Week 2 - Story Idea 1 - For Sunday

There's this idea that I've had floating around for some time now, and it's based off of an actual, true story from many years ago in the upper peninsula of Michigan that was reported on the news. You could say that I wish to create a 'dramatization' based off of it. Of course, I am going to be changing the story heavily to give it more of a dynamic, complex structure. I'll explain - if I were to tell the story only from one person's perspective, it's not as interesting if it's just told through their eyes. I want to go further and dulge into multiple perspectives rather than just one.

The news story was that of a prisoner (no, the prisoner wasn't a mob guy like my previous story, that silly idea was just for the story in my last blog post) who somehow escaped from jail and was on the loose, evading police, and trying to get as far away as he possibly could. He stumbled upon a person's house, broke in, and since we're talking the upper peninsula here, he found a hunting rifle in one of the bedrooms. Sure enough, at the same time, the owner of the house came home, stopped his car in the garage, got out, and was met by the fugitive. You can guess what happens next. Now, all that was reported was the breakout and the murder he committed. I'd like to fictionalize the story a bit and weave multiple plots and characters into the mix which include two news reporters (one who is the main character) struggling with finding a good news story. So, of course, he stumbles across this one. It would chronicle the reporters' attempt at following the prisoner's trail throughout the area, after the breakout, before and after the murder. The main character, who is one of the reporters, is in constant pressure to go to extreme measures to get the story he needs for his job, but his morals and human side come into play that could counteract with his line of work. It would additionally chronicle the prisoner's escape, a police officer's quest, and the family whose house is broken into.

Each person is aiming to achieve their own end goal, and face all the various issues that do not allow them to make a single screw-up. I don't plan to resolve the question of 'what happens' to the prisoner. I think it would be effective to end the story on a sad note. I just watched an amazing Sidney Lumet movie called "The Hill" from 1965 with Sean Connery and it's about World War 2 British prisoners' struggle in a military prison. Throughout the whole movie, you frequently see three sadistic, cruel, prison guards and you're constantly waiting for the moment in which they should get what's coming to them. I don't mean to spoil the movie here and I won't, however, I must say that it does end in a cliffhanger. It's an INCREDIBLY effective ending. I think to end it like that would be better than to have an ending in which the prisoner is caught, or the reporters get the story they are looking for and achieve success, etc. However, the story will focus on the reporters' plight and the plot is centrally involved around finding and catching the runaway prisoner. Each character will have some effect on changing the sequence of events.

I'm really obsessed with movies that have multiple things going on at once in which everything becomes intertwined in some way later on, in one big moment or multiple ones. I'm hoping to try and do something like that with this, and have an interesting, suspenseful, and fun read. I'm new at this, so I hope it doesn't come off as cheesy, unrealistic, or novice. It should definitely make a great story though!