A Story Idea Each Day for a Month — Day 4

This is the third year in a row I’ve run this series in April. Why a story idea each day for the month? Several reasons which I’ll work my through during this series of posts. Here’s another one:

You can evolve into being a writer-producer.

Let’s face it, you can only write so much. But sitting on your side of the table, all those story meetings you’ve had to endure, you’ve probably developed a pretty good sense of what it takes to be a producer at least on a creative level.

Why not don that hat, too?

A quick way to jump start you producing career: Come up with story ideas. Here’s a great example: “Woogles”, a pitch that just sold yesterday from writers Nick Antosca and Ned Vizzini. Who is producing the movie? Screenwriter Max Landis (Chronicle) who came up with the story idea for the project that sold.

Today’s story idea comes from Annika Wood who sent me this link months ago: Boy defies dad’s rules to attend firefighter’s wake

Jared Flanders faced a dilemma Wednesday evening: He had heard about the firefighter who was killed while looking for victims inside a burning building last week and he wanted to pay respects, but at only 11 years old, Jared wasn’t allowed to go outside by himself and he had no one to take him.

Jared, who lives in Worcester, Mass., ultimately decided to defy his father’s orders and go to firefighter Jon Davies’ wake. He carefully put on a coat and tie, hopped on his bike and went down to the funeral home, about a mile away, reported NBC affiliate WHDH.com.

Jared didn’t know the fireman, but he knows the pain of losing someone: His older half-brother fought in Iraq and died this summer.

“After what happened to my brother, I just — I would feel bad for the other families and wanted to come support them,” Jared told WHDH.com.

— —

Jared said he wanted to express his gratitude.

“I wanted to say thanks for saving all those people. Thanks for trying so hard. We’ll all miss you,” he told The Boston Herald. “I felt very bad for him — he was going to get married. The poor guy. I kept thinking how good he was and how hard he worked. What I was thinking about while watching everybody go up and pray was how brave he was and how such a hard worker he was.”

This seems like a small story, not big enough for a movie perhaps. But I know this: It provides a unique way into a powerful emotional center.

My initial instinct was this: What if a boy, who has suffered a traumatic death to a loved one, spends his free time visiting funerals and comforting grieving families?

Would his parents try to stop him? Would they send him to a psychologist? Would his friends make fun of him? Would people think he was crazy?

But what if what he did turned out to be the most appropriate way for the boy to deal with his grief.

And consider the larger ramifications: What if this boy manages to stitch together the wider experience of a city’s deaths? This death, that death, each reported in separate news accounts. The boy ties them all together and helps the community realize their commonality.

What if the boy lives in an area filled with gangs? What if he lost a brother to a gang shooting, then he starts to visit every funeral of every victim of gang violence? Might that start a movement of the people to rise up against crimes against humanity?

Or you could go supernatural: What if it turns out — Big Twist — the boy is an angel, the tragic death in his life was… him!

What would you do with this story idea?

Comment Archive