A Story Idea Each Day for a Month — Day 30
This is the 12th 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: NYC renter discovers creepy, hidden room in apartment.
Supernatural squatters?
A New York City woman is convinced her apartment is haunted after uncovering a creepy hidden room straight out of a horror flick. She documented the spine-tingling discovery in a series of TikTok videos that have collectively amassed millions of views.
“Seriously never would I have expected to find this … and I documented all of it,” writes Samantha Hartsoe in a caption for the first clip, which boasts a staggering 7.4 million watches.
In the bone-chilling video, titled “A New York Mystery,” the perplexed renter reveals that she had felt cold air blowing from her bathroom — despite the fact that it has no working vent. Initially thinking nothing of it, she became intrigued after discovering that the draft was coming from behind the bathroom.
The plot thickens in “Part 2,” when Hartsoe and her friends decide to remove the mirror, revealing a dilapidated hallway with a hidden room at the end. One of her pals compares it to the secret dungeon from the movie “Parasite.”
The mirror angle recalls the 1992 movie Candyman:
Which has been remade to be released later this year:
Therefore, the story conceit — something behind a bathroom mirror — wouldn’t appear to lend itself to a horror movie as there is too much competition. My mind went to a favorite movie Time Bandits (1981) in which a young boy discovers he can jump back and forth in time through a portal in his bedroom wardrobe.
What if it’s not a portal for time travel, but to a mysterious land? That’s similar to the portal in The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe (2005) and also Alice in Wonderland (2010).
I like that idea. What if we changed the location to an urban setting? What if instead of white youths, our travelers were POC? What if rather well-to-do, their family was poor? What if the Protagonists are not males, but females?
But where do they go in their fantastical journeys? That’s up to you!
And there you go! My 30th and final story idea this month.
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.