Idea List #3

 

Yep, a good idea is better than pizza (and that’s saying something).  Scroll down for some good ones, and watch out for the pepperoni!  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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(In any fictional universe) You created an unbeatable opponent?  Now, beat it.

 

A group of people lived, perfectly maintained by electronics, in a dream state?  In this state they live hundreds of lives of training, working together, and so on, until they become the perfect group.  What would they do?  What could they do?  How would their experiences pull them together or push them apart?  Who is doing this to them, and why are they being so trained?  Do they feel pain while being dead, so that it is something that would want to avoid (as in real life - the problem of a play death is that you don=t take it seriously)?  (Trust me, I had this idea years before The Matrix came out, and even wrote a short story on the concept.)

 

A house-boat was drifting down river, and a dead body was discovered on it. 

 

A news anchor was being blackmailed to downplay some stories, hype others, and totally ignore still others?  What if he was forced to put coded messages into the news?

 

A plain looking girl with a sweet, perfect personality (nevertheless unhappy with her plain-ness) got the chance to be beautiful for a day?  How would it change her attitudes about beauty?  What if she didn=t become beautiful, but learned this from watching and being with a beautiful friend?  What if they were guys, instead?

 

A secret government organization had you marked for death because of something you had seen, but you didn=t know what?

 

A skull you were holding suddenly began talking?  And it wasn=t saying Anice@ things (ie, vulgar, rude, crude, and so on)?

 

A team, comic book writer and an artist, set out to use their talents for ill-gotten gains?  What if they become detectives?  That could be humorous!

 

All the men disappeared?

 

All water suddenly turned poisonous?  What if it was a slow poison?

 

An independent was elected president, and the two parties were determined to take him down?

 

Chance always operated in your favor?

 

Dresses could move on their own?

 

Everybody kept coming to you for advice, on everything from the trivial to the life-changing?  Could you be able to handle that on a day-to-day basis?

 

In the future, the Vatican reconstitutes the old crusading groups to venture out into the universe?

 

Japan had settled Hawaii before the Anglos did?

 

Mrs. Hudson was the real brains behind Sherlock Holmes?

 

Rhode Island tried to secede from the Union?

 

Some common material suddenly became very precious?

 

Someone created a new Rome, based on the best of the republic and the imperial systems, complete with an unbeatable legion?

 

Someone was trying to kill you so that your artwork would go up in value?

 

Terrorists managed to take over the White House and were holding the president hostage?

 

The FDA outlawed all tobacco and alcohol - with extreme prejudice?

 

The government had secretly sent a mission to Mars?  Why not tell anyone?  What would have happened to the mission?

 

The kid=s show that all the kids are watching is actually an active form of brainwashing, so that the creators can use these brain-washed urchins to take over the world in years to come?  What if it actually worked?

 

The polar ice-caps melted?

 

The sphinx had a secret doorway that lead to a vast treasure horde?

 

The Vice President was in the pay of the mob?

 

There was a giant world conspiracy, but it wasn=t led by who you thought, and it was bigger than you could imagine?

 

There was a killer who only struck on rainy nights?  What if it was foggy nights?

 

There was a person who was a cgi?  You never saw them in person, only through a screen.  It could be an image that someone is using to hide behind for some reason, or it could be a completely artificial creation (like Max Headroom without the glitches).

 

What if you had magical abilities, and before you died you had to find one person to give those abilities to?  Who would you pick, and why?  Obviously, you would have to be very careful, so that the person to whom you give this to wouldn=t abuse it.

 

You could breathe underwater?

 

 

You could control the mind of anyone you met?  What if there were others like you, of varying degrees of power?  Some might be evil, some might be good.  What story could come from that?  What if someone who could control minds tried to control yours, and then use you to get at someone else, like a hacker bouncing signals off satellites to conceal himself?

 

You could fly?  What would the downside be?

 

You could read someone=s mind, but you didn=t know who it was?  They could be in another city, another country.  What if you were on a quest to find this person?  Assume that you couldn=t read it perfectly.

