A Story Idea Each Day for a Month — Day 13

This is the 12th 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.

Tip: Obituaries.

When it comes down to it, people live extraordinary lives. And obituaries summarize those lives in nice, neat packages. For some examples, go here.

So if you’re stuck for story ideas? Hit the obits.

Today’s story: Treasure Washes Up on Venezuela’s Shore, Bringing Gold and Hope to a Village.

The most extraordinary moment in the young fisherman’s life began in the most mundane way: with a morning visit to the latrine.

Walking back to his tin-roofed hut on Venezuela’s Caribbean coast, the fisherman, Yolman Lares, saw something glisten along the shore. Raking his hand through the sand, he pulled up a gold medallion with an image of the Virgin Mary.

The village of Guaca was once at the center of Venezuela’s fish processing industry but is now reduced to penury by the lack of gasoline and the closure of most of its small fish-packing plants. Amid such misery, the valuable find seemed like a miracle.

“I began to shake, I cried from joy,” said Mr. Lares, 25. “It was the first time something special has happened to me.”

At home, Mr. Lares told his father-in-law, also a fisherman. Word of the discovery spread swiftly, and soon most of the village’s 2,000 residents had joined in a frenzied treasure hunt, combing every inch of the waterfront, digging around dilapidated fishing boats, even sleeping on the beach to protect their few square feet of sand and the untold fortune the plot could contain.

Since late September, their search has turned up hundreds of pieces of gold and silver jewelry, ornaments, and golden nuggets that washed up on their shore, offering the villagers a baffling and wondrous — if short-lived — reprieve from Venezuela’s seemingly endless economic collapse.

Dozens of villagers said they had found at least one precious object, usually a gold ring, with unconfirmed reports that some had sold their discoveries for as much as $1,500.

To many here, the unexpected bounty was a message of hope.

“This is God, setting his agenda,” said Ciro Quijada, a local fish plant worker who found a gold ring.

No one knows where the gold came from and how it ended up scattered along a few hundred feet of Guaca’s narrow, workaday beach. The mystery has merged with folklore, and explanations draw equally on legends of Caribbean pirates, on Christian traditions and on the widespread mistrust of Venezuela’s authoritarian government

The headline was enough to catch my attention: A remarkable event happening to desperate people. An interesting subculture (South American fishing community). But it was when I read on and saw this that a plot began to emerge:

The jagged coastline around Guaca, on Venezuela’s Paria peninsula, is punctuated with bays and islands that have long given refuge to adventurers.

It was on this peninsula, in 1498, that Christopher Columbus became the first European to set foot on the South American continent, thinking he’d found the entrance to the Garden of Eden.

Later, this sparsely defended coastline was regularly raided by Dutch and French buccaneers. Today, it is a haven for drug and fuel smugglers and modern-day pirates who prey on fishermen.

Drug and fuel smugglers… modern-day pirates. Now you’ve got some Nemesis characters.

Broad story strokes: Destitute fishing community. Then the miracle: Gold and jewels start appearing on the shore. At first, this is a welcome event. But the villagers must learn to trust each other, devise a set of rules to guide their behavior, fend off the temptation to horde their findings.

This is a challenge. By the midway point of the story, it looks as if greed will lead the villagers toward violence, then…

The pirates appear.

Now the villagers must band together to defend their homes, their families, and their treasure.

They collect their gold, silver, and gems, and hide all of it in a secret spot. What they may lack in weapons and modern technology, something the pirates have in spades, the villagers make up for with guile, pride, and a knowledge of the land.

The threat of the enemy causes the villagers to become allies. And yeah, I can see this story spinning out into a violent action thriller.

Maybe the villagers may survive… perhaps their prayers for a miracle result in some supernatural event which spares them and wipes out the pirates.

Or if you want to go the route of a morality tale, echoing the Biblical message, “The love of money is the root of all evil,” no one gets out alive… and the hidden treasure remains hidden with no one left who knows its location.

Your choice.

There you go, my 13th 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
Day 12

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.