A Story Idea Each Day for a Month — Day 29

This is the 9th year in a row I’ve run this series in April.

Today’s story: Boy, 12, steals credit card and goes on Bali holiday after fight with mother.

A 12-year-old Sydney boy stole his parents’ credit card, tricked his grandmother into giving him his passport and flew to Bali on his own after a family argument.

Telling his family he was going to school, he rode his razor scooter to his local train station, from where he travelled to the airport and, using a self-service check-in terminal, boarded a flight for Perth, then another for Indonesia, the Nine Network program reported.

He was only quizzed once, at Perth airport, when staff asked him for identification to prove he was over 12. Guardian Australia has independently confirmed the boy made the trip.

In Bali, he checked in to the All Seasons hotel, telling staff he was waiting for his sister to arrive.

If Home Alone is about a family who heads off on a family vacation and forgets about their son Kevin and leaving him back at the family house, this story is the reverse of that. And just like John Hughes did in Home Alone — creating some Bad Guys who are robbing neighborhood houses — this story is crying out for some sort of equivalent A-story:

• The Boy sees a crime in progress he isn’t supposed to see.
• The Boy picks up the wrong suitcase and it’s filled with illegal contraband.
• The Boy gets kidnapped, but then terrorizes his kidnappers until they release him a la screwing with the robbers in Home Alone.

Meanwhile, the frantic parents travel around the world trying to find their dear son. Hijinks and mayhem ensue!

There you go, my twenty-ninth story idea for the month. And it’s yours. Free!

Here are links for all the previous posts 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
Day 27
Day 28

Each day this month, I invite you to click on RESPONSES and join me to do some further brainstorming. Take each day’s story idea and see what it can become when you play around with it. These are all valuable skills for a writer to develop.

See you in comments. And come back tomorrow for another Story Idea Each Day For A Month.