Generating Concepts - The "CSI" Strategy

​This could be more appropriately called the “torn from the headlines” strategy, but calling “CSI” is a great reminder that, sometimes, facts make great fiction.

With this approach, scroll through the headlines of a news website and see what the headlines trigger in your imagination. There are a few ways to do this:

• Apply the Netflix strategy to multiple headlines
  • Combine the elements of two or more headlines
• Write the story
  • Write a "big" story that fits the headline
• Intentionally misunderstand the headline
  • As I’m writing, one headline reads “Original ‘Sesame Street’ Character Dies.” I know they’re talking about one of the humans (Bob McGrath), but my writer brain immediately goes “Oh, no! What happened to Kermit?” And that joke can lead to all sorts of story ideas.
• Visit the other side of the argument
  • It used to be that news was merely facts with an editorial sprinkled here and there. Nowadays, most news outlets seem to be all editorial disguised as fact. Even when there is true news being reported, an outlet may have a bias—they only report news in such a way that promotes a certain view. They can’t even be registered as a news outlet, but as entertainment. This is a shame in the bigger scheme of things, but for this exercise, it can be quite helpful.
  • If you lean left/liberal, scan the headlines on some outlet that leans right/conservative, and vice versa.
  • Why is this helpful? Because reading an alternative bias against what you typically resonate with is likely to spark something unsettling within you, and that angst can drive creativity.

​So here are a few headlines I’m looking at today:

• Original ‘Sesame Street’ Character Dies
• Antarctic sea creatures ‘trapped under ice’ for 50 years found after huge iceberg split
• America’s ‘office apocalypse’ is even worse than feared
• Kids from the 1960s imagine life in the year 2000 and their predictions are eerily accurate
• Prince Harry has been begging King Charles for money
• ‘Shark Week’ blasted in Washington Post report for ‘overwhelmingly’ featuring ‘White men’ as experts

 
And here are my concepts:

1. After a number of predictions made by a child from the 1960s come to pass, his most dire warning yet is coming true…creatures released after a huge iceberg split will crawl out of the oceans and become the top predator.
2. After a popular children’s show gets cancelled, its lead star refuses to go down without a fight. Can he resurrect the show, or will he destroy the magic in the process?
3. When a prince-turned-pauper receives no help from the king, he demonstrates what history has taught him and raises an army of mercenaries to take his father’s throne.
4. Tired of struggling with stifled wages and mistreatment, corporate employees execute a French Revolution type coup and take over the company.
5. A shoot for a “Shark Week” special goes awry when their research vessel sinks and scientists are stranded on a dwindling iceberg. Sharks pick them off one at a time as the iceberg splits and tumbles.
6. A beloved children’s show character mysteriously shows up as a social media celebrity decades after being off the air…like a pied piper leading children to their deaths.
7. When a giant ice shelf splits in two, mysterious signals begin to emanate, and all sea creatures travel to the source. Everyone is too busy trying to understand the animals’ behavior to notice that aliens are also responding to the signal.
8. When an iceberg splits in two, a young prince missing since the 1960s is found frozen. He comes to life once thawed and insists on claiming the throne.
9. It’s been decades since the “office apocalypse,” and downtown city centers are all but overrun by nature. Rival tribes identified by the crumbling towers they inhabit battle for resources until one brilliant entrepreneur tries to unite them.
10. When an iceberg splits in two, cephalopods suddenly develop the ability to communicate with humans. They crawl from the oceans, using their appendages as legs and arms. Some humans refuse to see them as equals. Others see them as threats. Wars ensue.

 
Again, none of these are stellar. That’s not the point. The point is to generate story ideas and mine for gold. This isn’t the stage to be self-censoring. Do this exercise for a week, and see if you can end up with 70 or so concepts.