Where Do Storytellers Get Their Ideas?

Written by Harry

I’ve finally gotten around to watching Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull. It wasn’t the best of the four Indy movies, but it was fun.

I had the plot and several twists figured out five minutes into the movie. As I watched the movie, my thoughts progressed to how the writers put their plots together. They took several seemingly unrelated elements and made them work.

Note: Spoiler Alert has now been activated. If you haven’t seen the movie yet, read no further.

Crystal Skull is set in the 1950s. Its base level plot revolves around the 1947 Roswell incident and the possibility of aliens having visited earth throughout history. It also tied in ancient Mayan mythology and a Russian conspiracy during the Cold War.

No wonder my Dad was grinning when he asked me, “But do you know what the Crystal Skull is?” He knew I’d appreciate the way the ancient myth of the original crystal skull was used.

Remember Your History Lessons

The end of Crystal Skull had me groaning with these two lines:

Mutt Williams: I don’t understand. Why the legend about the city of gold?

Indiana Jones: Well, the word for ‘gold’ translates as ‘treasure.’ But their treasure wasn’t gold, it was knowledge. Knowledge was their treasure.

But now that I think about it, a lot of the classes I took in college and high school are rich sources for my story ideas for games and fiction. Knowledge is a treasure and it will serve you well throughout life.

For example, we recently used a time warp on Escaping Reality. We didn’t know we were going to torment present the players with that situation until I dug into some Nevada history.

One thing led to another and the inspiration came easily.

Stay Sharp

Another way to keep coming up with plot twists that rock your players’ worlds is by paying attention to the details that happen throughout a story. I’m notorious for remembering nearly insignificant incidents and using them later on when no one expects them.

Early on in Escaping Reality, several of the characters met a mysterious preacher at an equally mysterious church. When one of the characters met another preacher during the time warp, he discovered the preacher had the same name.

I don’t plan this stuff. Honest. It’s like I have a massive file in my head and every so often a little mental red flag pokes up and says, “Use me!”

Timing Is Everything

Timing is definitely the key to a successful twist. All those little sticky notes cluttering the edges of my monitor are fantastic, but used too soon and they’re not worth the paper they’re written on.

Introducing a plot twist takes patience. Like a hunter, you have to sit and wait on a tree limb for a while before the prize wanders into your sights.

The Collective Consciousness

I get so many of my ideas from movies. There’s nothing wrong with using what someone else has done, provided you put your own special spin on it. As much as our players admire how I might put a twist on a bit of plot, I also admire people better than me at doing so.

My advice? Just keep your eyes open. Take what might not fit on the surface and look deeper. Make it fit, but make it fit enough to suspend disbelief and leave your players or readers wondering what hit them.

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