A Story Idea Each Day for a Month — Day 30

This is the 10th year in a row I’ve run this series in April.

Today’s story: The Vending Machine That Spits Out Short Stories.

Stories are shared many ways. They are recounted in books and magazines. They are read aloud around the campfire at night. They are randomly dispensed from stand-alone kiosks, doled out on strips of paper like grocery store receipts.

Wait, what was that last one?

Leave it to the French, with their love of Voltaire and Simone de Beauvoir, to revive literature in the era of hot takes, fast news and smartphone addiction. Short Edition, a French community publisher of short-form literature, has installed more than 30 story dispensers in the United States in the past year to deliver fiction at the push of a button at restaurants and universities, government offices and transportation hubs.

Francis Ford Coppola, the film director and winemaker, liked the idea so much that he invested in the company and placed a dispenser at his Cafe Zoetrope in the North Beach neighborhood of San Francisco. Last month public libraries in four cities — Philadelphia; Akron, Ohio; Wichita, Kan.; and Columbia, S.C. — announced they would be installing them too. There is one on the campus at Penn State. A few can be found in downtown West Palm Beach, Fla. And Short Edition plans to announce more, including at Los Angeles International Airport.

“Everything old is new again,” said Andrew Nurkin, the deputy director of enrichment and civic engagement at the Free Library of Philadelphia, which is one of the libraries that got funding from the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation to install the dispensers. “We want people exposed to literature. We want to advance literacy among children and inspire creativity.”

Here’s how a dispenser works: It is shaped like a cylinder with three buttons on top indicating a “one minute,” “three minute” or “five minute” story. (That’s how long it takes to read.) When a button is pushed, a short story is printed, unfurled on a long strip of paper.

The stories are free. They are retrieved from a computer catalog of more than 100,000 original submissions by writers whose work has been evaluated by Short Edition’s judges, and transmitted over a mobile network. Offerings can be tailored to specific interests: children’s fiction, romance, even holiday-themed tales.

What a great idea. Story conceit, sure, but I mean that actual kiosk itself. A free 1, 3, or 5-minute short story.

As far as a movie concept is concerned, here’s where I went. Two Gen Y couples out for dinner. On their way out, they spot a short story kiosk. They try to obtain a short story, but it doesn’t work. As they head outside, our Protagonist Lara hears the machine whir to life. She lingers long enough to snare a 1-minute short story — about a ten inch long strip of print.

The two couples share a Lyft ride in an upscale car. Lara reads the story aloud. It’s about two couples in a taxi. The driver is named Josef. “Hey,” the Lyft driver says. “That’s my name.”

Everyone laughs. What a coincidence! Lara keeps reading, “As the car enters an intersection, a sports car speeds through a red light…”

Straight ahead, a sports car zooms through a red light causing Josef to whip the wheel to barely avoid a collision.

“… causing Josef to whip the wheel, barely avoiding a collision.”

Everyone rides in silence. That was totally strange.

At their condo, Lara is amped trying to convince her fiance Cade that the story could not just have been a coincidence, but he is not persuaded.

“It’s just a fluke, that’s all,” he says.

The next day, Lara goes back to the restaurant and obtains another 1-minute short story. In reading the story, Lara comes to think that it’s describing Jackson, the male member of the other couple. Reading details from the short story, she manages to track down Jackson.

“He gave her a red rose, Lillith… his mistress.”

Lara looks up. A woman — not his wife — approaches Jackson in a public square. He hands her a red rose. They embrace kissing each other.

The central conceit: The short story kiosk produces stories which predict the near future. Only for Lara, no one else. Further, the stories all end up revealing some dark secret among Lara’s friends, co-workers, and family members. This puts Lara in an unusual position. Does she confront them? Spill the beans? Manipulate them?

Then the kiosk tells a story about Lara…

There you go: My twenty ninth story idea for the month. What would YOU do with this story setup?

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
Day 29

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 links to all 30 story posts.