 

You could speed up or slow down the molecules in something by touching it?  Where would the energy go?

 

You could survive in a vacuum?  Boy, wouldn=t NASA want you to come to work for them!

 

You designed a type of wallpaper that could be changed electronically to any pattern, color, or picture?

 

You developed a truly addictive blend of coffee?  What if the drug lords, looking for something better than cocaine, were behind it?

 

You developed the perfect code, and governments were killing you trying to get it?

 

You didn=t have a name?

 

You found irrefutable proof that the Indians were not the first people on this continent?

 

You found yourself a participant in a real, honest-to-goodness duel?

 

You got a job at a rather creepy place?

 

You had a camera that photographed not what a person looked like, but what their soul looked like?

 

You had an unnatural craving for gold?

 

You had complete knowledge of the future, right down to one second ahead?

 

You had once been a Roman leader, or a leader (or a prince/princess) in some enemy land, but were now a Roman slave?

 

You had the perfect human body?  What would that mean?  What would you be like mentally?

 

You inherited an all-but-bankrupt company (or business) and decided to make a go of it?

 

You knew what happened to all the socks that disappeared from washing machines and dryers?

 

You liked to eat plastic?

 

You lived your life vicariously, through other people?  How would that be manifested?

 

You never got sick?  What would happen if you suddenly did?

 

You thought that something was going to eat the planet?  Could you convince others of this?  How could you prove it, even if it were true?

 

You truly understood the idea of le mot juste?  You could always find the correct word, used in the correct place, in both your speech and writing, to effectively communicate what you=re thinking and feeling, and could do this for any individual?

 

You updated AMy Mother the Car?@

 

You were a blind ballerina?

 

You were a comic-book villain, alive in the real world, with all the abilities and resources you had in the comic-book universe?

 

You were a conformist in a nonconformist place?

 

You were a movie or t.v. actor, and you began getting reality and fantasy mixed up, as if you were your character?  How did this happen?

 

You were a shapeshifter?  What would life be like?  What questions of morality and ethics would this person have to deal with?

 

You were an American boy, raised by Chinese parents?  How would it be different if you were actually raised in China?  What would you consider yourself, and how would other Chinese people relate to you?  What if it where Japanese parents?

 

You were beautiful, totally - blessed with the perfect human body?  What would life be like?  Contrast that to a person that was truly ugly.

 

You were given the opportunity to star in a t.v. show?  What would you want it to be about; would it be a new one or an existing one?  What if you could only host a show?

 

You were on the search for the perfect hotdog?  What would be on it? 

 

You were stranded in an empty space station?

 

You were to make a list of possible uses of nanotechnology, such as creating breathable atmospheres?

 

You were told to design the ultimate prison, and then they put you in it?  What if they did that so you would never reveal its secrets?

 

You were transformed into a statue?  What if this only happened at certain times?

 

You were traveling with a group of people, people that you did not know (or did not know well), and one suddenly tried to kill another one (as per my dream, an older thuggee trying to strangle a young girl).

 

You were ugly, unbearably scarred and deformed, but advanced plastic and reconstructive surgery made you beautiful?  How would that change your life?  How would that change you?

 

You woke up and found yourself to be a chicken?  What would you do?  How about finding a convenient free-range farm and ruling the roost.  What if the entire barnyard was populated by humans in animal bodies?

 

You woke up one morning and could speak a foreign language?

 

You woke up, knew nothing about yourself, and clutched in your hand was a piece of paper with a seven-digit phone number and nothing else?

 

You write a mystery who=s plot centers around the fact that in leap years February has an extra day.

 

You wrote a history of the onion?

 

You wrote a story showing was the life of a riverboat gambler was like?

 

Your hair (yes, every last strand of it) turned hot pink, and nothing you did (even dying it) would change it?

 

Your main mission in life was to break into prison? 

 

Your name was also a peculiar curse word in a primitive society you were studying?  What if it was the name of some deity, or something of the sort?

 

Your next door neighbors had a howler monkey?

 

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