A Story Idea Each Day for a Month — Day 26

This is the fourth year in a row I’ve run this series in April.

Today’s story idea: Two enemies discover a ‘higher call’ in battle:

The pilot glanced outside his cockpit and froze. He blinked hard and looked again, hoping it was just a mirage. But his co-pilot stared at the same horrible vision.

“My God, this is a nightmare,” the co-pilot said.

“He’s going to destroy us,” the pilot agreed.

The men were looking at a gray German Messerschmitt fighter hovering just three feet off their wingtip. It was five days before Christmas 1943, and the fighter had closed in on their crippled American B-17 bomber for the kill.

The B-17 pilot, Charles Brown, was a 21-year-old West Virginia farm boy on his first combat mission. His bomber had been shot to pieces by swarming fighters, and his plane was alone in the skies above Germany. Half his crew was wounded, and the tail gunner was dead, his blood frozen in icicles over the machine guns.

But when Brown and his co-pilot, Spencer “Pinky” Luke, looked at the fighter pilot again, something odd happened. The German didn’t pull the trigger. He nodded at Brown instead. What happened next was one of the most remarkable acts of chivalry recorded during World War II. Years later, Brown would track down his would-be executioner for a reunion that reduced both men to tears.

This is a wonderful story, right? But since today is Bad Story Idea Friday — in order to drive home the fact that in order to come up with a great idea, we have to come up with a lot of ideas, even bad ones — let me spin this concept in a dumb way.

To wit: Has there ever been a comedy about the Vietnam War? Not to my knowledge. There have been comedies set in Korea such as MASH. There have been comedies set in World War II such as How I Won the War and Operation Petticoat. There have even been comedies set in World War I such as King of Hearts. Why no comedies about the Vietnam War?

Because it’s probably a really bad idea. The Vietnam War is a dark cloud on a fairly recent horizon and its impact still resonates with the Baby Boomer generation. Besides why would Hollywood make a movie about a war of which young people are largely ignorant?

So it’s almost certainly a bad idea to do a comedy about the Vietnam War. But here goes in honor of Bad Story Idea Friday:

What if a disgruntled Vietnam Vet is living in retirement in Orange County, California? And who should move in next door, but a Vietnamese immigrant, also a veteran of the war… but for the other side. One thing leads to another and the war breaks out all over again between these two hardcore warriors albeit equipped with canes and limited by gimpy knees.

It’s Gran Tourino meets Rambo meets Grumpy Old Men.

Ah, I hate that idea. But like I say, it’s Bad Story Idea Friday.

Now it’s your turn. How about a Bad Story Idea from you?

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.

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