If you’re trying to get to the heart of a story that you’ve only got a vague idea about, one of the best things to do is to take the vague idea you have, and ask ‘why’. A lot.
For a random example, I turned to a web-based random story idea generator*, and got ‘A team of dangerous farmers gets drunk.’
So. OK. Dangerous farmers. That sounds reasonably amusing. We know they’re dangerous… why? Just being violent is the obvious answer, but it’s too dull — it doesn’t interest me — so I’ll throw that away. Maybe they’re Martial Arts experts. Maybe they work for the NSA. Maybe they’re occultists, but Agrimancy doesn’t strike me as all that dangerous (save when it comes to lopping out hearts for John Barleycorn). Maybe they’re desperadoes. Alien invaders. Assassins. Hmm. Ninja farmers. I like ninja farmers.
Ninja Farmer by Bill Marrs
So the next question is why are they ninja farmers. To answer that, I need to know if they are Ninja farmers, or farming Ninjas. Well, it says dangerous farmers, so they’re Ninja farmers. Why are they Ninja? They were taught. By a real Ninja, obviously, and on the farm since childhood, because it takes a long time. So why is a Ninja running a farm in the middle of nowhere and training farmboys? It isn’t to sneak up on cows…
Well, maybe he wants to undermine the US by training farmer ninjas. Being a hick assassin is a perfect cover. Black dungarees and coveralls… nice. So it’s a big farm. Not a nice place. The Dangerous Farmers are bad, rather than ‘good’ ninjas.
OK. Why did they get drunk? Celebrating. Why? Umm, graduation. Their training is complete. They get drunk, ride on down to the nearest town, and raise hell — but a bit too efficiently. The local cop finds herself looking into it, and realises something odd is going on. Then she gets into trouble. Why? Well, they need to take her out. Why? Important mission coming up. So it’s a race for the local cop (and some nosy reporter love interest perhaps) to uncover and defeat the Ninja Farmers before they can… ummm… kill a bunch of senators on a tour of the mid-west…
Hell. Much more of this and we’ll have a surreal Robert Ludlum book.
But you get the idea. It works just as well for scripts, RPG scenarios, comics, computer games: any time you need to turn a rough idea into some sort of plot or setting. Just keep asking why, with an occasional how or who or where thrown in.
* The site I actually used at the time has gone the way of all things.
Thats aweome and really helped me. Thank you. ; ]