A Story Idea Each Day for a Month — Day 29

This is the 14th 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: Exorcist saw ‘possessed’ 5ft nun crawl up wall ‘like a squirrel’ and ‘overpower six men’.

An exorcist said a nun “ran up the wall like a squirrel” after demons took over her body.

Reverend Daniel Reehil performs exorcisms on people who he says have been possessed by the devil, and recently revealed some of the scariest things he’s seen.

“I remember there was a little nun, about 100lbs, 5ft. When she was going through a deliverance, it took six large men, my size, to hold her down,” he told Michael Knowles.

“I’ve seen that same nun run up a 20ft wall like a squirrel, and 2,000 people at a conference saw it too.”

Here’s an interview with the good Reverend:

We’ve seen a billion exorcism movies. Okay, maybe not a billion, but a lot. One thing I’m pretty sure we haven’t seen…

THE DEMON AS THE PROTAGONIST!

Sure, there was an episode in the TV series Millennium which featured a group of demons and their plight in life.

But I’m talking about a movie where we begin and end with the life of a demon … and the middle, too. Ask the same questions we do of any Protagonist:

What do they want?

What do they need?

Who or what opposes them?

What are the stakes?

What is the synthesis (or not) of want and need?

What do they fear they most?

Why does this story have to happen to this demon at this time?

In other words, humanize the demon and make the humans — including the priests — the monsters.

There you go, my 29th 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
Day 15
Day 16
Day 17
Day 18
Day 19
Day 20
Day 21
Day 22
Day 23
Day 24
Day 25
Day 26
Day 27
Day 28

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.