When your Muse is in full on creative mode, she can come up with some wild ideas. No matter how far “out there” the ideas are, you shouldn’t discourage your Muse by saying things like “I hate that idea” or “That’s he stupidest thing ever” or “No one would read that!”
Discouraging your Muse leads her to packing up, taking her ball and going home. It can be difficult to get her to come out again and hand you more ideas. Usually bribery or treats are involved.
All this is to preface a new idea that my Muse handed me. I actually like the idea but I have so many projects lined up already I don’t know if I’ll be able to get this one in the queue.
Here’s the idea –
Street gangs but all of theme are themed around fast food restaurant chains.
You have the Ronalds, who paint their faces like clowns and dress in red and yellow. With all the people who have coulrophobia, they will be terrifying, possibly the apex predators of the gang world.
You have the Kings, who are into hedonism, so most likely into prostitution and drug running. They like to say you can “have it your way”, as long as your way is their way.
You have the Jacks, who wear cone hats and have their faces surgically altered to be in a permanent smile and their faces died bright white.
You have the Wendys, who are the only all female gang. Don’t underestimate them, though. They are tough, smart, and work twice as hard as other gangs to get only half the respect. This makes them more vicious than most gangs.
There are other, smaller gangs – the Colonels, the Arbys, the Fivers, The In-and-Out and numerous others.
For a setting I’m thinking something along the lines of 1920’s Chicago, when open gang warfare was at its peak. Each gang fighting to carve out and hold its own territory, with pitched battles in the streets. Or make it a cyberpunk setting, with chrome plated street samurai and cybernetic netrunners, fighting against the megacorporations as well as each other. Maybe even mix the two settings. It might even be made as a musical, a la West Side Story.
I could see this as a novel, or short stories, a comic, or a table top role-playing game setting.
If anyone out there takes this idea and runs with it, please send me a copy of your finished product.
If you’d like to support my efforts, why not buy me a chocolate chip cookie through my Ko-Fi page? https://ko-fi.com/jhusum