A Story Idea Each Day for a Month — Day 1

This is the 15th year in a row I’ve run this series in April. Why a story idea each day for the month? Several reasons which I’ll work through during this series of posts. For today, the most basic one:

If you have aspirations of becoming a professional screenwriter, you should be in the habit of generating story concepts.

Let’s say you write and sell a spec script. Congratulations. You’re the “flavor-of-the-week.” Your agent and manager set up meetings across Hollywood with producers and studio execs. The first words out of their mouths will likely be some variation of “Love your script ” (even if they haven’t really read it). The second thing they say will almost assuredly be, “What else have ya’ got?” If you haven’t been developing other stories, that is likely to be a very short meeting.

By the way, I give away these story ideas. They’re yours to use however you like. In fact, several writers have gone off and written spec scripts from story concepts presented in this annual series, one script making the Nicholl semifinals.

There are many ways to generate story ideas. This month, I focus on one: Looking for ideas in news sources. Each of the items I’ll be posting for the next 30 days comes from a news site.

Today’s story idea: The Hotel Guest Who Wouldn’t Leave.

On a June afternoon in 2018, a man named Mickey Barreto checked into the New Yorker Hotel. He was assigned Room 2565, a double-bed accommodation with a view of Midtown Manhattan almost entirely obscured by an exterior wall. For a one-night stay, he paid $200.57.

But he did not check out the next morning. Instead, he made the once-grand hotel his full-time residence for the next five years, without ever paying another cent.

In a city where every inch of real estate is picked over and priced out, and where affordable apartments are among the rarest of commodities, Mr. Barreto had perhaps the best housing deal in New York City history.

Now, that deal could land him in prison.

The story of how Mr. Barreto, a California transplant with a taste for wild conspiracy theories and a sometimes tenuous grip on reality, gained and then lost the rights to Room 2565 might sound implausible — another tale from a man who claims without evidence to be the first cousin, 11 times removed, of Christopher Columbus’s oldest son.

But it’s true.

Whatever his far-fetched beliefs, Mr. Barreto, now 49, was right about one thing: an obscure New York City rent law that provided him with many a New Yorker’s dream.

This feels like a comedy. Let’s switch Protagonists. Instead of the squatter, how about we take it from the perspective of the hotel manager? Her name is Elinor. She is the thirty-two year-old daughter of Chandra, a sharp-tongued self-proclaimed “real estate magnate.” True, she does own a handful of properties in the city, none of them particularly noteworthy, but when any real estate in the city limits of San Francisco (let’s swap coasts with our story) is pricey, she’s doing all right.

Elinor is not. Try as she may, she can never live up to her mother’s expectations. [This all goes back to Elinor’s birth, a disappointment to her mother who desperately wanted a son, not a daughter].

For months, Elinor has pressed Chandra to be given more responsibility in the family business. Finally, Chandra gives in. “This is a chance to test your mettle,” the mother tells Elinor. “Perhaps your last chance.” What that means is anybody’s guess, particularly now that Chandra is engaged to Burton, a master at manipulation. Elinor is concerned her mother can only see her fiancé through rose-tinted glass, and not someone with what feels like ulterior motives.

Thus as our story begins, Elinor has been the manager of the Hotel Swain for a grand total of fifteen days when Justin arrives and books a room for two nights which he pays for in advance … in cash. Snagging the receipt, he heads off into the threadbare hallway and up the squawking elevator. Elinor thinks nothing of him, focused on yet another item needing repair.

Upon the morning of his checkout, Justin informs the front desk attendant he wishes to see “the manager.” When Elinor arrives, Justin produces a legal document he has secured from local authorities based upon an obscure law from the 1930s which has dubbed him a renter, not a visitor.

In the spirit of The War of the Roses …

… a battle ensues between Elinor and Justin, escalating from legal maneuvers to clandestine tricks to outright physical actions, she trying her best to oust him … him doing his level best to outwit her.

The big twist at the end: It turns out Justin has been hired by Burton to make Elinor look bad, providing all the evidence he needs to have the love-struck Chandra fire her daughter and, in effect, tossed out of the family … enabling the now married Burton to take control of the business.

A complicating factor: Justin has fallen in love with Elinor. And try as she might, Elinor finds it hard to resist Justin’s charm despite how he’s making her life a living hell.

That’s my setup. My first story idea for the month. And it’s yours. Free!

Each day in April, I invite you to join me in comments to do some brainstorming. Take each day’s story idea and see what it can become when we play around with it. These are valuable skills for a writer to develop.

Here are links to previous series:

A Story Idea Each Day for a Month (2010)

A Story Idea Each Day for a Month (2011)

A Story Idea Each Day for a Month (2012)

A Story Idea Each Day for a Month (2013)

A Story Idea Each Day for a Month (2014)

A Story Idea Each Day for a Month (2015)

A Story Idea Each Day for a Month (2016)

A Story Idea Each Day for a Month (2017)

A Story Idea Each Day for a Month (2018)

A Story Idea Each Day for a Month (2019)

A Story Idea Each Day for a Month (2020)

A Story Idea Each Day for a Month (2021)

A Story Idea Each Day for a Month (2022)

A Story Idea Each Day for a Month (2023)

See you in RESPONSES to hear YOUR take on this story idea. And come back tomorrow for another Story Idea Each Day For A Month.