A Story Idea Each Day for a Month — Day 25

This is the 11th 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: The Jungle Prince of Delhi.

NEW DELHI — On a spring afternoon in 2016, when I was working in India, I received a telephone message from a recluse who lived in a forest in the middle of Delhi.

The message was passed on by our office manager through Gchat, and it thrilled me so much that I preserved it.

Office manager: Ellen have you been trying to get in touch with the royal family of Oudh?

Ellen: this has to be the best telephone message ever

Office manager: It was quite strange! The secretary left precise instructions for when you should call her — tomorrow between 11 am and 12 noon

Ellen: oh my god

I knew about the royal family of Oudh, of course. They were one of the city’s great mysteries. Their story was passed between tea sellers and rickshaw drivers and shopkeepers in Old Delhi: In a forest, they said, in a palace cut off from the city that surrounds it, lived a prince, a princess and a queen, said to be the last of a storied Shiite Muslim royal line.

There were different versions, depending on whom you spoke to. Some people said the Oudh family had been there since the British had annexed their kingdom, in 1856, and that the forest had grown up around the palace, engulfing it. Some said they were a family of jinns, the supernatural beings of Arabian folklore.

This is a long piece of non-fiction, an attempt to unravel a mystery. A journalist gets a call to meet with a reclusive individual claiming to be Prince Cyrus, living in seclusion in a hidden fortress in the middle of Delhi, home to 20 million people. What I was more interested in the story of his mother: Wilayat, Begum of Oudh.

My take: What if Wilayat were still alive? A female journalist Dianna gets a call. Wilayat would like to meet with her. Dianna does not know why she received the call. She writes for the society section of a local newspaper. New to Delhi (she hails from London), she doesn’t even know who Wilayat is, however, her boss.

“This is incredible! No one has seen her for years. The last Queen of Oudh.”

It turns out locals are obsessed with her. They can’t help but pass by the fortress as it is located in the middle of the city. Surrounded by thick groves of mesquite trees and a tall metal fence, there are all sorts of rumors about the place and its supposed residents.

Thus it is Dianna finds herself entering the fortress, apparently the first person in decades to see Wilayat.

Dianna is greeted by Sakina, a maid and apparently the only other person who lives in the expansive place. She leads Dianna into a massive room filled with art and old, but regal furnishings. And there seated like a monarch in a huge wooden chair, much like a throne, is Queen Wilayat.

What follows is two storylines: The past as told by Wilayat, who wants the truth recorded about how her kingdom was stolen from her; and the present the emerging relationship between Wilayat and Dianna.

What is true and what is fiction? At the end of the day as Wilayat lay dying, Dianna ponders: Does it really matter?

There you go, my 24th story idea of the month. 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
Day 15
Day 16
Day 17
Day 18
Day 19
Day 20
Day 21
Day 22
Day 23
Day 24

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.