A Story Idea Each Day for a Month — Day 24

This is the 12th year in a row I’ve run this series in April. Why a story idea each day for the month? Because the best way to come up with a great story idea is to come up with a lot of ideas. And the best way to come up with a lot of ideas is to be proactive in sourcing story ideas.

Today’s story: How to Talk with a Conspiracy Theorist: What the Experts Recommend.

Why do people pledge allegiance to views that seem fundamentally hostile to reality? Maybe believers in shadowy, evil forces and secret cabals fall prey to motivated reasoning. Truth for them is what they need to believe in order to get what they want. Their certainty in the justness of a cause can feel as comforting as a warm blanket on a winter’s night. But conspiracy theories go farther than private delusions of grandeur. They have spilled into the streets, into the halls of the U.S. Capitol building and various statehouses. Conspiracy theories about a “stolen” 2020 election are out for blood.

As distressing as such recent public spectacles seem at present, they hardly come near the harm accomplished by propaganda like Plandemic — a short film that claims the COVID-19 crisis is a sinister plot — part of a wave of disinformation that has sent infection and death rates soaring into the hundreds of thousands.

We may never know the numbers of people who have infected others by refusing to take precautions for themselves, but we do know that the number of people in the U.S. who believe conspiracy theories is alarmingly high.

A Pew Research survey of adults in the U.S. “found that 36% thought that these conspiracy theories” about the election and the pandemic “were probably or definitely true,” Tanya Basu writes at the MIT Technology Review. “Perhaps some of these people are your family, your friends, your neighbors.” Maybe you are conspiracy theorist yourself. After all, “it’s very human and normal to believe in conspiracy theories…. No one is above [them] — not even you.” We all resist facts, as Cass Sunstein (author of Conspiracy Theories and Other Dangerous Ideas) says in the Vox video above, that contradict cherished beliefs and the communities of people who hold them.

So how do we distinguish between reality-based views and conspiracy theories if we’re all so prone to the latter? Standards of logical reasoning and evidence still help separate truth from falsehood in laboratories. When it comes to the human mind, emotions are just as important as data. “Conspiracy theories make people feel as though they have some sort of control over the world,” says Daniel Romer, a psychologist and research director at the University of Pennsylvania’s Annenberg Public Policy Center. They’re airtight, as Wired shows below, and it can be useless to argue.

Okay, here is where I go with this. I’m envisioning I’m a young filmmaker. I know two actors who are yet unknown, but super talented. I’ve got pocket change for a budget, but I do have access to my mother-in-law’s vacation home in upper Wisconsin.

I sketch out a story based on this premise: Stefan has a Ph.D. and is an author of some best-selling books on conspiracy theories. He’s one of those “talking heads” you see on news channels when some crazy event happens which involves people swept up by this or that bizarre theory. Stefan is smart, witty, and great on camera.

Meet Gary. He’s a slacker. Worse than that, he’s a low-life slummer who is more focused on hitting on a grand scheme to make himself wealthy, which he believes he deserves, rather than actually work at a legitimate job. Addicted to the internet, Gary tracks trends and can’t help but see that the world has gone out of its mind with one conspiracy theory after another sweeping up believers right and left.

More importantly, those believers willingly send donations to the purveyors of those conspiracy theories. Donations as in $$$.

Gary figures all he needs is a great conspiracy theory, a website, and a Twitter account, and soon he’ll be raking in the big bucks.

But how to concoct a compelling conspiracy theory?

You see, Gary ain’t that smart. His initial efforts at generating something are pathetic. But in his pot-filled research, he stumbles upon an expert, someone who knows the ins and outs of conspiracy theories.

He stumbles upon Stefan.

Cut to Stefan who has driven up to his getaway retreat in order to finish the final draft of his latest book: Conspiracy Theories: I Believe or You Deceive.

Contentedly tapping away on his laptop while sipping a ridiculously expensive glass of Scotch, a recording of Debussy piano pieces lilting in the background, he suddenly feels the cold steel of a pistol against his neck.

“Hey, Stefan. My name is Gary. I need your help.”

Thus begins a two-hander: Two characters. One location. A weekend with multiple plot twists and turns.

Gary wants Stefan to help him (Gary) come up with the world’s greatest conspiracy theory which Gary can use to create his conspiracy cult, leading to cultists eagerly sending him their donations.

After all, Stefan is THE conspiracy theory expert.

Meanwhile, Stefan needs to humor Gary as they kick around one conspiracy theory hook after another, hoping that at some point, Gary will get so stoned or so drunk (on expensive Scotch) that Stefan can grab Gary’s pistol and turn the tables.

But then an odd thing happens. As Gary drinks Stefan’s Scotch… and Stefan smokes Gary’s pot… and they begin to spin an incredibly complex conspiracy theory… it’s as if both of them begin to experience Stockholm syndrome.

They start to believe the conspiracy theory they are creating is fucking real!

I’m tempted to stop the setup here, but I just had this thought. If you actually believe a conspiracy theory, you are more than likely prone to paranoia. So what if both Gary and Stefan get so wrapped up in their unfolding take on the world gone awry, they are literally freaking out. So when Stefan’s fiance shows up — he’s forgotten that they were supposed to have a date weekend — Gary shoots her and Stefan bashes her over the head with his Scotch bottle.

Oops.

Now they have a dead body on their hands. Stefan blames Gary. Gary blames Stefan. And maybe this turn of events is a result of…

…their conspiracy theory come to life!

Okay, that’s enough. And there you have it, my 24th story idea of the 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
Day 15
Day 16
Day 17
Day 18
Day 19
Day 20
Day 21
Day 22
Day 23

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.