Late last year, I read the book ‘The Successful Novelist’ by thriller writer David Morrell (which I discuss in more detail here). In the book, Morrell has an interesting suggestion for working out story ideas. He recommends having a conversation with yourself, asking yourself questions, playing the role of skeptic, etc, until you’ve hashed out the details of the story. He says it’s a great way to get to the root of what is interesting about a story idea and quickly figure out whether a story might or might not work. He recommends doing this in written form so that you can refer back to it later.

Today I was going through some old files on my Google Drive, and I found a document called ‘New Novel’. I had no idea what it was and opened it, hoping I’d written an entire novel and forgotten about it. Sadly, that was not the case. Instead, it was a written discussion with myself. I was pitching myself the idea for a new novel.

The conversation ends rather abruptly (apparently I wasn’t able to convince myself), but I thought it would be fun to share. Here’s how one crazy person thinks about stories. Take it away, PT1 and PT2!

PT1: Hello, PT. Back again, I see. Must need my help.

PT2: Yes. I do… and hello. It’s time to start thinking about the next novel.

PT1: Oh? The last one finished? You get all the rough edges sanded off, then?

PT2: I wouldn’t go that far, but, yeah, it’s done.

PT1: So what are you thinking for this next one?

PT2: I’m thinking about a thriller.

PT1: But our kind of thriller, right? Lots of mystery? Supernatural elements?

PT2: Yeah, of course.

PT1: So, what’s it about?

PT2: The protagonist is this ordinary dude. He gets a call one day from some kidnappers. “We have your son. Pay us three hundred thousand dollars.” That type of thing. The twist? This guy didn’t know he had a son.

PT1: Okay… that’s not a story; it’s an idea.

PT2: Yes. That’s why I am here typing this like some kind of maniac with a split personality.

PT1: So, he gets the call and then, what, he has to go find his lost son?

PT2: Something like that. Maybe the kidnappers don’t want money. They want some piece of tech or something that he has. And then he has to make a decision, the kid or his ‘life’s work’.

PT1: Ah, a job vs. family situation.

PT2: Exactly. And maybe he choices the career and lets this kid he never met die.

PT1: OR maybe he doesn’t even believe the son exists.

PT2: Yeah! He says, ‘Screw you. You’re lying.’ to the kidnappers.. Then they kill the kid, and he realizes he had a son he never knew about.

PT1: And maybe that’s just the prologue.

PT2:Ding ding ding. Now we are talking. The rest of the book is this creepy haunting/home invasion as he starts being visited by this kid. He’s not sure if it’s a ghost. He’s not sure if the kid was really killed. He’s not sure of anything.

PT1: This could be really scary. Definitely our type of story. A couple questions. Who is this guy? What’s so important that these bad guys will kill a kid to get it?

PT2: It has to be something that is truly important. Like a cure for a disease or something. Or information that will save or ruin someone important. He didn’t know the kid was real. The kid ended up dying (or did he?). Now Nick is paying the price.

PT1: Nick?

PT2: Yeah. That’s his name Nick Aarons.

PT1: Okay, we can come back to the job. The kid dies, and then, what, we jump to a few years later?

PT2: Say, ten years later later.  Nick has gotten all the success in the world and then lost it again. He is down right now, and we are going to kick him for a while. Then he will have his shot at redemption.

PT1: Redemption like saving the kid?

PT2: Maybe. Or another kid. Or maybe letting the kid die for a REALLY good cause. We’ll get to that later. Lots of creepy stuff to do before that.

PT1: So this is almost the opposite of a biblical story… the guy gave up his son for a cause that ended up being worthless.

PT2: Really happy thought there.

PT1: Hey, we’re brainstorming.

PT2: Okay, so now I’m thinking maybe the novel is broken into four sections – 1) the kidnappers contact Nick, and he fails the kid 2) kid shows up. is he a ghost or whatever 3) Nick and the ghost 4) Nick goes on adventure with the ghost, everything comes full circle.

PT1: A couple of problems. The first section sounds like a thriller. Then you are going to just throw a ghost story on them? What the inspiration for this thing? What’s the feel?

PT2: Good point… we’d have to bring in the supernatural elements early. This is a Rosemary’s Baby type thing, at least from a plotting standpoint. The supernatural elements have to ring throughout. I feel like there is an opportunity to bring in the supernatural with whatever the kidnappers want.

PT1: So what is it? A magical object of some sort? A ghost detecting device? A haunted relic.

PT2: Not exactly, but that last one is the closest. A book? He rediscovered an ancient book?

PT1: Blah. No.

PT2: Look, I want to do a ghost story, but I also don’t want to get too occulty with this. I’d love it to be alagorical.

PT1: Okay, step back. What is interesting about this idea?

PT2: Parenting is the biggest and most rewarding responsibility ever, right? I’m interested in this guy who is conflicted about his own life and whether he wants to be a parent at all. And then he suddenly find out he’s a parent. And then he isn’t again. It’s like his parental responsibilites are flickering in and out of his life. At the end of the day, he is a lost soul. But the lesson he needs to learn is that being a lost soul doesn’t mean he can’t be a good parent.

PT1: So, this lost soul is drifting through life… what’s he do for a living?

PT2: That’s where I am stuck. Maybe a photographer? Could it be he took a picture of something he wasn’t supposed to see?

PT1: I feel like we’ve seen that before. We are on the right track though. Maybe something a little more techy, but not trendy or to ‘of the now’.

PT2: Sorry, got distracted for a minute. Went over to the Twitter…

PT1:  Bad idea.

PT2: Right? Aynway. I need to figure out what these guys want from our guy. That’s an important step. I almost feel like once I have that I can start writing.

PT1: Okay. Think it over.