A Story Idea Each Day for a Month — Day 1

This is the fifth 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 ya’ 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: Lap dancers accused of kidnapping a strip club boss:

Three lap dancers and an actress kidnapped a club boss who failed to pay them £42,000 after the premises were closed down during the Cheltenham National Hunt Festival, a court heard yesterday.

The women appeared in the dock with two men accused of acting as ‘heavies’ for them in the kidnapping.

Their alleged victim was subjected to violence and threats, and robbed during his ordeal, Martin Steen, prosecuting, told the court.

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Actress Charlotte Devaney, 34, of London, and dancers Rachel Goodchild, 24, and Mandy-Laura Cool, 29, both of Southampton, and Stephanie Pye, 30, of Sutton Coldfield, together with brothers Robert Morris, 26, and Alexander Morris, 22, of Southampton, are all accused of kidnap on September 3 last year.

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It is the prosecution case that the women were recruited to dance in a room at the Embassy Club in Cheltenham during the four-day National Hunt Festival in March last year.

On the day the club was closed down the women made a complaint to police that they had not been paid the £42,000 they said the alleged victim owed them.

It is alleged that the women then decided to get the money out of the boss themselves by recruiting the two brothers to help them.

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Charlotte Devaney describes herself as an international DJ, producer, actress and model.

She had a part in 2008 film How to Lose Friends and Alienate People, which starred Simon Pegg, and has a single coming out this summer with American rapper Snoop Dogg.

A statement released by her publicist said: ‘On behalf of myself and the other girls involved in this case, I would like to state categorically that we are not guilty of this charge.

‘In actual fact, we have been the wronged party and are confident the truth will come out.

‘We are looking forward to going to court later this year to prove our innocence.’

What could you do with this story conceit?

* How about a straight ahead comedy? It’s 9 to 5 meets Horrible Bosses… with lap dancers!

* Why not action comedy: The dude they kidnap? Maybe he’s not the kind of guy you should be kidnapping. Maybe his brother is a mobster. Big time. Maybe the gals are now on the run with this foul-mouthed scumbag who owes them money. Think Joe Pesci from Lethal Weapon 2.

* Or maybe an action thriller: Could be the issue isn’t who the kidnap victim is, but the two thugs the gals hired to provide muscle. They could be on the psychotic side like Gaear Grimsrud from Fargo. You know, this guy:

Things get out of hand. Like Pesci bribes the muscle men who turn around and kidnap the three women. Now it’s a fight for survival, especially when somebody gets killed and the women are witnesses and need to be silenced… with extreme prejudice.

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 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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