A Story Idea Each Day for a Month — Day 19
This is the fourth year in a row I’ve run this series in April.
Today’s story idea: One Man’s Quest to Be Penniless.
Daniel Suelo is 51 years old and broke. Happily broke. Consciously, deliberately, blessedly broke.
Not only does he not have debt, a mortgage or rent, he does not earn a salary. Nor does he buy food or clothes, or own any product with a lower case “i” before it. Home is a cave on public land outside Moab, Utah. He scavenges for food from the garbage or off the land (fried grasshoppers, anyone?). He has been known to carve up and boil fresh road kill. He bathes, without soap, in the creek.
In the fall of 2000, Suelo (who changed his name from Shellabarger), decided to stop using money altogether. That meant no “conscious barter,” food stamps or other government handouts. His mission was to “use only what is freely given or discarded and what is already present and already running,” he wrote on his web site, Zero Currency.
The question many people wonder: Is he insane, or a mooch, or simply dedicated to leading a simple, honest, dare we say, Christ-like existence?
They’re good questions. And depending whom you ask, the answers vary.
— —
He began toying with the idea of living full-time without money. He traveled to India, and became fascinated by Hindu Sadhus, who wandered without lucre and possessions. He considered joining them, but then he realized that “A true test of faith would be to return to one of the most materialistic, money-worshipping nations on earth, to return to the authenticity profound principles of spirituality hidden beneath our own religion of hypocrisy, and be a Sadhu there,” he said. “To be a vagabond, a bum, and make an art of it — this idea enchanted me.”And soon, that’s exactly what he did. He says he left his life savings — a whopping $30 — in a phone booth, and walked away.
What could you do with this story conceit? Oh, I can see lots of variations. Here are a few:
* Comedy: The coddled and spoiled heir to a billionaire’s empire is forced by his/her father to live for a year without any money at all in order to qualify for their inheritance.
* Drama: A husband and father, worn down by working 80 hour weeks to scrimp by, takes his family off the grid.
* Horror: A idealistic young couple, fed up with materialism, relocate to the wilderness to live off the Earth only to be stalked by some crazed locals.
How about you. What would you do with this idea?
Finally each day, 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. And come back tomorrow for another Story Idea Each Day For A Month.
UPDATE: Oops. In the chaos of last night — tracking events out of Boston — I totally spaced out Dumb Idea Friday. So I’ll do Dumb Idea Saturday tomorrow.
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