
• Have you ever been so in love that you actually considered murdering someone?
• Would you have shaved ten years off your life to be with a certain person?
• Did you have a whirlwind romance that lasted for six months and then abruptly stopped?
• Were you so much in love and/or lust that you and your romantic interest barricaded yourselves inside a hotel room for one week?
• Were you so in love and/or lust that you couldn’t think straight?
• Had you given up on love and then soon after met the love of your life?
• Did you disappear from your friends and family for a period of time because of your