Also, try to read in your genre, and your own favorite movies. You ll learn stuff that you never realized about the stories. You should write character sketches. This can be through observation or formal education. If your sketches are detailed and mostly hashed out before you write your story, the story will fall into place easily.
Character sketches are hard work - they are labor in every sense of the word.
You are trying to give birth to a person - you should be exhausted when you re done. A good goal is one sketch per day. I have a template that I based on The Art of Dramatic Writing , by Lajos Egri, The Secrets of Action Screenwriting , by Bill Martell, Creating Unforgettable Characters , by Linda Seger, as well as research into emotional intelligence, Myers-Briggs personality types, OCD disorders, assertiveness, and other psychological texts. Here is a freebie to get you started Pick the best idea out of several using formal creativity methods. In fact, some would rather abuse drugs to create altered mental states than apply simple creativity methods.