The Idea: The Seven Elements of a Viable Story for Screen, Stage or Fiction

	
By Erik Bork

Published by Overfall Press in 2018 

English, 228 pages


Most screenwriting books tend to focus on story structure, scene writing, navigating the business, and other parts of the craft that come AFTER the initial choice of the central concept for a story.

Multiple Emmy- and Golden Globe-winning writer/producer Erik Bork (HBO's Band of Brothers) takes a different approach. His experience in the industry and as a screenwriting professor and coach have led him to recognize that it's the selection of the initial idea that is the most important part of the process -- with the most impact on the project's chance of success.

And as Mr. Bork knows from experience, this choice takes a lot more understanding and work to get "right" than eager purveyors of the craft tend to realize.

Most screenwriters and fiction writers have difficulty getting their work read and accepted by agents, editors and producers mainly because their idea for a story presented in a query or pitch doesn't excite these "gatekeepers" like it would need to, for them to want to engage.

And when they do read the whole story, their core reasons for "passing" are usually also about the basic idea (although lack of professional-level execution matters, too). But writers are usually in the dark about this, not realizing that the project they spent months or years on had fundamental flaws on a concept level, in the eyes of the people they most hoped to impress with it.

But even the best fiction writing books and screenwriting experts tend to move quickly past the crucial step of choosing a viable idea, to get to the specific plotting and composition of it, because there is so much to master in those later parts of the process -- which feel a lot more like "writing" than developing and mulling over potential story concepts.

Professionals, though, tend to understand the primacy of "the idea," and learn that there are certain key elements in story or series premises that really work, and which are worth investing time and energy in. And that's what The Idea focuses on -- laying out what those specific elements are, and how to master them.

While its concepts originate from the author's screenwriting experiences, they apply equally to commercial fiction writing, playwriting and other forms of "story" -- because the focus is on what makes an underlying concept compelling enough to appeal to a substantial audience or readership