A Story Idea Each Day for a Month — Day 15

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.

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

Tip: Public domain.

Laws vary from country to country, but if a person, event, book is considered to be in the public domain, then from a writer’s perspective, it is free content, you don’t need to secure any rights.

You want to adapt “Romeo and Juliet” into a contemporary gang shoot-em-up love story, you can do that.

You want to turn Abraham Lincoln into a vampire hunter, you can do that.

Straight adaptation, genre bend, gender bend, whatever you want to do, you can do it with a public domain entity. Plus, the added benefit: Pre-awareness. Hollywood likes that. A lot. It’s a plus for their marketing department.

Today’s story: Your Kid Wants to Be a YouTuber? There’s a Camp for That.

Summer camps to help your child how to be more successful on YouTube have been created and it’s caused some controversy.

You guys, there is such a thing as Youtube Camp. You can send your kids to Youtube camp this summer! Is that crazy to anybody else? The YouTube camp is to help your child create an online presence and to create a YouTube channel. Kids will be able to learn how to make their own YouTube channels or to make a brand new YouTube channel. The summer camp is designed to help your child grow their channel and learn about many of the different ways to get more followers and create a better online presence.

The camps start for children as young as 5 years old. When the kids join the camps they learn how to shoot videos, edit sound and to create a personal brand in order to get the traction that they desire. They will be given all the tools to help them get their YouTube stardom.

The camps are specifically designed for children to learn how to make it big on YouTube. It is designed for experts or beginners and can be fun for all ages. The kids will learn all of the ins and outs of creating really engaging content that will get the interaction that they would like. The camp teaches the kids that there is more than just making a video and posting it online. There are so many more tips that YouTube can provide young users in order to allow them to “make it big.”

Seriously, if you go to the website for the organization, right there on the front page: You could be the next YouTube sensation!

This movie has got to be a comedy, right?

Two ten year-old girls: Keely and Jocelyn. Both are determined to become YouTube stars. They get into a competition. Maybe there’s a prize involved: The person at the camp who ends the session with a YouTube website with the most followers wins a $100K production fund.

Imagine a kind of Lennon vs. McCartney battle: One day Keely puts up a video on her site. It’s good and draws some eyeballs. The next day Jocelyn put a video on her site. It’s better and gets more site traffic.

As they continue their personal rivalry, they need to enlist more other campers to take part in their skits and sketches, each getting more complicated and sophisticated than the previous ones. They start bribing kids to work with them and not with the other, however, allegiances shift based on who’s willing to do what for whom.

The rivalry itself hits social media and now both sites are drawing big numbers, however, the pair’s obsession with their projects is transforming them into crazed fame-seekers.

That’s your setup. I have it in mind that the person who actually wins the contest is a background character, a quiet little girl (Catalina) who likes those unboxing videos. While Keely and Jocelyn go to crazy extremes to produce their videos, Catalina calmly narrates her simple videos and draws massive numbers.

Yes, an ironic ending.

There you go, my 15th 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
Day 13
Day 14

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.