Summer Breeze

Last week I talked about using a title as a catalyst to jump start an idea for a script. So let’s try it again. Let’s say you come up with the idea of calling a film Summer Breeze. Why? You just like the title. It sounds… lovely. Cool, crisp, promising. Or maybe you were at a bar and had the cocktail with that name. Whatever. That’s the title—you can see it on a marque, can’t you?

One way to go with that title would be to imagine you’re in a town where it’s sweltering—it’s hot, humid, and a breeze is a thing to be wished for. But a breeze doesn’t come. This could lead you to think about a breeze as a ‘want’…as something desired but elusive to a character. So imagine a character who’s in that frame of mind, and the weather mimics her desire—which is for something to blow into her life and change everything. She could be quite successful, a vice president in a local company where every day is like the day before and she’s drowning in boredom. Or she could be a high school girl looking forward to summer and on the last day of school, convinced summer will change everything. Or he could be a guy with the last name of “Summer” who blows into town and his arrival makes people look at things differently.

Another thought for this title—your main character is an air-conditioner salesman but it’s such a breezy summer that he’s not making any sales. He’s also having problems in his personal life that send him slightly into weirdness territory, so much so that he imagines that if people were forced to close their windows and doors, and thus couldn’t enjoy the summer breezes, they’d be forced to buy his air conditioners. So he commits a murder, and then another, and in both cases he murdered someone by taking a screen off a window and gaining entry—prompting the police to warn people to keep windows closed when possible. And sure enough, his air conditioning business picks up. This could be a horror film, a comic send-up, or even a creepy/scary movie but with a happy ending—at least for the salesman!

When you take a title and work with it, the genre you end up writing in is completely up to you. From the examples I talked about you can see that how you approach a title can determine where it will end up. If you’re in a silly mood, you might come up with a story that’s comic, if you’re feeling wistful, you might come up with something more thoughtful or romantic, if you’re feeling angry, hey, a slasher film. The point is to just give it a try, pick a word or two that you think might be an interesting title and see where it takes you. You may not actually write the titles you’ve come up with but it’s a great exercise in prospecting for a good story—and along the way, you might discover a real gem.

Copyright © Diane Lake

09Jul17

Email Diane a question to Diane@DianeLake.com