I have been writing for a while and I’m needing some help tryin to think of a good solid story for a movie. Where does everyone start. I’ve thought of writing a screenplay based on a book called “Odd Thomas” if anyone’s read it. And I’ve thought about the typical low-budget horror. I don’t know where to start because it’s hard to be original these days when every idea has already been done. Thoughts? Comments?
Nothing is really considered “original” now days.  If you think about it, everything has been done before, EVERYTHING.  What it comes down to is: being unique.  Make it YOUR interpretation, put your spin on it, because nothing will ever be quote on quote, “original.”
I usually start with a scene I’d like to see in a film and build the story around that.
I think its better to not have a start. You should should just write. And when I started a script on last month, I came up with five different stories that combine themselves and it works better to just let loose and not have a base. My story just revolves around a GOOD detective. a BAD detective. And three UGLY criminals. I purposely made the story like THE GOOD, THE BAD & THE UGLY
I agree, the easiest way to write is just to start. I also find it helpful to take an existing story and make it completely your own. Short stories seem to work the best because you can build a completely differn’t story from its begining.
For me a story will just pop into my head, and then i will think about for a long time and then begin to write. Im not gonna write anymore screenplays for a while, one reason is that i can never finsh, the other is that i dont know enouhg about movies and how they work, how to make a situation more dramatic, how to use dialouge to progress the story, etc.
By the way, whats Odd Tom about?