A Story Idea Each Day for a Month — Day 27
This is the 15th 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…
This is the 15th 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 is inspired by two real-life stories: “I’m lucky to be alive after sustaining ‘car crash injuries’ tripping over my cat.”
He suffered cat-astrophic injuries.
A UK man miraculously survived after sustaining a broken neck, fractured spine, smashed ribs, blood in his lungs and other “car crash”-evoking injuries from — wait for it — tripping over his cat.
“I can’t remember much, just falling fast — it was quick and it was over within seconds, then I was at the bottom,” victim Chris Rowley, 59, told the Mirror.
The freak “Apocalypse Meow” accident reportedly occurred on the evening of Oct. 23 while the Leicestershire-based professional musician was home alone with his hairless Egyptian sphinx kitten, Eric Morecambe.
Disaster struck after the wrinkly kitty, apparently feeling playful, dove out and latched onto one of its owner’s legs while he was coming down the stairs.
“It took a bit of a chunk out my leg then I lost my footing,” described Rowley, who reportedly tumbled down 14 steps before arriving at the bottom, where he lay unable to move when his feline put the “hell” in Hello Kitty.
Okay, so you’ve got this guy and this cat:
Let’s mix it up with this story: “Trump VP candidate Kristi Noem boasts of shooting a ‘worthless’ puppy.”
Kristi Noem is the Governor of South Dakota. A leading candidate for Trump VP. And a woman who takes pleasure in killing things. To promote her candidacy, she will publish her obligatory autobiography, “No Going Back: The Truth on What’s Wrong with Politics and How We Move America Forward” next month. The Guardian newspaper got hold of an advanced copy. In it, Noem boasted of killing two animals. The paper reports:
She includes her story about the ill-fated Cricket, she says, to illustrate her willingness, in politics as well as in South Dakota life, to do anything “difficult, messy and ugly” if it simply needs to be done.
By taking Cricket on a pheasant hunt with older dogs, Noem says, she hoped to calm the young dog down and begin to teach her how to behave. Unfortunately, Cricket ruined the hunt, going “out of her mind with excitement, chasing all those birds and having the time of her life”.
Noem describes calling Cricket, then using an electronic collar to attempt to bring her under control. Nothing worked. Then, on the way home after the hunt, as Noem stopped to talk to a local family, Cricket escaped Noem’s truck and attacked the family’s chickens, “grabb[ing] one chicken at a time, crunching it to death with one bite, then dropping it to attack another”.
Cricket the untrainable dog, Noem writes, behaved like “a trained assassin”.
When Noem finally grabbed Cricket, she says, the dog “whipped around to bite me”. Then, as the chickens’ owner wept, Noem repeatedly apologised, wrote the shocked family a check “for the price they asked, and helped them dispose of the carcasses littering the scene of the crime”.
Through it all, Noem says, Cricket was “the picture of pure joy”.
“I hated that dog,” Noem writes, adding that Cricket had proved herself “untrainable”, “dangerous to anyone she came in contact with” and “less than worthless … as a hunting dog”.
“At that moment,” Noem says, “I realised I had to put her down.”
Noem, who also represented her state in Congress for eight years, got her gun, then led Cricket to a gravel pit.
“It was not a pleasant job,” she writes, “but it had to be done.
Okay, I admit, the 2nd story is a gross one, but as I spotted these two articles on one day, it’s like Fate brought them together to inspire today’s Story Idea Each Day for a Month.
Artie is thirty-two. Living with his long-time girlfriend Aubrey. She wants to get married. Artie has said he’s up for it, but always comes up with an excuse. The fact is, he likes things the way they are and his married buddies share one troubling tale of wedded un-bliss after another.
“Forget having sex except for when they’re trying to get pregnant … They expect you to do things around the house … I have to sneak out of the house to see you guys … It’s just ain’t fun anymore … Marriage totally sucks.”
The couple continues along preferring not to “get into it” about the whole marriage thing in order to maintain an air of civility.
Then Darcy arrives. A stray cat Aubrey finds and adopts. No fan of cats, Artie isn’t pleased, but once he see how Aubrey focuses a lot of attention on the cat, conversations about getting married drift away.
With that pressure gone, Artie is fine living with a cat.
Until the cat begins to fuck with Artie. Turns out, Darcy (the name Aubrey gives to the cat reflecting Aubrey’s romantic desires) develops feelings for his feline benefactor … and in the cat’s eyes … lover.
It’s Cat vs. Human in a variation of The War of the Roses.
Of course, each warrior has to hide their nefarious actions from a blithely unaware Aubrey, but when Artie proposes marriage to Aubrey, a bold attempt to lay claim to his human consort … that really pisses off the pugilistic pussy. Hijinks and mayhem ensue.
There you go. My 27th story this month. Free for you to take and write.
Previous articles 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
Day 13
Day 14
Day 15
Day 16
Day 17
Day 18
Day 19
Day 20
Day 21
Day 22
Day 23
Day 24
Day 25
Day 26
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.
Let’s say you’ve found a story concept from an article in this series. Or you have an idea of your own, but you’re at the very beginning of the story-crafting process.
How to develop, then write it as a screenplay?
May I humbly recommend my book The Protagonist’s Journey: An Introduction to Character-Driven Screenwriting and Storytelling.
Hundreds of people have sent photos of my book. Here’s one.
The book is structured to provide writers an approach to the story-crafting process grounded in immersing oneself in the lives of the characters (Parts I and II). Then Part III presents a stage by stage approach to break story: from concept to outline.
Go here to read endorsements from dozens of professional screenwriters, authors, and academics.
You may purchase The Protagonist’s Journey here:
Come back tomorrow for another Story Idea Each Day For A Month.