If you read Writer’s Digest or subscribe to any of the 10,000 pieces of advice for writers, you’ll run across this:
“When and if you get an idea for a story, it should be original.”
Right. Guilt. Greed. Incest. Love. Hate. Murder.
Thanks for stealing my thunder, Shakespeare.
Or, you could try:
“Start by saying 'What if’ then you’re on your way."
All right.
“What if just before I died, I ran into everyone I ever dated.”
This has got to be original. Of course, if the term ‘date’ is used loosely, some would have to lease the Superbowl Stadium.
I’d like to have the concessions for one of the guys I worked with at the Auto Club. I’m not going to say which Auto Club, but this guy had enough charisma to render the geekiest of geeks irresistible.
“Three-babe-night,” I overheard him whisper to a fellow ‘TripTiker’ one morning. Note, it was Friday, before Memorial Day Weekend. I would need an abacus to add the babes and nights on Monday morning. [Note: This was in the olden days, before calculators could be held in your hand-held.]
What if I made the story unfold AFTER I died?
I googled ‘reunited with old lovers after death’.
A bio page for Les Temayne popped up. His bio included every move he made from the early days of radio until he passed away in 2013. A full, interesting life, Les had. Married three times and next to President Franklin D. Roosevelt and Bing Crosby, his was the most recognized voice in the US.
I kept reading. Where’s life after death? Had google steered me wrong? My patience was rewarded at the bottom of the page:
In 1987, Tremayne appeared in General Hospital as Edward Quartermaine, the oldest character in that series, as a temporary replacement for David Lewis. He played the deceased Victor Lord for one month on One Life to Live during the 1987 Heaven storyline in which daughter Vicki Lord Buchanan (Erika Slezak) was reunited with most every character that had died on the show after a heart attack left her in purgatory.
My idea. Dashed to the ground and stomped on by the longest running soap opera in history. Purgatory? Heaven storyline? It was, after all, in 1987. What would happen if I tried this approach?
‘Thank you for your submission. We appreciate your interest in our publication, but we cannot include your work in future issues. Your idea is not original.”
I’m re-writing. I’ve moved the venue to hell. Where most of my dates probably will end up.