A Story Idea Each Day for a Month — Day 12

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 Craigslist.

Dreamworks bought this pitch based on Craigslist ads.

There is this musical based on Craigslist ads.

There was this TV movie based on a Craigslist story.

Now something proactive you can do for your writing career while searching for a used barbell set.

Today: Harvard debate team loses to prison debate team.

Three Harvard debate team members faced off against three men incarcerated for violent crimes. This was two weeks ago.

After an hour of fast-moving debate on Friday, the judges rendered their verdict.The inmates won.

The audience burst into applause. That included about 75 of the prisoners’ fellow students at the Bard Prison Initiative, which offers a rigorous college experience to men at Eastern New York Correctional Facility, in the Catskills.

The prison debate squad v. Harvard debate team was set up to show off Bard College’s prison initiative. Pretty successful exhibition.

The prison team had its first debate in spring 2014, beating the U.S. Military Academy at West Point, N.Y. Then, it won against a nationally ranked team from the University of Vermont, and in April lost a rematch against West Point.Preparing has its challenges. Inmates can’t use the Internet for research. The prison administration must approve requests for books and articles, which can take weeks.

The team they beat said they were caught off guard by how prepared the inmates were. These are men serving time for manslaughter. Our perceptions of their capabilities can be pretty condescending. Judge Mary Nugent led the debate panel.

Ms. Nugent said it might seem tempting to favor the prisoners’ team, but the three judges have to justify their votes to each other based on specific rules and standards.“We’re all human,” she said. “I don’t think we can ever judge devoid of context or where we are, but the idea they would win out of sympathy is playing into pretty misguided ideas about inmates. Their academic ability is impressive.”

According to Bard their program currently has 300 prison inmates of both genders fully enrolled. They also say the program is cost effective.

There was the 2007 movie The Great Debaters starring Denzel Washington:

A drama based on the true story of Melvin B. Tolson, a professor at Wiley College Texas. In 1935, he inspired students to form the school’s first debate team, which went on to challenge Harvard in the national championship.

So debating, that’s your similar. The but different:

* This is a contemporary story, not a period piece which is a plus in terms of potential audience as some consumers simply don’t like to watch movies set in the past.

* There is a unique educational component: The Bard Prisoner Initiative.

* And the team is comprised of PRISONERS!

My guess is someone may have very well snatched up the rights to this story, so it’s probably best to fictionalize it, but it’s certainly got an interesting hook.

Regardless of whether you tell the Bard Prisoner Initiative story or a fictionalized version, one key question: Who is the Protagonist? You could go The Great Debaters route and make it Melvin Tolson, the Denzel Washington character. But I’m drawn to a different angle, one similar to another student-teacher story:

Dead Poet’s Society

Have a core group of students, a group of Protagonists with one lead character like DPS. Imagine the group photo above, but all prisoners. And as long as we’re experimenting, why not gender bend this sucker?

Orange is the New Black

Making it female-centric distinguishes the story even further from The Great Debaters.

It’s Orange is the New Black meets Pitch Perfect.

My twelfth story idea for the month. And it’s yours. Free! What would you do with it?

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.

Comment Archive