More computer story lines

 Number 3 - Having another go at computer based story lines - 

2 Someone who looks at tourist attractions but never goes out to look around.

This might carry. Someone looking at the Taj Mahal but not smelling the orient.

He has just returned from a walk along the Great Wall and his partner wants to tell him about someone they met, a gypsy or someone from a strange place.  She wants him to taste a delicacy the stranger gave her. It must finish with him going to a local beauty spot.

Let's use Lorraine Mace's five checks from Writers' Forum magazine.

a, Is this complex enough to carry a story?

If the protagonist has some reason for being an armchair tourist, yes. Maybe he's been a climber and lost a leg in a fall. Maybe they lost a child to food poisoning in the Far East, for example. He feels it's all he can do, she's now the breadwinner.

b, can hurdles be created?

He's in a wheelchair. He's waiting for an appointment. He'd have to go by air and he's afraid of flying after the accident. He's deaf maybe, or become deaf.

c, Will it let the character's grow?

She will gain a better understanding of his emotional problem. He will react positively to her care and love will be re-established. They will both come to terms with their loss, either the son or his mobility, or her being the breadwinner.

Is it credible? Yes. I'm sure there are many situations like this.

Is it over complicated? I don't think so.

All right, that one can go on the to-do list. 

3 Someone who buys antiques on the web.

Maybe they could find treasure, or a money bag. Where did it come from? The Romanovs? The Mafia? A robbery? Or just an old family heirloom, maybe someone from the old family is ill and needs treatment, which would make a crisis of conscience.

Two possibilities, the money belongs to crooks, or, the family sold the item to get money for the operation. Maybe there is a third, it's the title deed to the site of Buckingham Palace or the Albert Hall, even Westminster. I like this, it has real humour possibilities; he could eject both houses of parliament.

Crooks would take too much and too many characters.

This scenario would answer Lorraine Mace's criteria - they are retired. he's a carpenter and she did alterations for a fashion boutique. They want to go to Australia to visit their daughter and are doing up furniture to make money. On the local facebook page, someone offers an old chair and he collects it and discovers the seller's mother is in a nursing home waiting for an operation. They get the chair, open it and find the money. It's enough for their fares but her conscience won't let her take the money. When they take the money back, it turns out the seller wants the granny flat modernised and the money will pay for that and the operation. The modernisation is enough for the fares and he's a carpenter.

It might need a bit more work but it's for the to-do list.

Better than 2? No 2 has the isolation of the present as an advantage. For now, Better than 2.

6 Someone researching history who finds themselves in an extremist group who hate bowler hats or something.

This might be funny but not easy. I'll keep it for now. This is an allegory for violent extremism and needs care.

9 Someone who gets hypnotised on line and robs a bank or gets married, or speaks another language.

I like this because it could happen. Gets married to someone from Russia maybe and they can't understand each other. The newcomer is a spy but finds Britain better than his old home, more tolerant maybe. This could be good. 

12 Someone researching fairies and they take them away.

Fantasy and a good fantasy. Keep it in. Fairyland turns out to be a slum somewhere and they want him to sort things out. Maybe he lands up in the middle of a war, or an election with candidates that are caricatures. I'll pursue this it could be good satire. 

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