Can't Think Up a Good Screenplay Idea? Try Story-in-a-Can

It is extremely difficult to come up with a story, let alone a good one or one that isn't an unintentional rip-off of something else. If you're suffering from a bit of writer's block or if you just want to generate some fresh, new ideas for some decent material, this little exercise might do the trick. The guys over at The Film Look show you how they get their creativity going using a can, sticky notes, and an online random word generator.

Here's what you need to do in order to get Story-in-a-Can going. Get your hands on four tin cans (or whatever receptacle you've got lying around that won't shred up your fingies), and label them with the following categories: "Character", "Location", "Object", "Scenario". Next, use a random word generator (there are a ton online, but this is the one used in the video) to come up with a bunch of words for each category and write each word on a sticky note. From there, all you have to do is pop those bad boys in their respective can and voilà...you've got Story-in-a-Can. All you do is pick a sticky note from each can and write a story using each prompt. Done!

This may not be the catalyst to writing your award-winning screenplay (or maybe so!), but it'll definitely get your creative juices flowing.

How do you come up with story ideas? Let us know in the comments below!

Source: The Film Look