Arts & Entertainment, Writing
Finding an Idea
Lesson time 14:15 min
It all begins with an idea. Shonda reveals her process for finding and assessing ideas, and determining what makes a great idea for a TV series.
Students give MasterClass an average rating of 4.7 out of 5 stars
Topics include: Where to Find Ideas • What Makes a Great TV Idea • Making Ideas Original •
Teaches Writing for Television
In 6+ hours of video lessons, Shonda teaches you her playbook for writing and creating hit television.
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People always ask, where do your ideas come from? Where do you get your inspiration? And, for me, that is such a crazy question. I don't know how to answer it all the time, and I think it's because my ideas come from everywhere. Your ideas should come from everywhere. They come from a conversation I have with somebody. They'll come from a fight I overhear while standing in a coffee shop. They'll come from-- I'll read some tiny, little thing in an obituary somewhere, and I'll go, oh, that's a funny little detail. It doesn't really matter where they come from. They come from everything. They come from, you're sitting in a park, and you just see the way two people interact. Something sparks something, and that always turns into something completely different. It's not like you get an exact-- you hear an exact sentence from somebody-- and you go, I'm going to write a television show about that. Somebody says something to you that then turns into something else, that then turns into something more, and then next it's bloomed into a whole idea. That happens to me all the time, and it's about which ones you're going to settle down and write, really, because ideas are great, you have a ton of them. They're not all necessarily television series. [MUSIC PLAYING] When I have ideas, a couple of things happen. I have a journal that I keep. I've always kept a journal, and, sometimes, I write them down. Sometimes, I wake up in the middle of the night, and I write the ideas down, and I used to do that a ton. I used to do it a lot. I don't do it as much anymore, mainly because I have children now, and I value my sleep a lot more. But, also, because the things you write down in the middle of the night very rarely make sense. In the morning, you can never figure out what they meant. What I have started doing is taking notes in the little notes section of my phone, which is surprisingly effective, not just because you can dictate-- which you can-- but, also, because it's always readily available. I'm surprised at how many times I write something down. It does not necessarily have to be an idea, as much as it is a tiny line of dialogue, which is where I wrote Gladiator in a Suit. Or it's just a thought that you had, like, why is this a thing? Why blah blah blah blah? It's very interesting that that's a place where you can sort of keep a running tally of the things that you might have written on little Post-It notes all over your house. There's a place to keep it all, and I like that. [MUSIC PLAYING] When I'm looking at an idea, and I'm wondering, is this an idea for film? Is this an idea for television? Is it a movie? Is it a TV show? What you're really looking for is, what's the end of the idea? A movie idea has an ending. You can say, the bus that's been going 60 miles an hour, and hitting everything in speed comes to a...
About the Instructor
When Shonda Rhimes pitched Grey’s Anatomy she got so nervous she had to start over. Twice. Since then, she has created and produced TV’s biggest hits. In her screenwriting class, Shonda teaches you how to create compelling characters, write a pilot, pitch your idea, and stand out in the writers’ room. You’ll also get original pilot scripts, pitch notes, and series bibles from her shows. Welcome to Shondaland.
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Shonda Rhimes
In 6+ hours of video lessons, Shonda teaches you her playbook for writing and creating hit television.
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