Story idea:
Title: Wherever Podcast.
While recording the latest episode of the Wherever Podcast (“Murder and mystery, wherever podcasts are sold.”) – an episode that exploits the recent disappearance of a woman – the missing woman in question mysteriously appears in the recording studio, challenging the hosts to rethink their practice of profiting off of tragedy.
Living 300 miles from Anchorage (and from the closest box store) means that car trips have become a frequent companion. I’ve gotten so used to the six hour journey that it has started to fly by. Part of it is the repetition and part of it is the things my wife and I do to make the repeated trips fly by.
Our methods to achieve this includes listening to audiobooks, music, and podcasts.
I never really listened to podcasts before my wife started suggesting them on roadtrips. And once our roadtrips became six hour behemoths, I came to appreciate and enjoy listening to podcasts. They keep your attention while also creating nice neutral white noise.
But it wasn’t long until the content of that white noise started to whisper a story into my ear.
Podcasts about murder and missing persons are a juggernaut in the business. The mysteries they hold keep your attention from episode to episode. But profitting off these mysteries is a weird contradiction. In one way, it brings awareness to the crimes, advocacy to the victims. But it also exploits the tragedies of real people. People that don’t always have a say in what is being exploited.
But as a writer, I’m constantly exploiting the tragedies of real and imaginary people. Imaginary people that are sometimes based on real people. If these people were to appear in front of me, what would they say? What would I say? Would they want their stories told? Are their stories mine to tell?
Like a snake eating it’s own tail, these questions swallowed their own irony. They gave me the idea for this story.
So what about you?
What stories come to you on the road?
Start your story in the comments below…