I’m far from the only person who reads a news article and is struck by ideas for how it can be turned into a really cool story. I think I’ll start a new occasional series here on Flametoad. For lack of a better name, I’m calling it Plot Seeds*. This inaugural post comes courtesy of a press release about an area in the Gulf of Mexico in which no life can be found. This “dead zone” is measured at 7,900 square miles, or roughly the size of Connecticut and Delaware combined. Now, this one is so easy it’s practically a gimme. Here’s just a few plot ideas off the top of my head.
The dead zone is actually caused by:
- A crashed alien spacecraft
- A new fissure in the Earth’s crust
- Radiation from a nuclear sub
- Experiments in beaming power from solar collectors back to Earth
- Rockets secretly launched from ocean platforms
- A poison brought up to the surface by oil drilling platforms
- The impending return of Atlantis
- A process by which our future civilization who needs oxygen “steals” it from the past by taking it from spots in the Gulf of Mexico where it won’t greatly impact the course of future history.
Okay, I’ve given you a handful of ideas. Now use one of these or come up with your own, and write!
* Please suggest a better name in the comments. If I use your suggestion, I’ll credit you in the next post.
Homer Simpson fell out of a fishing boat and cut the cheese.
D’oh!
The area has a dimensional shift that transports living organic matter to an alternate dimension.
The area is home to a new breed of “super-predators” that consume anything living.
The area is a test zone for an alien weapon built to cleanse the Earth of living creatures and pacify it for alien occupation.