Idea List #7

 

Sometimes the best idea is one that’s sparked from another idea.  Scroll down, pick and idea, and brainstorm away!  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 Baptist (or any) preacher became a cult leader?  What if the real cult leader put his followers up to it?

 

A dragon queen gave you a small carved jade box, told you not to open it, and disappeared?  What would you do?  Would you open it?  What would you find inside?

 

A killer demanded you keep writing a serial story; he used your literary murders to stage real crimes.  If you didn=t comply, you and your family would be killed.

 

A Masai tribesman joined the crew of a spaceship?

 

A snake started talking to you?

 

A soldier from the ASimon Tests@ (testing response to an atomic explosion) is caught up in the Azero effect,@ which has caught up those who were at ground zero for Hiroshima and Nagasaki. 

 

A tree was turned into a person?  Would he want to go back at all?  What would he (or she) be like?  This would be interesting in a fantasy realm.

 

Africa had been the great center of power and culture?  As a side note, how does the complexity of religion affect complexity of civilization?  Why SE Asia and not Africa?  No one knows really how civilized Africa was, or if that concept has any real meaning.

 

All the Mexican migration to the North was a front for an invasion campaign geared to take back land lost in the Mexican War?

 

An alien was living with you, a la AMy Favorite Martian@ (not like AAlf@)?

 

Bears took over the world?

 

Coffee was found to be hazardous and was outlawed by the FDA?

 

Elvis really was a space alien?  He could have been sent (in disguise, of course) to become a popular icon, then use recent appearances and his status to help his comrades take over the world.

 

For helping an old woman across the street, you received a mystical diamond ring?

 

In the Munsters, what would the life of the regular girl (the niece, I think) be like?  Can you imagine asking her out on a date?

 

Magic was real, but only for a minority group?

Nobody wore clothes?  What sort of things would become status symbols/markers to replace clothes?  What about body esthetics?

 

Sherlock Holmes was kidnapped and it was up to Watson to find and save him?  Watson has Holmes= notes, the uses of the Baker Street Irregulars, and the experience Holmes has given him.  Will Mycroft be of any assistance?  What about Lestrade and Gregson?  Who has Holmes and why does Watson believe him to be alive?  What efforts will Holmes be making on his own behalf?

 

Somebody Astole@ your identity to commit fraud, and you got stuck with it?  What if the mob is one of the Acreditors@ and you=re on a short deadline to prove it=s not you?

 

Someone said they were an alien trapped in a human body?  What would happen to that person?

 

Someone was stalking the Smithsonian museums?  What if the stalker turned into a killer?

 

The butler really did do it?

 

The FBI and the CIA were out to get the same person, but for different reasons?  The FBI would want to put them away, but the CIA would want them under protection, or would want them to tell them something, or some such spy crap.  Who would win, and why?  What if it were the other way around?  The FBI wants this person to testify to something, or some such, and the CIA just wants him dead.

 

The government was hiding conclusive proof that there are no UFO=s?  Why would they be doing that?

 

The one person who holds the solution to a crime is in a coma?  What if their life is in danger?

 

The US government, in some bureau (CIA, FBI, NSC, whatever) decided that innocent Joe had to suffer, or even get killed, to protect certain secrets?  How could this be stopped?

 

The world changed when the millennium did?

 

The world is about to be destroyed; NASA sends several mixed couples into space without telling anyone what=s really going on.

 

There was a real shape-shifter loose on earth?  How else could that phrase be used?

 

There were monsters running loose in the world, and there=s only one man who can control them?  Make it humorous (though it would be interesting if it were serious).

 

Vegetarianism became legally enforced?

 

When you were eighteen, your parents decided to move away to live their own life without you?  What if they came back later, after you were a very successful lawyer, to have them defend you in a criminal case?  How would you react to them?

 

You could naturally see in the dark?

 

You could stop, slow down, or speed up time?  What if it only happened in the area immediately around you?  What if you could make a time barrier, where an enclosed area is one second in the past or future of the area around it (not an original idea, got it from ADoctor Who@)?

 

You discovered that you were heir to the throne of a nation, and found out that the time had come to do your thing?  Or worse yet, that the next-in-line was trying to get you out of the way?

 

You found a map to the fountain of youth?  What if it turned out to be somewhere in downtown Miami?

 

You found a real snuff film, that such things actually exist, and that all the ones that do exist are made by one organization?

 

You found out that you had been elected governor (or any other elected office)?

 

You found out, as an old person, that you have a half brother or sister?  What if that sibling was bi-racial?

