A Story Idea Each Day for a Month — Day 3
This is the fourth year in a row I’ve run this series in April. Why a story idea each day for the month? Several reasons which I’ll work my through during this series of posts. Here’s another one:
Being able to generate original story ideas sets you apart from writers who can’t.
Some writers can do it. Others can’t. The latter is resigned to doing adaptations, rewrites or taking a preexisting idea and writing that.
If you can develop solid skills at generating good story ideas, you give yourself a leg-up on your competition creating another work angle for you.
Today’s story idea: Well Over $1 Million in Buried Treasure: Find it!
Forrest Fenn, a legendary 80-year-old Santa Fe art dealer and collector, has written a memoir in which he gives clues to finding a real treasure chest (worth well over $1 million) that Fenn has hidden in the mountains north of Santa Fe. The treasure includes gold coins, nuggets, pre-Columbian gold animal figures, a Spanish 17th century gold-and-emerald ring and an important bracelet with turquoise beads excavated in 1898 from Mesa Verde, which Fenn won much later playing pool.
“Lost treasure” books he read as a boy influenced Fenn, who has always loved mystery, intrigue and adventure. But the real reason he buried this treasure is because he developed cancer, and after a long bout of chemo and radiation, the doctors told him the cancer could come back. Fenn, worried the cancer would recur, said to himself, “If it comes back, I’m going to grab a pocketful of sleeping pills, take a treasure chest filled with treasure and a copy of my bio; and I’m going to walk out into the desert. Sometime they’ll find my bones and the treasure, but my bio will be inside the box, so at least they’ll know who I was.”
The cancer remained in remission so Fenn, who said, “I just got tired of waiting,” decided to go ahead and bury the treasure somewhere in the mountains north of Santa Fe. Fenn won’t say how much the treasure is worth because the price of gold fluctuates. Some insiders have said it’s worth much more than one million dollars.
The treasure has not yet been found. Says Fenn, “It’s difficult so it won’t be found right away, but it’s easy enough so that it’s not impossible to find it.” Fenn chuckles and says, “I want sweaty bodies out there looking for my treasure — they just have to find the clues.”
— —
I emailed Forrest Fenn, who sent this poem, which he promises gives NINE clues:
As I have gone alone in there
And with my treasures bold,
I can keep my secret where,
And hint of riches new and old.
Begin it where warm waters halt
And take it in the canyon down,
Not far, but too far to walk.
Put in below the home of Brown.
From there it’s no place for the meek,
The end is ever drawing nigh;
There’ll be no paddle up your creek,
Just heavy loads and water high.
If you’ve been wise and found the blaze,
Look quickly down, your quest to cease,
But tarry scant with marvel gaze,
Just take the chest and go in peace.
So why is it that I must go
And leave my trove for all to seek?
The answers I already know,
I’ve done it tired and now I’m weak.
So hear me all and listen good,
Your effort will be worth the cold.
If you are brave and in the wood
I give you title to the gold.
We are talking greed. And to vamp off the wisdom of Gordon Gekko, greed is good… when it comes to movies. Look at a few movie associations:
* The Treasure of Sierra Madre (1948): Two Americans searching for work in Mexico convince an old prospector to help them mine for gold in the Sierra Madre Mountains.
* It’s a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World (1963): The dying words of a thief spark a madcap cross-country rush to find some treasure.
* A Simple Plan (1998): When three blue collar acquaintances come across millions of dollars in lost cash they make a plan to keep their find from the authorities but find complications and mistrust weaving its way into their plan.
Hell, you can go back to 1924 and Erich von Stroheim’s film Greed to see this theme in play:
So what to do with this story idea? Putting on my producer’s hat, you could go the comedy route, but then there’s Rat’s Race which is the 2001 variation of Mad World. Do consumers really want another comedic variation on this theme at this point?
Action seems a natural. Throw in fast cars, some guns, a ticking clock, and Megan Fox, that would play overseas.
Thriller could work: Some gazillionaire scoops up a bunch of Joe and Jane Does, plops them in his personal expansive rural compound with a promise of enormous wealth for the one who finds the treasure.
But what if we take that idea and go one step further into the horror genre? Let’s say I’m a psychopath. A rich violent psychopath. A really rich, violent and shrewd psychopath. Why go chasing down my potential victims when I can figure out a way to have them come to me?
Think Howard Hughes crossed with Hannibal Lecter. A mysterious and secretive loner with more money than the Koch brothers. A website pops up and suddenly goes very viral. Howard Lecter [or Hannibal Hughes] announces he has had a conversion experience. The Lord has appeared to him and told him he cannot serve God and mammon: He must choose. And choose he does. He has spent months selling everything he owns and bought the equivalent in gold bars. We are talking Super Mega Powerball Sums Of Money. And he’s buried it somewhere on his property of several thousand acres for someone to become a lucky — and super rich — bastard.
Who shows up? A bunch of Greedy Mofos, that’s who. And each is a potential victim for whatever sadistic ends HH/HL has in mind. All of them on land they don’t know… but HH/HL does. Advantage psychopath.
It’s The Hunger Games meets The Silence of the Lambs.
Let the stalking begin!
Ah, know what? It’s okay, but doesn’t feel like a winner. But still, a good exercise. The idea is probably better as an action movie. But hey, enough of my brainstorming. How about you? What would you do with Buried Treasure?
There you go: My third story idea for the month. And it’s yours. Free!
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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