Ideas for stories i'd wish i'd written

While doing an English course, I had to come up with ideas for short stories and some I would use, most would be forgotten until I was lacking ideas for a blog so I thought I’d rehash them. Some of these I used the idea but had to cut them out due to the word count. I’m only including ideas that I actually liked, otherwise this was a waste of time. I’ve amended some things to make the descriptions a little easier because they are out of context.

1.Coming out of the closet.
I had this story of a group of three friends (the three person unit was kind of a consistent thing for me while coming up with stories) and one was easy going (Ned), one was a bit extreme (Glenn) in the way people lived and thought that people couldn’t be too different and the final friend was a closet homosexual (Harold).
Harold had wanted to tell Ned for a couple of years but always chickened out. In the end Ned went round to Ned’s flat and they were chatting and Harold said that he hooked up last night and made a tape of it. Ned really wanted to see the tape and was really pressing Harold for it so Harold put it in and they both watch it. Harold is sitting nervously as Ned watches him and this man start kissing. Ned is still oblivious and thinks it is a threesome and they were both starting. Ned finally realises that Harold is gay. I really wanted to use this part of the story but the rest of it wasn’t strong enough of an idea and this scene didn’t really fit into any of my stories. A real shame.

2 & 3.My MMA story
I had an idea of ripping off Rocky/Wrestler and setting it in the world of Mixed Martial Arts (my twist on the story). It was basically about a guy who was touted as the next big thing when the sport was still small but he never achieved his dream because he wasn’t driven enough and became an alcoholic. Now he’s mid 40’s and has a wife and she unexpectedly becomes pregnant. He decides to start training again as he knows he could make more money and give his child a better life. He has a few fights for small promotions and then he is offered a chance to fight the champ in UFC to sell more pay-per-views as America loves the underdog story. I hadn’t decided if he would win or not. The two scenes I wanted to do was a press conference of the old timer up being humble at first but being trash talked by the champ constantly and then the old timer showing heart and passion and starting to believe he could beat him. The second was in a bar chatting to an ex fighter who was helping him train and doubting why he is doing this, how he should just stick to a normal job rather than take a risky fight. In the conversation he realises he’s not only fighting to help his family but to prove to himself that he could have made it.
In the end I didn’t use this idea because it was a bit too much of a rip-off of other things and I wanted to try a more original idea.

4.Farmageddon
Farmageddon is an idea I had about the pigs being hated by the cows as the cows think they are becoming the farmers favourite animals. So the Cows join allegiances with the Chickens and Sheep and declare war on the Pigs. I haven’t got the whole story figured out but I really want to finish it. The scene I want to do is a montage of the pigs in training but instead of using a song to really get them going and give them a winning mentality, they use Kelly Clarkson music as some is high tempo but lyrically not inspiring.

5.Conspiracy Theory
Never got off the ground. As all my stories were based around my interests I wanted to try a story like The Firm, where everybody is involved. I just couldn’t think of the story, only that it was based around the Fire Department and that fires were purposely being set so they could put them out. It probably wouldn’t have worked hence why I never wrote it.

6 & 7.Teenage love story
I love teen flicks, from Breakfast Club to Heathers and Superbad. I wanted to write one about a popular kid who is having an identity crisis and notices a girl who has change her image (from goth to kooky) and falls for her. It is very cheesy but I like the idea. The first scene I started was based on the boy leaving Ice Hockey practice and driving home in the rain. He notices the girl and hesitates to pick her up because she has rejected his advances already. He pulls over and convinces her to get in the car. It’s a frosty environment and then she slags off his bad taste in music and gives him a couple of cds to listen too. This is the point where they start to fall for each other. I admit cheesy but it was what I wanted to write.
The second scene was a chat between the guy and a friend who is a proper geek and they argue about Juno. The geek believes that girls like her exist and the guy is saying they don’t. The basis for this scene was reading how movie reviews say how realistic indie films are and they never are. It’s me ranting about it. I like to rant.

8.Tooth Fairy
There is a film out soon could tooth fairy. No idea what the story is but I doubt it is the same as mine. I like the idea of telling a well-known story told many times before and just changing it completely. My tooth fairy story was about him not being recognised as highly as the Easter Bunny and Father Christmas. He really loses it though when he hears a news story saying that Cupid was now considered more important. This gives him a breakdown and decides to punish people. Realising that screwing over kids wasn’t helping him he decides that he will kill the easter bunny, Cupid and Father Christmas. I never wrote it as it seemed too dark (and slightly twisted) but after writing this I wish I did. This however is slightly similar to the next idea.

9.Nelson Mandela
We all know the story. Wrongfully imprisoned and he’s a real inspiration. But what if he took his time in prison to instead of fighting the good fight, he went crazy, but pretended to be good, become president and then went all Mugabe on the country. I didn’t pursue this idea because I thought I would be frowned upon by the rest of my class, but why tell the same story again and again when you could have the biggest twist?

10 & 11.Tuesday’s Gone
The two best stories I finished was this and a vigilante graphic novel type (more on that later). Tuesday’s Gone was based on the Lynyrd Skynyrd song about a person going on tour and it destroys his relationship. Due to a word count restriction, I had to remove some stuff I liked. One was about the singer cheating on his girlfriend. I was doing this scene to show that he was upset with himself at how easy it was for him to forget about his girlfriend and the disgust look in his face at how his dream has changed him. The second scene was after they had broken up, they bump into each other and chat to each other and start on the road to becoming friends. I wanted to include this as closure but I think the ending I used in the story (he sings the song to symbolise the break up of the relationship) was better for it.

12 & 13.Paladin
Paladin was a masked vigilante who gave it up to start a family. With wife passed away and daughter in another country he decides to don his again as a pensioner. I love the idea of it and as I was making it out as a graphic novel I could throw realism out of the window. I was really happy with this story and I had to cut a lot of ideas. I cut out a big part of his back story and those are the scenes I think the story lack. I wanted to put the birth of Paladin in the story but it was easier to lose and keep the plot rolling. He started to revenge a friend’s assault. The police did nothing so he put on a mask to hide his identity and beat up the person who assaulted his friend. With blood on his hands he felt no remorse because he knew it was for the right reasons.
The other scene I wanted to include was a council meeting with the public after Paladin’s first few jobs back. They are discussing if he is a criminal or hero. This was to show the way people see him in the community.