 

You found the perfect data storage medium?  Who would want it more than you do?

 

You had a brain disorder that, leaving you totally normal in every other respect, would not allow you to say your own name?

 

You had a brain filter to keep stuff out of your mind?

 

You had a genie at your beck-and-call?

 

You had a stone, a rock, that could talk?  Give a new meaning to the phrase Apet rock.@  What would it do?  What would it want to do?

 

You had abnormally acute hearing?  How would that affect your view of the universe?

 

You had been blind all your life, but you could suddenly see?  What if that happened to any of your other senses?

 

You inherited Athe idea book,@ an old, old book that was the source of all modern ideas and inventions?  What would you do with it?  What if somebody else wanted it?

 

You knew a secret identity?

 

You knew a secret that would change the world?  How would you go about telling the world?  Would you do so in a way to make money?  Or would you do it anonymously?

 

You knew that the Hope Diamond was a fake, an elaborate hoax that got out of control, but you were told keep quiet about it?  Where was the real diamond?

 

You made an full length movie that was made to be shown backward?  Perhaps it would be better as a short.

 

You pathologically could not be alone?  What kind of life would you have to lead?

 

You possessed a secret that would topple nations, but you were a monk in a monastery?  What if you were a priest, and had been told this in confession?  What if you were a lawyer, and had been told this in confidence?  What if you had been certified insane, and no one believed you?

 

You saw only in black-and-white?  What would happen if this was corrected?

 

You squeezed the Charmin?

 

You suddenly couldn=t speak any language, but you could invent one, so you did?

 

You told a modern-day version of Pandora=s box?  What technological horrors could you come up with that one person/group could unwittingly unleash on the world?  Who is the Prometheus, and what does he save that can be used to save the world?

 

You told a story set in ancient Egypt, told by a visitor from darker Africa?

 

You were a barbecue fanatic, but your favorite bbq joint was about to close?  To what lengths would you go to keep it open?

 

You were a caravan master?

 

You were a gourmand who couldn=t get to a decent restaurant?

 

You were a traveling salesman/drummer who one day met up with some shady (or downright weird) goings on?  What time period would you like this to be in?

 

You were addicted to movies?  What would you life be like?  How would this addiction manifest itself?

 

You were an innocent victim of some Acop movie@?  What would you do?  Would you sue?  Perhaps a class-action suit against the two Abuddies@?

 

You were an orphan, and all that you had that tied you to your history was an old photo?  What would it be of?  How would you go about finding out your past?

 

You were chosen to have three wishes?  Who would give them to you, and why?

 

You were forced to walk around for a day wearing a t-shirt with an obscene slogan?

 

You were hired to teach college in some place out in the middle of Nowhere, North Dakota?  Especially if you were from the sunny side of the South.  How would you change your environment and the people around you?

 

You were looking through an attic of your great-grandfather=s and found all sorts of interesting, priceless stuff?  Where did it come from, and why did he have it?

 

You were monitoring someone, so that you knew everything they did, everywhere they went, you knew them inside and out?  What would you do?  What happens when they are going to do something you think would be wrong for them?  What happens if you begin to live your life through them?

 

You were outlawed nobility in Great Britain sometime in its past, determined to get the titles back?

 

You were pregnant, and someone was stalking you, trying to get your baby?  What is so special about this child?  What if you had an affair with a prominent man, and might be pregnant by him, so people were trying to get the child?

 

You woke up missing a kidney?

 

You wrote a mystery where the hinge was a man who could only see in black and white (his rods were damaged, say), or at least color blind?

 

You wrote a novel based on pre-colonial or early colonial Hawaii?  You could always use the Dole family if you chose post colonial (Roman a clef?).

 

You wrote a novel entitled, AThe Year of the Will@?

 

You wrote a story about aliens on earth from the alien=s POV?

 

You wrote a story where the Aframe@ was someone searching for something on the web?

 

You wrote a Tarzan story about our hero finding a lost diamond mine of the Egyptians, a mysterious plague, and a death-dealing bunch of natives?

 

Your life depended on how much weight you could loose?

 

Your secretary, who has been so crucial to your rise to power, turned out to be an alien (or the company owner=s daughter, or anything like that)?  What if your secretary was stalking you, or trying to kill you?  What if she was not really a secretary, but someone sent by Athe powers that be@ to Akeep an eye on you@ and Adeal with you@ if necessary?

 

Your wife told you that she was an alien?  And then told you that you were one, too?

 

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