Brainstorm (New Shoots Submission)

"I feel like we should start on our novel."

"Now? But we haven't exactly decided on what we were going to write..."

"Okay, well then let's generate ideas. What are we going to write about?"

"Uh...a... romance novel?"

"Really? Is that what you girls think of all the time? Just cheesy romance with a predictable ending?"

"Excuse me? No... maybe... but not all the time. I mean... okay what's your Pulitzer worthy story about?"

"I was thinking that we could be in a post-apocalyptic world with a rampant virus and-"

"-it already sounds like at least ten different books I can name at the top of my head. It's got to be something...unique. Something that probably has been done before but isn't too general."

"Oh yeah? Like what, Jen? There's no story out there that hasn't been told."

"Well... it doesn't necessarily have to be a totally brand new story that no one's ever heard about. It could maybe be an idea that's been published, but told in a different perspective with different people...I don't know!"

"Alright. Since generating ideas isn't helping, why don't we at least eliminate genres?"

"Um.. okay? Like...?"

"Well for me, romance is out."

"What? Ugh okay fine. But no nerdy, dude, robot crap. That stuff is out."

"Sci-fi? Okay, okay. Fine. Let's write a story that can't be too generalized.”

…

"I got nothing."

"Same here, man."

"This is a LOT harder than I thought it would be..."

"Okay... so romance and sci-fi are out... nothing too cheesy... oh! You know what I've always wanted to write?"

"Does it look like I'd know?"

"Good point. Okay, well you know how there's always a bad guy right? I couldn't help but notice how the bad guy always just wants the good guy gone. If I were a bad guy, I'd want to make the good guy that I really hate suffer. Or even so, why make the bad guy specifically hate the good guy? All of that stuff is so stereotypical..."

"I see what you're getting onto... so what you're saying is that you want to write a story with a bad guy that's not predictable? How are we going to do that?"

"Hear me out, Jen. So what if we write a story where you can't tell who the bad guy or who the good guy is? Because whereas they are defined, they're arguable in both perspectives."

".....what?"

"Okay... basically...how about this. It's a post-apocalyptic world-"

"Nope. Not doing that. It's just going to turn into one of your Star Trek fanfictions, isn't it?"

"No, shut up. Wait... how did you know I-"

"Never mind. What's your bright idea?"

"Okay. So it's in a post-apocalyptic world and there are these sleeping tubes. Basically, there are these people who have been ordered to fix up earth after some sort of destruction and the whole story goes as one side wants to wake up the people in the sleeping tubes, and interrupt them from their perfect sleep."

"Oh but the other side thinks they should stay in THEIR perfect worlds... ah I see.. and then the whole point of the story is to see which side the reader thinks is right or wrong!"

"Exactly!"

"You know what I think about that?"

"No, what?"

"We need pizza now."

"Seriously? That's all you have to say? No..’wow great idea Darren!’?"

"Wow great idea, Darren! I think we should do it... blah blah blah okay let's get pizza."

"You are probably the worst writing partner I’ve ever had."