Story idea
I’ve been mentally fumbling around with brainstorming and I think I may have found the short story that wants me to write it next (that’s how I seem to work best).
The thing that inspired me was a phrase out of my communication book in a section about semantic theory: “the map is not the territory.” I’ve heard this before, but this time I thought about it in a literal sense.
The story itself would involve a group of road trippin’ American college students (probably lovers, a jacka**, and the practical one… think Scooby Doo) in the desert of the southwest, with mountains, caves, peaks, rivers, canyons, plateaus, foothills, rest stops, and a whole lotta nothin’ to get lost in. For some reason that I haven’t worked out yet, they have a faulty map (or territory, or both). This could be an outdated map, a curse of some sort, or some other type of magic.
I also brainstormed some pop cultural references I might include- another thing I probably picked up from Stephen King. I think it helps to draw the reader in and make him/her feel closer to the story. For this one, stuff like “The Long And Winding Road,” “Highway to Hell,” Oh, The Places You’ll Go, The Road Virus Heads North, and Desperation.
I just need to finaggle a plot!
It has potential. Just be sure not to fall into those cliché, thriller kind of plots we see in every low-budgeted horror movie. Like a house of crazy cannibels living out in the middle of nowhere that these unfortunate college students just HAPPEN to come upon.
Keep working on it (:
Since you’re going for popcultureish situations, maybe you should watch college movies of the genre for inspiration. Road Trip is a great one. Even old movies like Harry and the Hendersons and Adventures in Babysitting have silly situations that are funny and could give you ideas to keep your story from getting cliche as Emily stated.