Idea List #6

 

Don’t just sit around waiting for an invitation!  Scroll on down and take a gander at the ideas waiting just for you.  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 bum was suddenly given a billion dollars?  What would happen?

 

A certain segment of society became ostracized?

 

A cowboy had a horse who talked (or he could talk to his horse)?

 

A djinn=s Abottle@ was a human being?

 

A doctor planted a bomb in someone, but the patient doesn=t know and the cops can=t figure out who it is?

 

A woman had been robbed and was tied up in her apartment, listening to the messages she receives on the phone?  She realizes how banal and empty her life is.

 

Absolute power, in some case, did not corrupt?

 

All electrical power on the planet ceased for three days?  What if you knew that was going to happen?

 

An upcoming movie, supposedly fiction, was actually all too real?  Who would keep this movie from being completed and distributed?

 

Avalon was a real place, and it still existed?

 

Coca-Cola=s secret ingredient contained a drug (besides caffeine) that addicted most people at a low level?

 

Electric appliances didn=t work around you?

 

Everyone suddenly became different, and only you stayed the same?

 

In real life someone had the powers of Superman?

 

Lee and Grant met after the war?  What would they have to say to one another?  Write this as a play.

 

Nero Wolfe met any super hero?  (Batman would be an interesting choice.)

 

Savages in a post-apocalyptic world came upon the ruins of a 20^th century city?

 

Somebody was trying to kill you, but somebody else was trying to keep you alive?  How long could this go on before you found out?  What would you do when you did?

 

Someone was poisoning you slowly by putting a little poison on the envelopes you lick?

 

Someone went insane, but no one noticed?

 

The diamond you just stole was haunted, by a very friendly ghost (or of any other disposition)?  What would you do?

 

The Earth=s axis straightened out to the point that there were no longer any seasons?  Of course, due to the elliptical nature of our orbit around the sun, there would be some kind of seasonal behavior.

 

The FBI had been quietly impowered to spy on anyone with impunity?  This would be the beginning of standard surveillance of the American populace.

 

The Germans tried to take over Europe again?

 

The government had conclusive proof that aliens had landed, and there really was a coverup?  Why the need?   What are we getting out of it?  More to the point, what are they getting out of it?

 

The IRS was secretly being run by some shadowy group?

 

The nice ring you bought in an antique shop turned out to be worth millions?  Or was the secret ring of a secret (or mystical) society?  Or was magical?  Or you merely said it was, and that got you in a whole lot of trouble?

 

There was a villain in something who never slept?  Just a little something extra to keep the hero on his toes.

 

There was another sentient life-form on earth, and you had to quickly find it?

 

Two friends crash a wedding, dispensing havoc and chaos, and not a little wisdom?

 

Whatever an artist painted came true?

 

You and a group of others were trapped on a vacation island with a hurricane coming?

 

You and your wife were being stalked by your ex-girlfriend (or her ex-boyfriend)?  What if it was both at the same time?

 

You began to see visions of a place you'd never been before?  What would you do, ignore them, rationalize them, or try to find the place?  What would happen to you if you did?

 

You changed your name? What if you changed your whole Alook@ as well?

 

You could choose one person to give three wishes to?

 

You could find diamonds?  You just had this Afeeling@ when you were close to diamonds - what would you do?  Would you be a criminal, a miner, a jewelry appraiser, a cop?  How could this cause complications?

 

You could get into Aladdin=s cave of wonders?

 

You could give one person a special ability?  Who would you give what?  What would you consider a special ability?  Why are you able to do this?

 

You could make someone have good or bad dreams?

 

You developed the perfect perfume, one that makes the wearer irresistible?

 

You did a modern Amonster@ movie?

 

You discovered a powerful drug that could be made from tomatoes, or zucchini?

 

You discovered Hare Krishnas were after you?

 

You discovered that your best friend pals-from-childhood was selling drugs?

 

You figured out how to read some ancient language text, heretofore undecipherable, but what you read was...?

 

You found the fountain of youth?

