Story Ideas

Story ideas that have been running around in my head. Ones I probably won’t write myself, but would like to see happen someday. If you want to write something from these, I just ask that you share with me your final work - I mean, I should get a copy as a thank you or something, right? Let me know how it goes for you.

Crescendo

(murder mystery film idea, with Preston) A symphony group is stranded on an island or inside a big house or something. There is no soundtrack at the beginning of the movie. Setup gets completed, and then the characters hear the sound of a single bass drum. Trying to find the sound, they instead find the dead body of one of their percussionists. The sound of the drum continues through the whole movie from that point forward. Of course they all freak out. A few, at least one, freak out and isolate themselves from the rest. Suddenly, added to the drum beat, is a single oboe playing. They search for the sound again, and don’t find it, but they do find a dead oboe player. This repeats a few times until there’s enough dead instrumentalists to create a running soundtrack. Every time someone dies, their instrument is added to the soundtrack, which both audience and characters hear the same. They take up the ‘buddy system’, staying together in groups, generally grouped by instrument. And then we have the entire violin section that comes into the soundtrack all at once - the pile of bodies is found shortly after. Continue with more freaking out, more deaths, and a richer and fuller soundtrack as the movie progresses. Small clues lead us to realize that the reason the symphony group is in this place is because they mutinied against their conductor, abandoning him onstage, out of some disagreement. Unknown to them, their defection somehow caused his death, and now his ghost is killing t in vengeance. As things build, some of the riffs contain pieces of other horror movie soundtracks. This orchestra is the horror-movie genre soundtrack unit. But finally, there is only one musician left - someone that plays a little-used instrument - maybe bagpipes. When he realizes he’s alone, he takes out his chanter and starts to play. With him off-screen, the sound of the chanter fades into a full bagpipe sound, while the other instruments fade out, until only the piper is playing. Fin

Book Club

(suspense) A family receives a book in the mail - no one ordered it, but it was mailed to their house with no return address. Of course, the mom decides to read it - free book! She reads a bit into it, and is tickled to notice that the main character has the same name as her and is the same age. Early in the book, there’s a section that invites her to make a wish, and she plays along and makes a wish. But then she reads the main character’s husband has the same name as hers, and same with their children. The birthday of one or more of the children is even revealed to be the same. Creeped out, she continues reading it, unable to put it away. The book then suggests she should do some action that doesn’t make sense to her, and she doesn’t do it. Getting to the end of the first section, the book details how she has rejected the book’s gift, so she must wrap the book back up and put it back into the mail, even giving her the name and address where it should go to. She thinks about it, but doesn’t do it, and decides to get rid of the book. But it keeps returning to her bedside table. Starting the next section, it tells how she tried to get rid of the book without mailing it forward, then - in retribution? - tells about something bad happening to her family. Which it does. It also tells her about a terrible thing that happens to the family she was supposed to send it to, and she sees them on the news that night. This repeats a few times, with her refusing to follow the book’s directions to do something or to send it on to the next reader, for which she and her family suffer, along with the family she was supposed to send it to. Eventually, she follows the book’s directions, shipping it to it’s desired recipient. But she adds a note in it telling them not to read any of it. The next day, whatever she originally wished for is technically given to her, but because of the suffering the book has caused in her family, it’s essentially meaningless. As a final scene, she looks up the name of the family she mailed it on to and see that wonderful things have happened to them. Looks like they followed the directions.

  

Inside

(psychological thriller) A police officer or detective gets a phone call - sounds like a small child calling for help, saying they have been kidnapped and are being held against their will. They trace the phone call and go looking for the child, but there’s just a single adult there, no child to be found - and no child is missing locally. They get another call, this time to the detective’s number that he’d left with the one adult, and it’s the child again, giving them details about the house that they’ve already searched. They go out again, and confirm all the information the child gave them, but can’t find a child. This continues a few times. //not sure of the middle// Eventually, it’s revealed that the person at the house is a multiple personality, and the child calling is a child alter who doesn’t know that they are a multiple.

 

The Hairbrush

(from Nikki) - Yesterday, I saw a befuddled, elderly man looking at hairbrushes. It aroused my curiosity not because he seemed so overwhelmed but because he was bald. Ever since, my mind has raced with stories ideas that range from buying one to brush his dementia addled, bedridden partner to who does this guy have locked in his basement?

(idea) - Bald guy is a submissive who has been sent to the store by his wonderful dominant wife for a hairbrush to paddle him with. She's told him that if anyone asks why he's buying a hairbrush (being bald), he has to tell them. Also, they've been married for 40 years, but only started doing BDSM together in the last five years, just to spice things up. I love the idea of this older couple studying up on how to 'do the B.D.S.M.' so they can keep up each other's interest.

Mimic This

Okay, this one's a D&D/fantasy-world story - perhaps a series of stories. A tale of a young adventurer who somehow acquires a mimic. A tiny, baby mimic, the size of a coin, perhaps. Instead of killing the monstrosity, he tames it, feeding it whatever he can find to tempt it. Mimics have an Intelligence 5; this monster understands a good thing when it finds it. He teaches the mimic to take on shapes of things that will draw vermin and such to it, where it can easily be caught. As the mimic grows, the adventurer trains the mimic to be useful to him, too. It learns to take shapes that benefit him, like a sack, or a small wheelbarrow. The caretaker takes on jobs that help feed his pet, like disposing of remnants from the butcher shop. But as the creature grows, he takes on adventuring jobs that involve killing monsters, to have something to feed his mimic. The mimic learns to help with that, too. They set a trap for unwary thieves - the mimic captures and eats them. The mimic becomes a door blocking the way where a troop of goblins will pass. The mimic catches them as they try to escape, holding them for the adventurer to pick them off easily. The mimic takes the shape of some armor which is sold to an warlord - and then it kills and eats him when he least expects it. The mimic, in the form of a piece of art, is given as a gift to appease the evil wizard - and when his guard is down, it catches and eats him, too. The adventurer can just walk in after the mimic has done his job, pick up the loot, reclaim his companion, then go to claim the reward for his actions.

Snowed In

I just read a story where a librarian was snowed in at her library with a homeless man, a cranky old woman, a teenager, and the security guard. The setting was like Man from Earth, or any of a number of stories where a disparate group of people are trapped together in a cabin or an elevator or a library or something. And then I was having a conversation about the main cast of Firefly, and how it's hard to pick just one favorite, depending on what you want them for. I'd love to trap modern-day versions of the Firefly crew together and see how they get along.

I'm Steve

A playscript that's just Captain America and Wonder Woman in the old folks' home, a la I'm Herbert. Or maybe actors that used to play those characters. It's been so long, they aren't sure. But all so John C and I can play these characters together.