A Story Idea Each Day for a Month — Day 13

This is the 9th year in a row I’ve run this series in April. Last week 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: 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: Man Robs Ansonia Bank To Impress Taylor Swift.

A Derby man’s fixation on pop singer Taylor Swift led him to rob an Ansonia bank last week, drive to her Rhode Island home and throw money over a fence to impress her, police said Tuesday.

“It seemed he wanted to propose to her,” Ansonia Police spokesman Lt. Patrick Lynch said of Bruce Rowley. “But she wasn’t home when he went there. He said he threw some of the money over a fence to impress her.”

When the singer failed to show, Rowley decided to drive home. Rhode Island troopers spotted his vehicle and pursued him into Connecticut, where Rowley was apprehended.

“We didn’t know about Taylor Swift until our officers picked him up from state police to drive him back to Ansonia. He began to talk all about it in the cruiser,” Lynch said.

According to police records, Rowley “spontaneously uttered” on the ride back to Ansonia that he went to Rhode Island to meet Swift, who police said apparently knows nothing about Rowley.

Once at her $17 million Watch Hill mansion, Rowley tossed some of the stolen $1,600 over a fence for her to find, he told police. He also mentioned he planned “on donating some of the money he stole to the Ansonia PD.”

Call this one, “Ripped from the headlines,” because it just fell in my lap yesterday. So many ways you could go with this: How far would an obsessed fan go to impress the star?

Obviously, it could be a psychological thriller, likely taken from the perspective of the star. Maybe even horror depending upon how dark and violent you’d want to go.

Me? I went comedy and take it from the fan’s POV. The Protagonist I envision is the first cousin of this character:

Inspector Clouseau of the Pink Panther film series. A bumbling idiot zealous in his pursuit of what he perceives to be criminal activity. Take that same personality — minus the outrageous accent — and cast someone like this:

One hair-brained scheme after another by Zach, each one more bizarre and wilder than the previous one, to get in proximity with the star, all foiled by his own ineptitude and/or her security team.

Reminds me of the movie My Date With Drew:

There you go: My thirteenth story idea for the month. And it’s yours. Free!

Here are links for all the previous posts in this year’s series:

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 this month, I invite you to click on RESPONSES and join me to do some further brainstorming. Take each day’s story idea and see what it can become when you play around with it. These are all valuable skills for a writer to develop.

See you in comments. And come back tomorrow for another Story Idea Each Day For A Month.