A Story Idea Each Day for a Month — Day 15

This is the sixth year in a row I’ve run this series in April. Each day, I’ll give you some tips on how to come up with stories.

Tip: Public domain

Laws vary from country to country, but if a person, event, book is considered to be in the public domain, then from a writer’s perspective, it is free content, you don’t need to secure any rights.

You want to adapt “Romeo and Juliet” into a contemporary gang shoot-em-up love story, you can do that.

You want to turn Abraham Lincoln into a vampire hunter, you can do that.

Straight adaptation, genre bend, gender bend, whatever you want to do, you can do it with a public domain entity. Plus the added benefit: Pre-awareness.

Today’s story: An S.O.S. in a Saks Bag.

In September, 2012, Stephanie Wilson, a twenty-eight-year-old Australian who lives in West Harlem, bought a pair of Hunter rain boots from Saks Fifth Avenue. She was digging for her receipt in the paper shopping bag when she discovered a letter inside that, in its urgency, started higher than the ruled paper’s printed lines. “HELP! HELP! HELP!!” a man had written, in blue ink on white paper. He opened, “Hello!! I’m Njong Emmanuel Tohnain, Cameroonian of nationality.”

The writer explained that he had made the bag while captive in a Chinese prison factory, where he was being held after an arrest on accusations of fraud. He wrote, “I’ve been molested and tortured physically, morally, psychologically and spiritually for all the while without any given chance to contact my family and friends. We are ill-treated and work like slaves for 13 hours every day producing these bags in bulk in the prison factory. Please help to contact the United Nations Human Rights Department or if possible Samuel Eto’o and let them know my sad story. I’m Eto’o’s fan club manager in the University.” He signed off, politely, “Thanks and sorry to bother you.”

Here is the letter:

Pretty remarkable story and quite a set-up for a movie. I mean talk about a Call To Adventure. It’s kind of the equivalent to this:

Then boom! This letter. How could you not choose to interpret this as fate? The Protagonist begins an investigation much to the chagrin and consternation of his/her well-heeled friends. Why concern yourself with someone you don’t know? A worker? Worse, a foreigner.

I’m seeing our Protagonist head off to whatever country where the letter-writer is being held captive. Fish Out Of Water. Forced to circumnavigate the labyrinth of customs, regulations and bribes. Finally finds the letter-writer… who is quite real.

Problem: Because the poor guy’s letter drew the attention of the Protagonist, that puts the prisoner’s life in jeopardy. If their system is made known to the public, lots of heads will roll and that is precisely the type of thing that could happen if the Protagonist goes wide with the contents of the letter.

Oh, yeah. Now the Protagonist’s life is in danger. Maybe s/he gets arrested. No first world justice here, it’s like the wild West.

Protagonist and Prisoner have to team up to survive, eventually escape? Lots of possibilities.

There you go: My fifteenth 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.

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