Story Ideas for "Second Chances".

The Story Generator offers story ideas for stories about second chances.
20 FEB 12: Today the Story Generator will make an update as part of a Blog Chain at the Absolute Write Water Cooler Forums, on the theme "Second Chances".

The incident in my life that got me most thinking about second chances occurred when I was drunk and acting stupid walking back to my university hostel with an equally drunk friend. We merrily approached the walk signal button crossing a major road, pressed it, and waited. I looked both ways, saw nothing but empty road, and said "No cars," as I began to cross.

"Hang on," my friend said.

"Come on, nothing's coming," I said. "Look."

My friend looked both ways: still nothing was coming. So he followed me across.

As we reached the far side of the road, the cross light changed to green, and a buzz alerted the remaining pedestrians (none) that they could now safely cross. We shared a laugh.

Then a screech of brakes jerked us back to what was happening around us, but there would have been no time to move even if we had seen it: a car doing close to twice the speed limit had locked its brakes and was spinning end-over-end along the blacktop, in a straight line down the road and then past us. As it came to a silent stop half a football field past where we stood, the cross light changed red and another buzzer sounded.

My friend and I shared a lot of emotion in our next glance, for we both understood: if we had waited for the cross light like good, obedient little citizens we would have been schmieled. Drunk as we were, we just shrugged it off and laughed as we pushed on to our hostel, other motorists now dealing to the scene much better than we two boozeroos could have done.

During the next few days I thought a lot about second chances, and now, tasked with coming up with story ideas for second chances, I think a lot about that incident. A common theme is asking the question: Did I have a mild near-death experience from the fluke of timing that allowed me to survive crossing that road?

Any kind of near-death experience could count as a second chance for your story. Post-death experiences would be another way to go, such as in Jean Paul Sartre's The Chips are Down, in which the protagonists are given another chance at life if they use it to successfully fall in love with each other.

There is a lot of potential internal conflict for your characters to wrestle with if they are given a second chance at anything important. The first might be asking themselves whether or not they deserve it, which could happen if they survive by luck in say, a car accident that kills some of their friends. If they decide they don't deserve it and you want to write a tragic story, you could have the character's guilt drive them to despair, maybe drugs and other self-destruction. If you want to write a more uplifting story, you could show them using their second chance to make the world a better place.

Another story idea is to have a character who takes the circumstances around their second chance as a guideline for how they ought to live, supposing that the entity granting the second chance did so in the hope that the character could change his ways. In the example of the cross lights, I wondered for a long time if the message was to disregard the rules of society when they went against what my own senses told me was the right thing to do.

* * *

This post is in participation in the February 2012 Blog Chain at Absolute Write Water Cooler Forums. Other participants are:

Comments

Wed, 02/22/2012 - 14:30 — Anonymous

"During the next few days I

"During the next few days I thought a lot about second chances, and now, tasked with coming up with story ideas for second chances, I think a lot about that incident. A common theme is asking the question: Did I have a mild near-death experience from the fluke of timing that allowed me to survive crossing that road?"

This part struck me the most. I did the same thing after getting into a potentially serious deadly car accident and coming out without a scratch, my car was nearly totaled though.
With a story you don't have to have all of the consequences being very major, but minor changes. I still don't like taking right hand corners in winter while driving, and for a few months afterwards I've have to fight off the shakes as I drove.
Putting in little details like that will let people know there is a problem without making it overblown which is a problem sometimes.

Good advice, and an interesting read.
Cheers
Dan

Wed, 02/22/2012 - 05:39 — Anonymous

A narrow miss indeed. Scary!

Tue, 02/21/2012 - 14:31 — Anonymous

magic mint

That is very creepy. Makes you wonder who is pulling the strings of fate!

Tue, 02/21/2012 - 12:34 — Anonymous

Wow, that was a close call! I

Wow, that was a close call! I would have been traumatized over the next few months if that had happened to me!

Tue, 02/21/2012 - 05:11 — Anonymous

AFord sharing feedback on your post...

Howdy! Thank goodness you guys decided to cross when you did. Thanks for sharing the value of a second chance here, because a lesson learned where no one has to be seriously hurt or worse is far better than otherwise. Thanks for sharing this story, and again, am glad with the safe outcome.

Tue, 02/21/2012 - 01:49 — Anonymous

nicely done :)

i like this. The idea of 'what if' is big for me, and in your case it looks like choosing the so called bad route, was the exact way to go. Oh how our drunken minds can make sense at times

Matt (Turndog Millionaire)

The Story Generator newsletter

Stay informed about updates and new articles!

Previous issues

The Story Generator Story ideas for creative writing