 

You gained total control of the world=s media systems?

 

You had a Atelephone@ implanted in your head?  What if it could Aread@ your thoughts?

 

You had a guardian angel that took a less conspicuous role?

 

You had a pathological fear of computers, enough so that you would not use them?

 

You had a pig that could sing?  Light opera, perhaps?

 

You knew a really bad secret about someone you saw everyday and they knew you knew it?  How would you both react over time?  What if one of you was in a position of authority over the other?

 

You knew exactly what would happen on some day in the future?  Every person you saw, you knew what would happen to them on that day?  How could you make use of that?  Could you change the future somehow, or is it absolute?

 

You never got old, but just continued to live on and on.  What if you were psychotic (or otherwise insane)?  What if you were institutionalized?

 

You ran a multi-plex theater where people kept getting killed?  Who is doing it and why?  What movies are they picking, and what is the pattern?

 

You really could put a man=s brain in a duck, and vice versa?  (It would make an interesting movie.  A woman falls for duck man, while our hero is left looking out for his real body, trying to keep a demented chef from turning him into duck a l=orange, and getting the scientist to switch places.  He gets to keep the girl in the end.)

 

You snuck into your highschool as a prank during the night, and then got unextractably locked in?  What would you do?  What if you discovered you weren=t alone?  What if it was over the weekend?  What if the person you weren=t alone with wasn=t very nice, in all sorts of nasty little ways?  What if it was the girl you had an absolute die-hard crush on?

 

You staged murders to get inspiration for your art, or writing, or whatever?

 

You thought you knew the answer that would solve everybody=s problems, but weren=t sure?

 

You told the story of a Chinese professor who escaped China by boat?  Tell of his traveling to Japan, and then on to Hawaii.

 

You told the story of someone trying to make a AB@ movie?  How much trouble would they get into trying to pull it off?

 

You tried (or had) to be a leader in a culture you were not born into (or was not your own)?  What problems might you face?

 

You were a hotel manager where all sorts of strange stuff happens, a cross between AFour Rooms@ and AHotel@?

 

You were a master mechanic, kidnaped by the mob (or anybody else) to fix a very special car?

 

You were a senator framed for a crime (a grimmer version of AMr. Smith Goes To Washington@)?

 

You were allergic to air?

 

You were Areplaced@ by another person, against your will?  Sort of like having your cell-phone cloned; but instead, your whole life is cloned.

 

You were diagnosed with a terminal illness, one year left, but no pain until the end?  What would you do?  Title it, AA Year of Fire and Ashes.@

 

You were entrusted with a diskette that held the gene code for mankind?  What sort of complications could arise from that?

 

You were magnetic?  Could you wear something that would neutralize the effect?

 

You were obsessed with (or your job was) tracking down and taking out hired assassins, as sort of assassin-assassin?

 

You were one of the Arecordkeepers@?  What about the title, AThe Recordkeeper=s War@?

 

You were telepathically linked to someone you=ve never met?  What if it=s someone of an opposite gender?  What if it=s someone in a remote village half-way around the world? 

 

You were totally forgettable?  A minute after anyone sees you, they can=t remember anything about you.  How can you use this to your advantage?  How can it be used to someone else=s advantage?

 

You wrote a mystery series centered on an Arkansas farmer?  Plots could include:  the farmer finds the corpse of a teen beauty queen in his field; a murder at a convention in Little Rock; a local representative falls over dead at a campaign dinner; who took the stuff from the bank vault, etc.

 

You wrote a mystery where the hinge was a photograph?  What is on the photo, and why is it so important to someone?  Is it something that you can obviously see, or does it look relatively innocuous until further examination?

 

You wrote a story about people trapped in the event horizon of a black hole?

 

Your fiction was so good the people hung on every word, even patterning their lives after your characters?  How would you deal with that?

 

Your goldfish was possessed?

 

Your life - literally - depended on making an AA@ in a class?  What circumstances would bring this about?  View the story from a semester-long perspective.  Interesting, could be.

 

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