A Story Idea Each Day for a Month — Day 9
This is the third year in a row I’ve run this series in April. Last week I provided a daily explanation about why you should make it a habit to be generating story ideas. This week, I’ll give you some tips on how to come up with stories.
Tip #1: Look at news sites.
I’ve been demonstrating that in this series, every idea from a news article. While you can surely keep an eye out when reading the NY Times or LA Times, you’d better believe there are plenty of writers already eyeballing those pages. So troll smaller newspapers. Offbeat news sites. Have you ever checked out Weekly World News? I used to subscribe to the print version way back when and actually wrote a spec based on one of their articles: “Couple Adopts the Child From Hell.” Unfortunately the spec script “Problem Child” beat us by 2 weeks: same premise.
Today’s story: College Students Using ‘Sugar Daddies’ To Pay Off Loan Debt:
NEW YORK — On a Sunday morning in late May, Taylor left her Harlem apartment and boarded a train for Greenwich, Conn. She planned on spending the day with a man she had met online, but not in person.
Taylor, a 22-year-old student at Hunter College, had confided in her roommate about the trip and they agreed to swap text messages during the day to make sure she was safe.
Once in Greenwich, a man who appeared significantly older than his advertised age of 42 greeted Taylor at the train station and then drove her to the largest house she had ever seen. He changed into his swimming trunks, she put on a skimpy bathing suit, and then, by the side of his pool, she rubbed sunscreen into the folds of his sagging back — bracing herself to endure an afternoon of sex with someone she suspected was actually about 30 years her senior.
Taylor doubted that her client could relate to someone who had grown up black and poor in the South Bronx. While he summered on Martha’s Vineyard, she’d likely pass another July and August working retail in Times Square.
A love match it wasn’t. But then again, this was no ordinary date.
A month prior, faced with about $15,000 in unpaid tuition and overdue bills, Taylor and her roommate typed “tuition,” “debt,” and “money for school” into Google. A website called SeekingArrangement.com popped up. Intrigued by the promise of what the site billed as a “college tuition sugar daddy,” Taylor created a “sugar baby” profile and eventually connected with the man from Greenwich. (“Taylor” is the pseudonym she uses with men she meets online. Neither she nor any of the other women interviewed for this article permitted their real names be used.)
In her profile on the site, Taylor describes herself as “a full-time college student studying psychology and looking to meet someone to help pay the bills.” Photos on the site show her in revealing outfits, a mane of caramel-colored hair framing her face. But unlike other dating sites, where a user might also list preferred hobbies or desired traits, Taylor instead indicates preferences for a “sugar daddy” and an “arrangement” in the range of $1,000 to $3,000 a month.
Saddled with piles of student debt and a job-scarce, lackluster economy, current college students and recent graduates are selling themselves to pursue a diploma or pay down their loans. An increasing number, according to the the owners of websites that broker such hook-ups, have taken to the web in search of online suitors or wealthy benefactors who, in exchange for sex, companionship, or both, might help with the bills.
Okay, this might look like the premise for a bad Lifetime movie. However two things struck me when I saw this item:
(1) The target demo Hollywood craves most is 18–34 years old. That same group is getting slammed by college loans and a crap economy. So a story featuring a Protagonist in that age group facing the same problems of that age group could catch a buyer’s attention.
(2) One of my favorite 80s movies is Night Shift (1982). The premise:
A nebbish of a morgue attendant gets shunted back to the night shift where he is shackled with an obnoxious neophyte partner who dreams of the “one great idea” for success. His life takes a bizarre turn when a prostitute neighbour complains about the loss of her pimp. His partner, upon hearing the situation, suggests that they fill that opening themselves using the morgue at night as their brothel. Against his better judgement, he gets talked into the idea, only to find that it’s more than his boss that has objections to this bit of entrepreneurship.
It was Michael Keaton’s break-out role:
Then there’s another great 80s movie Risky Business (1983) which was coincidentally Tom Cruise’s break-out role:
http://static.movieclips.com/embedplayer.swf?shortid=ca4o
So my first instincts are here we are 30 years later. Isn’t it about time for a prostitution comedy in the spirit of Night Shift and Risky Business, but with a nifty post-modern twist? What that twist is… well, you figure it out. That’s why they pay you the big bucks!
But don’t stop your brainstorming there. Clearly this premise could be a thriller [Protag hooks up with the wrong Sugar Daddy]. Or action [Protag hooks up with the wrong Sugar Daddy who’s in big trouble with some Bad Dudes]. Or drama [Protag and Old Dude with a May-December relationship]. Or switch the point of narrative attack: It’s not from the perspective of the the college students, but the Sugar Daddies. Or switch the gender and do a riff off yet another 80s movie American Gigolo (1980) starring Richard Gere.
What would you do with this story idea?
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