A Story Idea Each Day for a Month — Day 10

This is the seventh 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: “The Way Out Wedding”.

Check out this video and tell me it isn’t the most elaborate wedding video of all time:

Mind blowing, right? Set aside the cost of travel, airplane rentals, the production values of the video itself — at least 2, maybe 3 camera operators, plus post-production. I’m guessing the whole thing must have run $50,000.

Putting on my producer’s hat, what appeals to me about this arena? First, it’s about weddings, a staple of Hollywood since It Happened One Night in 1932. I could pitch this as a movie to come out in the spring or May, when a lot of people get married, as counterprogramming against the inevitable spate of spectacle franchise movies, a project aimed squarely at a female audience and date movie.

Second, one hook is it could involve making videos of a series of weddings, one more sensational and outlandish than the other. How to set that into motion per the plot?

What if the Protagonist is the owner of a production company which specializes in upscale wedding videos? This is her gig. She’s what they call a “preditor,” a producer and editor. Also a camera operator, marketer, the whole thing.

What if she’s been doing this for a decade, let’s say she’s 34. Did she make a conscious choice to get into it? I’m thinking, no. She just kind of fell into doing one wedding video, then another, and another. By word of mouth grew really strong due to the quality of her work. Indeed, she’s probably a frustrated filmmaker.

Now here’s the rub. The clients who can afford her, many of them are what you’d expect: privileged, snobby, and entitled egotists. So our Protagonist — let’s call her Casey — has grown increasingly disgusted with them.

And there’s this: She knows most of these couples, so obsessed with the wedding itself and not their actual relationship, are going to end up getting divorced. Indeed, I just had a thought she tracks her ex-clients to see how many of them end up as ex-couples. You know how most people read wedding announcements? Casey follows divorce announcements. She may even have a tote board in her office in which she marks down each failed marriage.

Here she is, doing quite well financially. Her employees, a fun assortment of production types (great supporting cast of characters), take some of the edge of her job, but I get the feeling she may not allow any of them to be a super close friend, or maybe just one.

And of course, she’s single. She travels all the time, keeps weird hours due to the eccentricities of her clients, and them calling constantly to change details of their dream wedding videos. No time for a serious relationship. Besides with so many of the couples she’s known getting divorces, a layer of cynicism has crept into her consciousness.

To me, that’s a great setup for a romantic comedy. What happens? She’ll meet someone along the way who will very much complicate her life as she finds herself falling in love, despite her many logical reasons against and reservations about getting into a long-term relationship.

That’s my take. What would you do with this idea?

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.