Part IOVERVIEWChapter 1: This Book, Its Goals, and Getting StartedYou and Your ResourcesWhy We Work in Outline FormIdeation and OriginalityIdentifying with the Main CharacterJump-Starting the ImaginationThe AssignmentsConcerning the Writing SamplesHaving FunThis Book’s Layout and GoalsGetting StartedThe game called CLOSATChapter 2: You and the Creative Process The Journey of the Self Wanting to Tell StoriesSelf-Exposure and Giving Support What is Therapy and What Is Art?What Stories MeanTheme and VariationJust Do ItOutline and ExpansionCollaborationPart IISELF-EXAMINATION, OBSERVATION,AND IMPROVISATION ASSIGNMENTSChapter 3: Artistic Identity DisplacementAssignment 3-1: Survey of Yourself and Your Authorial GoalsAssignment 3-2: Presenting Yourself and Your Storytelling GoalsAssignment 3-3 Listening and ReactingGoing Farther Chapter 4: Introductions and Playing "CLOSAT" ImprovisingMaintaining FocusPitchingIf You are Working AloneAssignment 4-1: Five-Minute Self-Introduction.Assignment 4-2: Play the CLOSAT game. Assignment 4-3: Develop your Own Pitching Guidelines. General discussionChapter 5: Autobiography and Influences Assignment 5-1: Autobiographical Survey Assignment 5-2: Presenting your influences. Chapter 6: Observing from Life Assignment 6-1: CLOSAT preparatory work and the writer’s journal Assignment 6-2: CLOSAT with 2 characters, 1 location and 1 ObjectAssignment 6-3: CLOSAT with 3 Characters, 2 objects, an act and a themeGoing Farther Assignment 6-4: CLOSAT Variations for a Group/ClassThe Power of Imagery.Going Farther Part IIIUSING THE TOOLS OF DRAMAChapter 7: Developing Your Characters and the Dramatist’s Toolkit Checklist for Developing Your CharactersThe Tools of the DramatistTools #1–4, Four Hats Tool #5, the QuestionnaireTool #6, the Diving MaskTool #7, the Key (the Dramatic Premise)Tool #8, the Pressure Meter (Detects and Measures Conflict)Tool #9, the Stopwatch (Represents Time Progressing) Tool #10, the Cake Slice (Separates Drama into its Components)Tool #11, the Set of Boxes (Representing the Three-Act Structure.)Tool #12, the Telescope (Finding Point of View)Chapter 8: Analyzing a SceneUsing tool #5, the QuestionnaireUsing tool #6, the Diving Mask.Using tool #7, the Key (finding a dramatic premise)Using tool #8, the Pressure Meter (Detects and Measures Conflict)Using tool #9, the Stopwatch (Represents Time Progressing)An Analogy for DramaUsing tool # 10, the Cake-Slice (Separating Drama into its Components)Assignment 8-1: Character and DestinyAssignment 8-2: Volition and Point of ViewAssignment 8-3: Acting on volition.Assignment 8-4: Scene Divisions for "The Fisherman’s Wife."The Fisherman’s WifeChapter 9: Assessing a Complete WorkUsing tool #11, the Set of BoxesThe Three-Act Structure.Character Driven versus Plot Driven DramaUsing tool #8, the Pressure Meter Again (Sources of Pressure, Identifying Genre)Drawing a Dramatic Arc for a Whole WorkDrama and Point of View Assignment 9-1: Dividing "Little Red Riding Hood" into Scenes and Acts.Assignment 9-2 Character Types and Story Meanings. Going Farther Chapter 10: Testing a Story Idea and Deciding Point of ViewExploring a Story’s EffectivenessStory Effectiveness QuestionnaireExploring a Story’s Meaning and PurposeStory Editing Tools in SummaryAssignment 10-1: Impressions and Feedback.Assignment 10-2: Critical Communication.Part IV:CREATIVE WRITING ASSIGNMENTSChapter 11: A Tale from Childhood On DiscussionAssignment 11-1: An Event from Childhood Assignment 11-1: An Event from Childhood Assignment 11-3 Developing a childhood film or photo scene.Example 1 (Vilka Tzouras) Example 2 (Alex Meillier) Example 3 (Chris Darner) Example 4 (Amanda McCormick) DiscussionOn memoryGoing Farther Chapter 12: Family Story Assignment 12-1: A Story Told in Your FamilyAssignment 12-2 Family Story as Comic StripAssignment 12-3 The Untold StoryDiscussionExample 1 (Margaret Harris) Example 2 (Amanda McCormick) Example 