A Story Idea Each Day for a Month — Day 15

This is the 13th 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: Wanted: Caretaker to look after uninhabited Scottish island.

Isle Martin, near Ullapool, has no full-time residents but needs someone to keep the island in shape for visitors this summer.

If months of lockdown didn’t faze you, living without a soul for miles around might be the job for you.

The island’s community trust is inviting solo applicants and couples to register their interest.

Isle Martin has just enough to keep visitors busy for a few hours. Two beaches, a micro museum (in a hut) and a hill which affords fantastic birdwatching.

— —

The trust does warn that it is a post for someone who likes the outdoors and is not reliant on creature comforts.

There is no running hot water and only a small solar electrical charger that may power a phone or a laptop or even some lights.

The candidate will have to be resourceful and resilient and probably very practical. And they will have to be able to drive a power boat — their only way on and off the island.

How lovely, you think? Living on a remote island in a cute little place:

Summer is great. But then the handful of tourists departs as the weather turns sour. Then for months, it’s just you… and the island.

What to do with this setup?

• Horror: Ghosts on the island, tormented spirits of some historical atrocity which occurred there centuries before.
• Thriller: What if one of the summer visitors had shown an unusual interest in the Protagonist. Not creepy per se, but odd. Now several months later, who shows up one stormy night but… the same individual. Now it’s just the Protagonist and this frightening figure.
• Comedy: What if the Protagonist is hired by the head of a Scottish clan to oversee the island, only to discover that ownership of the place is contested by another clan? Now our Protagonist finds themselves in the middle of a long contentious battle between warring clans.
• Drama: A survival story as the Protagonist gets hurt and is unable to contact the outside world for help.
• Fantasy: What if the island is inhabited by a Kelpie, a shape-shifting spirit usually described as a black horse-like creature?

There’s something romantic and alluring about living alone on an island. There’s also something potentially quite problematic, even terrifying.

That’s my 15th story in this month’s series. What would YOU do with this setup? Other stories in this year’s A Story Idea Each Day for a Month:

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.