How To Write Down Your Movie Idea

This article will discuss how to write down your movie idea.

Step 1 - Identify your starting point

Ideas come from everywhere and nowhere. That’s why they’re called ideas!

And we don’t want you to think that they always start with a single thought. Instead, as a writer, your job is to create a story with characters and a world, and to determine the themes and structure of that story.

In other words, your starting point is your character and the story that unfolds within that character’s world.

In this case, that would be the world of a young girl, who is abandoned at an orphanage as a baby. She is then adopted by a middle-aged woman, and the two travel around the world together as a team.

By watching this girl grow up, viewers will learn about the themes and situations that we hope to include in our movie.

Step 2 - Write down your character’s goals

As a character, your goal should always be the same - to have a life you can be proud of. For example, your main character might want to prove herself to her adoptive mother, or to find her birth mother.

By having a single goal for every character, we can tie their actions to their individual morals and values, and thus have the characters carry out the theme of the story.

Let’s see an example. Our main character is a 16-year-old girl named Jane who was abandoned at a hospital as a baby.

The first thing she wants to do as a young adult is find her birth mother. But her adoptive mother, Kitty, sees this as a dangerous idea, and tries to stop her from reaching this goal.

Jane is determined to follow her dream, however, so she sneaks out of the house and takes a bus to her birth city, Houston, TX. There, she starts searching for her birth mother through her old high school and old house.

Through the character’s journey, we learn about the theme of family - the love and support that bonds people together. It also makes her realize what the theme of this movie is, which is finding your own identity.

By the end of the film, Jane will be a woman of her own.

Step 3 - Write down the protagonist’s destinies

Next, the characters need a destiny. They need to make choices in order to fulfill their destinies.

Here are some ways you can plot out your movie’s destiny, based on your character’s goals:

Novel: The protagonist is a young woman who travels around the world and learns about her own identity.

The protagonist is a young woman who travels around the world and learns about her own identity.

Play: The protagonist is a young man who becomes obsessed with an older woman and she feels that this is his destiny.

The protagonist is a young man who becomes obsessed with an older woman and she feels that this is his destiny.

TV Series: The protagonist becomes a professional basketball player, and also finds love.

The protagonist becomes a professional basketball player, and also finds love.

Book: The protagonist becomes a writer, who always feels like he’s lacking something.

Step 4 - Write your protagonist’s narrative

Now, it’s time to get the story moving! After determining the themes and plot points of your movie, you need to create the narrative that will carry them out.

Create two columns: one for your main character and one for his goal.

For each character, in both columns, add a short description of their physical appearance. We will create separate versions of each character’s physical appearance - one for each goal.

In the first column, write: “Pick up: Jane, 16. Reclusive, and an orphan.”

In the second column, write: “Goals: Become self-sufficient, find her birth mother, get a high school education, and a job.”

While Jane is a recluse and deeply introverted, she also has strong willpower. In this section, she sets her goals and builds her own persona to represent them.

For her goals, you might write: Find a career she loves, and be successful at it.

Successfully pursue her writing career and become a published author.

Succeed in basketball, and become the star.

Meet the man she’s been in love with for a long time, and start a family.

Now, it’s time to flesh out the other characters’ goals! We will plot out our main character’s goal and his destiny, and the goals of the other characters as well.

While the first four goals are easy to create, the fifth and sixth are the hardest.

Create one column for each character, and each of their individual goals will have a description:

“Pick up: Nola, 34. Religious fanatic. Has a violent temper.

Goal: Marry a rich man. Get a rich man to take care of her.”

“Goals: Become famous. Get famous. Get famous.”

“Succeed in college. Succeed in college. Succeed in college. Succeed in college.”

Step 5 - Plot your story

Now, it’s time to create the rest of your plot! Write the ending to your movie, and also the beginning of a prologue that explains how the main character first finds their goal.

For your main character, you will write these two parts of your plot. For the rest of the other characters, you will use the main character’s ending to set their beginning.

Below is an outline for your final movie! If you haven’t already, you can download the script or read along.

The end of the movie

Scene 1: The movie ends with our protagonist finding their goal. They are no longer in their current location, but they know that it is on the other side of the world.

Scene 2: The main character is starting a journey towards their goal, while beginning to gain their abilities. They arrive at their destination, and on their first night, they find a woman they have been dreaming about.

Scene 3: Our main character and the woman begin to fall in love, and the man declares his love for her. He starts writing her love poems.

Scene 4: In the middle of the night, the woman dies. The man finds himself alone, and ends up having to build himself a shrine.

Scene 5: As the main character begins to learn how to become a writer, they move to another location and begin to write their love story. Meanwhile, the main character learns more about themselves and what they are capable of.

Scene 6: The main character’s life changes forever. They go through a metamorphosis as a person and a writer, and discover what they are capable of.

Conclusion

That’s it for now! To make this experience more interesting, break the process up into parts so you don’t get bored.

The real goal is to create a movie from start to finish. You can