Yesterday, the charismatic Usain Bolt defended his 100m title. That was a fantastic race.
Congratulations, Usain! You are the best!
And now, Story Ideas in Five Minutes. Sometimes, you will have days when you are stuck for story ideas; and trust me, that is frustrating. But to overcome that, I suggest you create a slant on a popular story.
In other words, why not alter the point of view of the story? Then you will have some story ideas in five minutes.
Using the example of Little Red Riding Hood.
Let's take the story apart. First of all, the story is about the main character, Little Red Riding Hood. We also have other characters: The Lumberjack/Father; The Big Bad Wolf; Grandma....
Here's three story prompts (assuming each takes five minutes):
Why not....
1) Tell the story from Little Red Riding Hood's Lumberjack/Father's point of view? Does he worry about her? What sort of things go through his mind? What sort of life does he live? What does he do on the day Little Red Riding Hood visits Grandma? Is he a brave man? Is he violent? Is he neurotic? What are his habits? What does he do on the day she visits her Grandmother?
2) Tell the story from the Wolf's point of view? Write about his hunger. The rumbling stomach. The cold sores from lack of protein. Write about how he spent day and night stalking Little Red Riding Hood. Tell us how cold it was in the wilderness. What it felt like to murder the Grandmother without a thought. Did he feel guilty? Then to deceive....
3) Let's look at Little Red Riding Hood herself: what if she discovered a stray path on her way to Grandma's...and that path was part of the Yellow Brick Road taking her to The Emerald City? Did she arrive before Dorothy and her companions? For a laugh, what if Little Red Riding Hood met the Wizard and learnt his secret identity; and then scrawled on a toilet wall the words, "Professor Marvel is the Wizard of Oz...."
Assuming Dorothy is going to use the loo, that is....but that's me being whimsical.
Three prompts for you. I will post some more this week. Enjoy.
I've been working on a LRRH story for 2 weeks now, a comic book script. Grandmother is the antagonist. Medically altered by Grandfather to survive a terminal disease, Grandmother becomes a ruthless killer due to side-effects caused by the treatment and becomes obsessed with killing Red.
ReplyDeleteRed escapes Grandmother's house after she murders Grandfather, finds a small mining town on the edge of the woods, and subsequently runs into a Lumberjack who agrees to help her escape.
Grandmother eventually finds the town, nearly destroys it, and is barely defeated by the Lumberjack as the surviving townsfolk and Red escape on a train that arrives every morning for a coal pick up.
In the end, Lumberjack is pulled from the train be a blood-thirsty Grandmother, he stays behind and fights for his life as the train pulls away. He manages to trap Grandmother in the mine-shaft, only to sit and watch the train disappear in the distance as he peacefully passes from his wounds.
Anyway, awesome post, I'll be reading your blog from now on.
Thank you for your comments, whoever you are (and I like your LRRH story--I also like to draw comic strips in my spare time) Glad you like my blog. Plenty more to come.
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