Idea List #10

 

What, you still haven’t had enough?  Take a stroll down the page and see if something tickles your fancy!  As always, these ideas are in the “What if…” format – that is, add the phrase “what if” in front of every idea.  Enjoy!

 

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A big-shot lawyer had to deal with a small case in a small Southern town?  AMy Cousin Vinny,@ but better.

 

A corporate spy, in fear of getting caught, slipped important papers into a secretary=s briefcase?

 

A girl born from a group of embryos mismanaged at a fertility clinic sets across the country to find her brothers and sisters?

 

A hacker discovered that the web was alive?

 

A rocket ship landed in your back yard?

 

A stewardess held the key to saving the world (or something, at least)?

 

A street-gang was trying to kill you?  What would you do?

 

A woman (maybe high school student) was stalking a guy who had dated her, or whom she wanted to date?

 

All you could eat was Fritos and bean dip?

 

All you had was a phone number, just seven digits?  What would you do?  What if it was all you had in the world?

 

An extreme environmental group started protesting the use of synthetics on the grounds that they were unnatural?

 

Bill Gates was in the pay of a foreign power?  What could he do to suborn American interests?

 

Delaware tried to secede from the Union?

 

Everybody told you all their secrets - good, bad, or otherwise; you became an unwitting confessor?  How would you relate to this?  Could you do good (or evil) because of this?

 

In a world of exceptional people, you were average?  How could this be used to your advantage? What if it was your family?

 

It was now a crime to be too beautiful? What would the punishment be?  Would beautiful men and women get plastic surgery to Aplain@ down?  What if was is Aaverage@ or worse became the future ideal?

 

Merlin the Magician was alive, well, and living in your apartment building?  You could call it ATravels With Merlin.@

 

Pigs could, as a species, really fly?

 

Some mad scientist decided to take over the world by putting some something into Cokes?  It would make them addictive (more than they are already?) and would make the person susceptible to suggestion.  How would you combat this?  You really could take over the world this way, especially if you put the suggestion into some form of advertising.  If you hit the advertising world first, the world is your oyster.

 

Someone had made themselves to look exactly like you, and was trying to assume your personality?

 

Someone had tapped your fax machine?

 

Stars, the oldest stars we had found, started going out?

 

The electoral college made you president?

 

The major cola companies (Pepsi and Coke) vied for domination of the world?

 

The mountain underneath your cabin was hollow, the home of an ultra-secret government project?

 

The President was secretly in the pay of a foreign power?

 

The secret of cold fusion was broadcast to the world?  What would happen to people=s lives, world economy, etc.?

 

The world was ravaged by nuclear war, but there were still space stations?  What would happen to those people?  What would they do?

 

There was a magic book, and whatever you wrote in it came true?

 

There was a truly virus-proof computer system?

 

There were two roommates in college who ran a Aproblem solving@ business out of their dorm room?  They could be male or female, or affiliates.

 

We were the Aaliens@ investigating another planet, complete with the same Aconspiracy@ stuff the people believe today?

 

You began seeing things, but you were otherwise mentally okay?

 

You could breathe underwater?

 

You could make things come to life?  What would be your greatest effort?

 

You could make time go backwards?  Would you be able to do it on a second-by-second basis?  What would you change?  If you did, how much would you realize you=ve changed?  Would you objectively grow older, since you are aware of the travel both ways?  What is the cost to you?  What is to prevent you from living several different lives, merely by going back and starting over at some point?  Would you remember everything that has happened?  (If so, you would be rich.)  Could you meet yourself, if you did this?  What if several of you banded together to accomplish something?  If you needed some special skill, then you could go back in time, relearn it, and then rejoin the group to accomplish that function.  It would make a wonderful, if confusing, movie.  What would you be trying to achieve?

 

You could only the read the minds of members of the opposite gender?

 

You could patent a human being?  One would assume that you are patenting variations on the standard human genome, like potentials for strength, intelligence, etc.

 

You could see into the infrared spectrum, or the ultraviolet?

 

You could transport yourself instantly from one place to another?

 

You could, by touching someone, know exactly what=s wrong with them?  What if, then, you could heal them?

 

You couldn=t stop gaining weight?

 

You created a universe where animals can talk to each other, and have different languages?  Postulate that they divide themselves both by species, and by status as either carnivores (hunters) and herbivores (prey).  The prey have a sort of philosophical - fatalistic attitude about life, and regard fear as both normal and desirable part of their existence.  They know, understand, and accept their role as food for others.  The intense desire to live, at the end of their life, is to them an ecstatic form of insanity that signals the end of their life, and their passage into a reincarnated existence (possibly as prey).

