A Story Idea Each Day for a Month — Day 12

This is the 11th 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 my through during this series of posts.

Initially, I provided a daily explanation about why you should make it a habit to be generating story ideas. This week, I’ll give you some tips on how to come up with stories.

Tip: Look at Craigslist.

Dreamworks bought this pitch based on Craigslist ads.

There is this musical based on Craigslist ads.

There was this TV movie based on a Craigslist story.

Now something proactive you can do for your writing career while searching for a used barbell set.

Today: The Yoga Master Who Might Be Chelsea’s Secret Weapon.

Vinay Menon’s path to the Premier League started with a request from a former client in Dubai. Would Menon, a wellness consultant, travel to England to share his breathing and relaxation techniques with the man’s daughter and her husband, a wealthy Russian living in London.

Of course, Menon replied, even though he had never been to Britain. He met with the Russian and his wife at their home in West London, where the couple asked about Menon’s work, his background and the years he had spent studying and teaching yoga in his native India. Then they asked him if he would like to join them at a soccer game.

“I told them I didn’t have a ticket,” Menon said.

That would not be a problem, he was assured. Menon and his prospective employers made the short walk to Chelsea’s Stamford Bridge stadium, where they were quickly ushered to the suite level. It was only then, after they emerged into the owner’s box and their faces appeared on the arena’s giant video screen, that things clicked into place for Menon: His host was not merely a wealthy Russian soccer fan. He was Roman Abramovich.

“I literally had no idea who he was,” Menon said. “I just knew him as Dasha’s husband.”

Menon struggles to contain his laughter as he retells the story. Now in his 11th season at Stamford Bridge, Menon, 45, occasionally surprises himself when he stops to think about how a chance meeting has led to a decade in professional soccer — a sport he knew next to nothing about when he made that first trip to London — and to his becoming a fixture in the locker room of one of the world’s richest teams and a valued confidant of some of the world’s best players.

“Roman Abramovich changed my life,” Menon said. For some players, he has changed theirs, too.

As I am featuring female lead characters in this month’s A Story Idea Each Day for a Month articles, I’m going to gender bend this setup. Meet Ma Nithya Swaroopapriyananda.

After a woman from the U.K. visits Ma Nithya in Canada where she lives in an ashram, seeking her guidance, the woman — let’s call her Clarissa — is so impressed with Ma Nithya’s teaching, she invites her to England to meet her partner who has a project Clarissa believes Ma Nithya could help with.

As it turns out, Clarissa’s partner — let’s call her Deborah — is a multi-millionaire having made her fortune getting in on the ground floor of the solar energy market. Deborah and Clarissa own AFC Bournemouth, a football (soccer) club located in a seaside community 2-hours drive from London. The team has bounced around various leagues and just last year finally made it to the Premier League. However, they are bottom feeders and look certain to be relegated at season’s end.

Deborah and Clarissa not only want to have the Bournemouth club succeed, they want to shake up the stodgy world of English football. If Ma Nithya truly believes in the transformative power of her spiritual practice, there may be no greater opportunity to prove it than by working with the ragtag squad the co-owners have managed to assemble, outbid on most fronts by bigger squads with billionaire owners.

There is one player they took a flyer on: Dexter Combs.

As famous for his carousing as he is for his raw talent on the pitch, the forward is the key to the squad’s success. Even though Bournemouth is his 7th team in five years, speaking to his reckless behavior, on and off the field, and he knows this may very well be his last chance to play in the top league in the world, Dexter simply cannot control his base instincts.

Are you thinking romantic comedy? Because I am. She can provide a kind of spiritual discipline in his life which turns around his career. But of course, they develop feelings for each other which is especially problematic because Ma Nithya is mere weeks away from taking her monastic vows including celibacy.

There you go, my 12th story idea of the month. And it’s yours. Free! What would YOU do with it?

Day 1
Day 2
Day 3
Day 4
Day 5
Day 6
Day 7
Day 8
Day 9
Day 10
Day 11

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.

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.