3 (Peter Riley) Going Farther Chapter 13: A Myth, Legend, or Folktale Retold Interpreting Oral TalesAdaptation ProblemsAssignment 13-1 Free Choice of Tale.Assignment 13-2 Myth Assignment 13-3 LegendAssignment 13-4 FolktaleDiscussionExample #1: The Legend of Pretty Boy Floyd Retold (Michael Hanttula) Example #2 (Tatsuya Guillermo Ohno) Example #3: Sisyphus Cries Dixie: A Modern Story (Michelle Arnove) Discussion Going Farther Chapter 14: Dream Story Assignment 14-1: Writing up a DreamAssignment 14-2: Surreal NarrativeAssignment 14-3: Linking Dreams into One NarrativeAssignment 14-4 Dream and MythDiscussionDream Sequence #1 (Chris Darner) Dream Sequence #2 (Michael Hanttula) Dream Sequence #3 (Cynthia Merwarth) Going FartherChapter 15: Adapting a Short Story Evaluating a Story for Adaptation to the ScreenAssignment 15-1: Short Story Analysis Assignment 15-2: Adaptation IssuesAssignment 15-3: Dramatic BreakdownDiscussionExample 1: "An Encounter," from Dubliners, by James Joyce (Peter Riley)Example 2, "Le Diner de Cons," by Francis Veber (Louis Leterrier) OverviewGoing Farther Chapter 16: Ten-Minute, News Inspired Story Making a Working HypothesisAssignment 16-1: A picture and its consequences. Assignment 16-2: Reality TV show. Assignment 16-3: Docudrama.Assignment 16-4: Based on a Real Story... Assignment 16-5: Behind the Façade Assignment 16-6: This Far, and No FartherAssignment 16-7: Analyze Four News Items. Assignment 16-8: Develop Interpersonal Difference DiscussionGoing Farther Chapter 17: A Documentary Subject Assignment 17-1: A Documentary SubjectAssignment 17-2: Simple Voice-Over Personal FilmAssignment 17-3: Simple Voice-Over Historical FilmDocumentary Subject (Angela Galyean) Going Farther Chapter 18: Thirty-Minute Original FictionAssignment 18-1: Treatment for an Original Thirty-Minute Fiction Piece. Assignment 18-2: An Original 30-minute Fiction Piece Inspired by an Image.Assignment 18-3: An Original 30-minute Fiction Piece Inspired by CLOSAT Cards.Assignment 18-3: An Original 30-minute Fiction Piece Inspired by CLOSAT Cards.Example #1: Thirty-Minute Original Fiction Idea (Michael Hanttula) Example #2: "Eggs Benedict" (Michelle Arnove) On ComedyGoing Farther Chapter 19: Feature Film Assignment 19-1: Idea for a Feature Film (Featuring Two Points of View)Example: Feature Film Idea (Paul Flanagan) On The Writing Process and Receiving CriticismGoing Farther Part V COLLABORATIVE STORY DEVELOPMENTChapter 20: Wholly Improvised (Scenes and story construction in the vein of Cassavetes, Fassbinder, Linklater)Chapter 21: Screenplay generated from Improvisation (Screenplay generated from a core of ideas, cast collaboration and improvisations, then best material transcribed and shaped into a screenplay, in the vein of Bergman, Leigh)Part VTHE EMERGING WRITERChapter 22: Revisiting Your Artistic Identity Your Creative Direction Assignment 20-1: Revisiting your Artistic Identity.Assignment 20-2: Say Where You’d Like to Go.Assignment 20-3: Ideas and Ambitions. Assignment 20-4 Setting a Personal Agenda.Discussion and RetrospectivePart VI:EXPANDING YOUR WORK INTO ITS FINAL FORMChapter 23: Story-Editing Your OutlineStructural OptionsTransitionsStream of ConsciousnessTroubleshooting Yielding to the Dramatic ConventionsChapter 24: Expanding Your OutlineWriting for the ScreenStandard Screenplay Format Camera and Editing Directions Sound and Music Directions Documentary Film ProposalPlaysStandard Playwriting FormatNovel or Short Story Format

"Whenever a book’s lifespan makes it through several editions, you know that it must be doing something right...Now in it’s third edition, Michael Rabiger’s Developing Story Ideas serves an area of creative development which is normally not addressed in most storytelling/screenwriting manuals; how to come up with an idea for a story in the first place."--Jonny Elwyn, freelance film editor and creator of jonnyelwyn.co.uk