A Story Idea Each Day for a Month — Day 1

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. For today, the most basic one:

If you have aspirations of becoming a professional screenwriter, you should be in the habit of generating story concepts.

Let’s say you write and sell a spec script. Congratulations. You’re the “flavor-of-the-week.” Your agent and manager set up meetings across Hollywood with producers and studio execs. The first words out of their mouths will likely be some variation of “Love your script ” (even if they haven’t really read it). The second thing they say will almost assuredly be, “What else have you got?” If you haven’t been developing other stories, that is likely to be a very short meeting.

There are many ways to generate story ideas. This month, I focus on one: Looking for ideas in news sources. Each of the items I’ll be posting for the next 30 days comes from a news site.

Today’s story idea: Woman Gets Oral Surgery, Wakes Up With Irish Accent.

When Karen Butler meets new people, they often ask her where she’s from. And the answer — Newport, Oregon — usually surprises them. Why? Butler speaks with what sounds like an Irish accent. But she didn’t acquire it from spending time across the Atlantic. She picked it up at the dentist’s office.

Speaking about her medical oddity on a “Today” show segment, Butler explained that she went in for a surgical procedure about a year and a half ago. The funny voice she was speaking with immediately after seemed to just be par for the course, right along with the swelling and soreness. But as time went on and she healed from the surgery, her body returned to normal and the voice didn’t go away.

The culprit may be an extremely rare condition called Foreign Accent Syndrome, which is triggered by a stroke or brain damage, Dr. Ted Lowenkopf, medical director of the Providence Stroke Center in Oregon, said on “Today.” “It’s so rare — less than 100 cases ever reported — that the average neurologist, even a stroke neurologist, would not see a case in their lifetime.”

Listen to her new voice (and a clip comparing it to her old one) below.

What could you do with this story conceit? Oh, I can see lots of variations. Here are a few:

* How about a comedy? The biggest loser in the world gets zapped and suddenly he’s on “American Idol,” winning record contracts, making movies, becomes known as The Voice.

* Perhaps some sort of espionage thing where a person gets zapped and now can mimic any accent in the world. Scooped up by a spy agency. Hijinks and mayhem ensue.

* Of course you can go the other direction: A person loses their voice. And if their livelihood is dependent on their voice [e.g., radio DJ, sports broadcaster), perhaps the basis of a decent drama.

* Maybe a satire. What if the voice they get when they get zapped is some sort of prophetic personality, can read the future.

Whatever take you choose, there’s always the danger: What if the person loses their new found ability? Nothing worse than getting a taste of fame and fortune, then having it snatched away.

So there you go: My first story idea for the month. And it’s yours. Free!

Finally each day, I invite you to join me in comments to do some brainstorming. Gender bend, genre bend, what if. Take each day’s story idea and see what it can become when we 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.

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