A Story Idea Each Day for a Month — Day 16
Okay, this seems like an easy one for a rom-com: “On Top of the Happiness Racket”:
HERE we are, already at the end of February. It’s been weeks since our scant New Year’s resolutions fell under the bed, joining the resolution dust bunnies of yesteryear.
Not so for Gretchen Rubin. Her gleaming home has no dust bunnies, real or metaphorical. She is on target with her resolutions. All 92 of them.
“There are more, actually,” Ms. Rubin said, thumbing through a dozen sheets. “But the way I set up my charts, I can only fit eight on a page.”
Ms. Rubin is the author of “The Happiness Project,” an account of her yearlong effort, tracked with a fresh chart each month, to amplify her happiness quotient. The book began dancing gleefully on the New York Times self-help best-seller list almost within minutes of its being published on Jan. 1.
What makes the author, 44, happy these days? “Hitting №1 on the list!” she said without hesitation.
Take a good look at this woman. Doesn’t some deep, dark, perverse part of your soul wish to put a Protagonist character like her through hell? Not really? Okay, now take a look at her book:
“The book that started it all, by a woman who would seem to have it all.”
Do you want to mess with her now?
In the classic rom-com tradition, a character who seems to have it all, goes through hell to discover that what they wanted wasn’t truly fulfilling, and in the process of their emotional journey, they uncover what they really need.
All you need is the perfect romantic foil.
What would you do with this story idea?