Two things make the 'Premise Jar' heavy and a bitch to lift. The first is deciding whether your idea is really worth writing down. Now you may say, 'there are no such thing as bad ideas and we should encourage creativity whenever and wherever we can....' Yeah, that stuff's fine in the classroom but when you are serious about writing something with the potential of actually getting 'made' you have to ask yourself, 'Is this really a good idea?' Now, no way are you going to be able to please everyone who reads your script and make everyone capable of getting it brought to the big or small screen wildly enthusiastic about doing so. The one thing your idea has to do is 'spark the interest' of the reader and make them want to read more. So quickly deciding whether having grandpa' fighting a serial killer in a nursing home is an interesting idea with enough 'spark' to write a premise for it is something you'll have to do soberly but with enthusiasm.
Second part (and the much harder) of the lift is writing the Premise itself. All those great scenes you thought up that would 'be so cool to see' are fine individually. But you'll need to have the entire idea of the story nailed down in up to a paragraph (3 sentences.) So you said the story is about Grandpa fighting a Serial Killer in a Nursing Home. Well that's just a single incident. You'll need to fill in a few more gaps to give it a beginning, middle and an end. An actual premise would look something like this;
A Retired Special Investigator is temporarily placed in a Nursing Home after a debilitating illness. During his convalescence, a series of mysterious deaths occur within the Home among the patients. Despite the Home's Officials dismissal's of foul-play, 'Grandpa' the Investigator sees the blood-stained hand of the only Serial Killer to ever elude him within the Home and their final encounter will decide the fate of the patient's of "The Nursing Home."
So now is your idea about Grandpa fighting a Serial Killer an idea worth writing a script for? Yes. Move onto the next jar.
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