May 3, 2011

Ideas on Tuesday 11: The Abandoned London Underground…How CLICHÉ!


Each Tuesday, rather than a POSSIBLY IRRITATING ESSAY, I'd like to both challenge you and lend a helping hand. I generate more speculative and teen story ideas than I can ever use. My family rolls its collective eyes when I say, "Hang on a second! I just have to write down this idea..." Here, I'll include the initial inspiration (quote, website, podcast, etc) and then a thought or two that came to mind. These will simply be seeds -- plant, nurture, fertilize, chemically treat, irradiate, test or stress them as you see fit. I only ask if you let me know if anything comes of them.
The fantasy implications are endless – and they’ve already been done. Can’t we come up with something ORIGINAL? How about something dodgy: a story in which one teen opens a door leading off main tunnel that led to a dungeon, prison cell or jail from some significant moment in time – and to a key person for whom, if exactly ONE thing had been different, history would have been changed? Call it Tunnels to Turning Points (or something) and have your kid pop in to rescue Paul-formerly-Saul of Tarsus from the Roman prison in early 61. How about Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn in 1953 in the Russian gulag? Nelson Mandela in his South African prison in 1973 instead of in 1994? Martin Luther from his attic exile in Wartburg Castle in late 1521 rather than in 1522?
Who went? What did they do? Did they change history or NOT? Did they choose ALL the moments or only one?

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