Following the Film 48 competition last weekend, you might find yourself inspired to write a screenplay. But where do you start?

First, find a fresh take on an existing topic. When trying to develop an idea for a novel or film, look at the stories you love. Strip down the many layers of a detailed plot and find the underlying narrative, because many great movies have simply recycled someone else’s idea. “The Lion King” is “Hamlet” on the African plains. “The Big Lebowski” is a Coen Brothers film in the style of Raymond Chandler. “Home Alone” is “Die Hard” for children. There are certain narrative arcs already proven to work well, so why not borrow some of their elements?

No matter how beautifully shot a film is, if it lacks a solid story, it will fall flat. Look at Kevin Smith’s “Clerks,” a mid-’90s black-and-white film made on a shoestring budget starring amateur actors and featuring just a handful of locations. Despite its many flaws, “Clerks” is a cult classic thanks to the film’s quirky, relatable premise. Shane Carruth’s 2004 film “Primer” also comes to mind. Completed on a $7,000 budget, “Primer” sports grainy nighttime shots, simple wardrobes and stripped-down production design. “Primer,” however, flips the idea of time travel on its head in a unique way, earning it indie acclaim.

So you’ve crafted a general story idea in your head. Now you’ll need to write a logline. A logline consists of one or two sentences that quickly summarize plot and character development. Loglines prove that a story has action and an interesting trajectory. If you can’t boil a narrative down to a core logline, it’s probably not very good to begin with.

A high school chemistry teacher with a terminal cancer diagnosis uses his expertise to manufacture meth to provide for his family’s future. Boom. Just like that, “Breaking Bad” was born. Why is that a good logline? Well, it has the allure of a violent drug underworld and shows a side of society that most people don’t see. The protagonist’s shift in daily activities also thrusts him into new situations where he’s required to make decisions, inevitably changing him as a person. Characters need to explore the world around them before they can explore themselves and develop further. Smart, calculated action makes for great stories, and it all stems from your original logline.

Once you have a logline and you’ve felt that initial spark of excitement, you’ll probably find that you’re clueless on where to take the idea. Thinking about stories from a formulaic standpoint can help direct your writing. Comparative mythologist Joseph Campbell argues in “The Hero with a Thousand Faces” that a hero’s journey has a specific pattern and structure, which Campbell refers to as the monomyth. Some critics find this problematic because they see it as a vague outline generalizing the stories we know and love, yet the arcs he describes are in almost every narrative if you look hard enough.

Regardless, the monomyth is a useful template for breaking down your story into digestible actions. If you find that you’ve reached a writer’s block in your story or screenplay, try to determine where you are in the pattern and figure out what might logically come next.

No one can write a screenplay for you. Following some of these simple creative tips will help you figure out where your characters are headed and the moves that will take them there.