A Story Idea Each Day for a Month — Day 1

This is the seventh 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: What Happened When Axl Rose Rented My Apartment.

Axl Rose is the best tenant ever.

Three years ago, the legendary rocker was looking for a New York apartment to rent. He thought it might be time to move from Malibu and wanted to test out New York. Axl was searching for a place without “glaring” sunlight but with lots of space, and I had both — my place is 5,300 square feet and almost entirely underground. It’s in Tribeca, which — another benefit for him — is celebrity-friendly these days: His neighbors would be James Bond (Daniel Craig) and Jon Stewart (as well as a “gentleman’s” club next door). Axl came by to see the apartment twice. Once my wife was there, and she reported that he played enthusiastically with our dog and snorted at people who like spaces “bathed in light,” as the Realtors say. He loved the place.

Of course, I was worried. Axl, after all, had a reputation for wrecking places. There is, for instance, this headline from 2008: “Guns N’ Roses’ Axl Rose one of world’s worst hotel guests.” But he was said to have reformed as he aged. By the time he inspected my apartment, he was almost 50 years old and getting the belly to prove it. He’d apparently developed a respect for property rights — those of others included.

The surprise here is that Axl Rose turned out to be a great tenant… because he never even lived in the apartment. But check out that other link:

Axl and the rest of GN’R have trashed their fair share of hotel rooms over the years but a drunken argument in 2006, which lead to Axl biting the leg of a security guard, is used for reference here.

The late Keith Moon was no stranger to hotel debauchery either. You don’t get much more rock ’n’ roll than driving a car into a swimming pool.

Now that’s more like it! I have a friend who rented his house in Los Angeles to a very famous actor who at the time was a major party guy, but subsequently has gone sober. This actor almost destroyed the house. My friend sued the actor for literally hundreds of thousands dollars worth of damage.

My instinct would be to make this a comedy with lots and lots of property destruction, law-breaking, and general debauchery. The Renter From Hell.

This used to be a nice house before it got rocked and rolled

But, of course, someone in the landlord’s family — of course, they should live next door — could create a bond with the Crazy Rock and Roller, perhaps tame the ‘beast’ in the end.

And to make it more interesting, what if all the major players in the story are women: Woman Rocker, Woman Landlord who is a single mother of an adolescent girl.

It’s the Money Pit meets Neighbors.
It’s The Goodbye Girl meets Get Him to the Greek.

But of course, you could make this a thriller wherein the rock and roller has some strange hidden habits…

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

Finally each day in April, 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.

For the entire 2016 Story Idea Each Day for a Month series, go here.

See you in comments. And come back tomorrow for another Story Idea Each Day For A Month.

Comment Archive