How will my great idea stay great? (I hope.)

I read this article today, written by Gordy Hoffman who runs the Bluecat Screenplay Competition. What he says echoes several of my own thoughts about writing - wanted to share!
Without further ado:

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How will my great idea stay great? (I hope.)
by Gordy Hoffman

It’s always the same. The feeling I get when I think of something and see a movie idea. It’s a wonderful warm pull inside that probably is very similar to prospectors spotting gold in a stream. Sometimes, in an instant, upon momentary review, it collapses, measured against my own quick sense of whether I’m willing to live with it for the lifespan of a feature length screenplay. If I pass that filter, then I grab something and write it down, later transferring the new gem to my running list of jackpot movie ideas.

What stays with me from that list? Why are there ideas I save for years, never to be started? Usually I maintain a belief in their value, their promise, and more than likely they will stay on that list when I die. I have so many ideas now as it is. But I don’t run them off simply because I’m not compelled to start. I have no idea what leads to another, and now that I’ve written for almost two decades, I see old ideas finally coming to life in a beautiful new light in another idea altogether. Keep your ideas, the ones you have a fight for, and you’ll see why.

But what makes for the great idea that will light the way through all the drafts, production, editing and release to audience? For me, film ideas can never be only solid to my practical eye or rational brain. I see this in writers all the time, writing scripts over and over like term papers or Sudoku puzzles. They follow patterns, refine habits and crank many a page, deriving their satisfaction from completing drafts and successfully executing their outlines, beat sheets or treatments.

But is the heart involved? This is the difference between a great idea and a great idea that turns into a motion picture: falling in love. On more than one occasion, I have started off on something with great excitement, knowing I have a very commercial and/or original idea in my hands, and I get going. But there are questions, and the initial pieces of the writing might be boring or borrowed. I have started the marathon and I’m on mile seven.

What has to happen? For me, I have to find myself in the writing. I have to fall in love with my story. I have to share a common emotion with my characters. I become intimate with what I’m trying to say, and my story becomes honest.

My idea has become truly great. I have taken a personal ownership of my story, as it now has started to become a reflection of me.

Now this might sound very arty or independent, but this happens when I’m writing commercial specs of high concept. Why? Because it has to.

It has been said before that we are in the feelings business. So when I invest my own generously, I support and sustain an idea to fruition in a produced movie. Until this emotional ownership of a concept takes place, it might as well stay in a file on my hard drive, as a very interesting list.


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http://robinkellyuk.blogspot.com/2008/07/guest-post-gordy-hoffman-on-ideas.html