A Story Idea Each Day for a Month — Day 24
This is the fourth year in a row I’ve run this series in April.
Today’s story idea: Their Home Is a Castle, Like It or Not:
AMSTERDAM, N.Y. — Susan Phemister assumed it would be easy to flip a castle.
She and her husband, Manfred, had been flipping real estate in zip-zip fashion since the mid-1990s, and had made a killing each time. In 1997, while working in London, they bought a condo for $170,000 and sold it the next year for $245,000. In 1999, they bought again, for $285,000, and sold a year later for $350,000. Then they moved back to New York, bought a three-bedroom place in Park Slope, Brooklyn, for $565,000 and four years later, in 2005, sold it for $1 million.
That’s when the Phemisters decided the time was right to buy a castle — a 36,000-square-footer in classic red brick, complete with 2 turrets and 134 windows — for sale at what appeared to be the low-low price of $800,000. They spent $400,000 on renovations, which won them a preservation award, and in 2007 put it back on the market at a price fit for a king, $2 million.
“The plan was for the family to live here for two years,” said Ms. Phemister, a media executive and mother of three. “Then we’d sell and make the extra million we’d need to buy a brownstone.”
Unfortunately, as is now widely known, that was when the American economy took a downward turn, and, as Ms. Phemister said, “The market for castles in upstate New York dried up completely.”
I’ve been looking for a story concept that would lend itself to a family movie, then lo and behold yesterday’s NYT delivered one to me: Imagine a family who ends up living in a castle! More from the article:
In the end, people can find a million reasons not to buy a castle: Some have complained that there is not enough parking, others would prefer a castle that is deep in the woods. The fact is, the only reason to buy a castle is that you have a terrible yearning to live in a castle. “It’s the supercool factor,” Ms. Phemister said.
The Phemister children are too young to remember Brooklyn, so castle life seems normal to them. They have friends over for dodge ball tournaments in the gym, sleepovers in the turrets, hide-and-seek in dimly lighted passageways.
They are known around town as the castle children, which is mostly — but not totally — a good thing. “Sometimes,” says Vivienne, who is in the sixth grade, “people just want to be my friend because I live in a castle.”
Okay, so imagine your typical American suburban family. Knock, knock. A guy in a kilt standing at the door. An unknown uncle has died. The family are heirs. They have been bequeathed a castle.
Maybe it’s in Scotland. Maybe it’s in Nova Scotia. Maybe it’s in the U.S. somewhere. Whatever.
The point is the family moves into a castle.
Now what?
Putting on my producer’s hat, I know The Goonies is one of those handful of movies everyone in Hollywood would love make, a similar but different version. So I’m thinking an action-adventure movie with a mystery at its core.
Oh, don’t you think there needs to be a supernatural component to it?
A location. This is one way to generate story concepts. Next week, I am going to post something that will blow your mind offering you dozens of incredible locations.
But for today, what would you do with a castle?
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. And come back tomorrow for another Story Idea Each Day For A Month.