Developing Story Ideas

Developing Story Ideas offers students and other young artists a spectrum of resources and a structure of writing practice so that anyone can quickly and reliably generate a wide variety of stories. It does so stressing the importance of understanding oneself and creating collaboratively.



This book provides exercises and projects to help each person draw an artistic self-profile to summarize what he or she most needs to investigate in their creative work. It teaches narrative structure and critical language, and asserts that giving and taking criticism is an essential part of the creative process. It treats fiction and non-fiction as highly related - for fiction needs its roots in the real world, while documentary needs narrative drive and structure to impose meaning on its reality. All the assignments are illustrated with examples of student work and/or pieces drawn from classic works of literature and film, each followed by meaningful and sensitive commentary from the author. Throughout the book the author has placed boxed text to emphasize information that is critical to the success of a particular writing project or to the creative process generally.

Readers will experience what education has come to recognize as particularly effective: hands-on creative projects, an emphasis on self-actualization, and working not as an embattled individual competing for recognition, but as part of a learning community. In this atmosphere people naturally form the friendships, creative partnerships, and teams that make filmmaking gratifying and productive.

Michael Rabiger has directed or edited over 35 films, founded the Documentary Center at Columbia College, Chicago, and was Chair of its Film/Video Department. Now Professor Emeritus, Rabiger has also been presented with the Preservation and Scholarship Award by the International Documentary Association. He has given workshops in many countries, led a multinational European documentary workshop for CILECT, the international association of film schools. As Visiting Professor at New York University's Tisch School of the Arts, he taught idea development, directing, and advanced production. When he retired 2001 to write full-time, Columbia renamed its documentary center "The Michael Rabiger Center for Documentary.” In 2002 he was made Honorary Professor at the University of Buenos Aires, Argentina; in 2003 awarded the 2003 Preservation and Scholarship Award by the International Documentary Association in Los Angeles; in 2005 the Genius Career Achievement Award by the Chicago International Documentary Festival, and also in 2005 was made Professor Emeritus by Columbia College Chicago. He is the author of the enormously successful, Directing: Film Techniques and Aesthetics (Focal Press), now in its fourth edition, and Directing the Documentary (Focal Press), now in its fifth edition. He is also the author of Developing Story Ideas (Focal Press), currently in its second edition. He is currently writing a biography of Thomas Hardy.