 

You designed a pair of indestructible shoes?

 

You found a place that was a porthole to different planes of existence, different worlds with different rules?  Who is in control of it?  Where will you go?  What will you do when you get there?  How will you protect it?

 

You found an alien device, and it worked?  What would you do?

 

You found an artifact at an archeological site that should not be in that level of strata?

 

You found out you were an android?

 

You found out your wife was a hitman (or hitwoman, as the case may be)?

 

You had a mystery involving the senior prom?  Perhaps, AThe Adventure of the Torn Dress@?

 

You had a story set in Timbuktu?

 

You had been in a coma for ten years?  How would you readjust when you woke up? 

 

You knew all the answers, but nobody was asking you any of the questions?

 

You knew that your father had committed a crime some time in the past, for which he was still being sought?

 

You lived in a world (or a culture) where honor was all-important?  What would that culture be like?  How would that culture have to change/adapt in order for there to be enough people for that culture to survive?

 

You made transparent clothes?

 

You ran a bar that catered to alcoholics?  Especially if they were masochists and liked to look but not drink?

 

You were a brilliant musician, or writer, or whatever, you did your thing, but you had no real desire to publish your material?  What if some up-and-coming executive was trying to get you to do so?

 

You were a high fashion (but low profile) designer who was mistaken for an international criminal who betrayed several different criminal organizations?  How would you get out of that mayhem?   And what about the real guy?

 

You were afraid of daylight?

 

You were an air force office charged with covering up the Roswell incident?

 

You were being chased (assume you have some important secret information) by individuals who could take any form they chose to?  What would the hazards of such a thing be?  How could it be combated?  (This could be an interesting Star Trek plot.)

 

You were being stalked by someone, no one believed you, and you started running across country trying to get away from them, but they kept following you?  It would be an interesting premise for a t.v. show, sort of like The Fugitive but in reverse.

 

You were institutionalized in an insane asylum, but you knew you were perfectly sane?  How would you respond, especially if you couldn=t convince anyone or find a way out?

 

You were never wrong, even if you thought you were?

 

You were not invisible, but were transparent?

 

You were the owner of a big corporation, but the scheming board of directors took it away from you?  What would you do?   How would you go about getting it back and getting rid of the board?  What illegal things would you be willing to do?

 

You were tied up in a fireworks warehouse, and a fuse is lit?  How do you get out?  Do you let the bad guys know, or do you escape and play dead?

 

You were to be the commander of the next shuttle mission, but someone wanted you out of the way?

 

You were totally irresistible to members of the opposite sex, so much that they literally threw themselves at you the moment they saw you?  What would you do?

 

You were truly psychic; no one could hide their thoughts from you?

 

You were well and truly invisible?  How would you live? 

 

You wrote a modern retelling of Athe Mummy@?  Would he stay in his wrappings?  What is his purpose?  Does he have a reasoning mind, or is he an unreasoning monster?  (What am I, running a year behind?  This movie=s been made!)

 

You wrote a novel based on AA Bodyguard of Lies@?

 

You wrote a sequel to AThe Jungle Books,@ where Mogli has become a rich and important man?  How does his early experiences influence him?  What problem might he be having that would require the instincts he learned as a child?

 

You wrote a series of stories about a group of bar buddies solved mysteries (a cross between ACheers@ and the Asimov=s Black Widowers)?

 

You wrote a story called AThe Deformed Man=s Daughter@?  It could be literal, figurative, or metaphorical.

 

You wrote a story where the characters became Aself-aware,@ they realized that there was a force greater than them (the author) that controlled their destinies?  How does that change them, or can it?  Can they ever become something more than what the author lets them be, become greater than the creator?  What if some characters began treating the author as a divinity?

 

You wrote an AArabian Nights@ style story, with many of the same plots, but it were science fiction in nature?

 

Your brother, who you really hadn=t talked to in years, died suddenly and left you all his stuff, and then you find out he had been into some bad (or weird) deals?  Then someone comes gunning for you, and you have no idea what about.  You have to find out what=s going on, fix it, and get the heck out.  Take your squeaky clean girl friend with you on this trip.  Or, for thrills, take along his been-around-the-cup girl friend.

 

Your California bungalow was being haunted by the ghost of a famous Hollywood director?

 

Your girlfriend was a werewolf?

 

Your town was suddenly overrun with lions?

 

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The Idea Lounge website and related links made by Brian S. Miller.  Last update: June 31, 2004