A Story Idea Each Day for a Month — Day 10

This is the sixth year in a row I’ve run this series in April. Last week I provided a daily explanation about why you should make it a habit to be generating story ideas. This week, I’ll give you some tips on how to come up with stories.

Tip: Look at magazines.

I love magazines. Or at least I used to. Before at one point, I had over 30 subscriptions! [Now I’m down to 2: The New Yorker and the New York Review of Books].

The thing is if you’re trolling magazines for possible story ideas, you have to avoid the biggies like People, US, Time, Newsweek, Vanity Fair, Rolling Stone, GQ, Esquire, and so on. You can be sure that Hollywood studios and producers cover those regularly. Indeed more and more magazine writers tailor their stories as possible movie projects.

No, you need to dig deeper and go wider with your research into magazines. Fast Company, Smithsonian, New Scientist are some good ones.

Then think regional like Southern Living. Or foreign like Der Spiegel. Or really odd like Miniature Donkey Talk Magazine.

Again there are plenty of story ideas out there, especially in magazines. You just have to look for them.

Today’s story idea: 19 Alternate Histories Imagining a Very Different World.

Alternate history, long popular with fiction writers, has also been explored by historians and journalists. Here are some of their intriguing conclusions.

1. What if the South won the Civil War?
Effect: America becomes one nation again… in 1960.

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4. What if James Dean had survived his car crash?
Effect: Robert Kennedy survives his assassination attempt.

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7. What if The Beatles had broken up in 1966?
Effect: Ronald Reagan is assassinated in 1985.

— —

13. What if Marilyn Monroe survived?
Effect: She would win an Oscar — and be brainwashed.

The article goes into detail about 19 alternate histories. You can check them out from the link above. Of course, there have been a host of movies wherein a character travels in time and creates an alternate future such as Back to the Future (1985) and the more recent About Time (2012):

But I’m thinking of going bigger, a global alternate history. One movie that comes to mind in this vein is Watchmen (2009): “In an alternate 1985 where former superheroes exist, the murder of a colleague sends active vigilante Rorschach into his own sprawling investigation, uncovering something that could completely change the course of history as we know it.”

If you think about it, Planet of the Apes (1968) is a kind of alternate history in which apes rule over humans.

So if I were to brainstorm an alternate history, I would start with two questions:

* What type of alternate society would I enjoy exploring in a movie?

* What event or events could have so influenced culture to bring about that alternate society?

How about an American in which white people are in the minority? Or where women are the breadwinners and men are ‘housewives’?

Dumb comedy ideas: What if polka was the hip hop of the streets? What if politicians were elected on the basis of their ability to do stand-up comedy? The President of the United States: Commander in Punchline.

What sort of alternate history would you come up with?

There you go: My tenth story idea for the month. And it’s yours. Free!

Each day this month, 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 (hit Reply to join the conversation). And come back tomorrow for another Story Idea Each Day For A Month.

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