I don't quite have all the plot points mapped out yet, but I want to write a story from the 1st person perspective of an old man, Norman (70 or 75 years old). Norman has a massive superiority complex, but has never vocalized it. He comes across to others as friendly and modest, but every time he looks in the mirror he sees the greatest man who ever lived. His ego isn't necessarily a bad thing, because he looks at it more as if he simply has the power to do many things that others can't, and sometimes he thinks his brain has a higher capacity than others'. The only indication of this complex is that his favorite past time is striking up conversations with telemarketers who call his house. He believes that they enjoy when he does this, because, hey, he must be incredibly wonderful to talk to, being so awesome and all. But really they mostly just try to shrug him off and get their jobs done.
Until one day, a telemarketer calls who sounds sad and worn out to Norman. Norman tries even harder than normal to converse with this stranger, who Norman guessed to be a middle-aged woman. This first time she calls, she ignores whatever it is he's talking about (not sure what his topic of interest will be - maybe he'll have some sort of odd tidbit of information that he'll use on each telemarketer or something). A week after this call, the phone rings and Norman hears that same sad voice on the other end, and once again starts talking to her very casually. She may hang up or something this time, but she'll eventually call back again, and eventually start opening up to Norman, too. At some point something will click in Norman's brain that his life is nothing that spectacular compared to this woman's. Not really sure exactly what will come of this, but something really awesome will happen, I'm sure.
I really like this idea! It's so unique and creative! Good job.
ReplyDeleteI like how even with the superiority complex he knows to hide it. He understands something is wrong with him. Great idea!
ReplyDeleteI'd like to see where it goes.
ReplyDeleteThis is a clever sort of idea. I like the potential in this story! Have you seen Tenure, with Luke Wilson? Not quite the same, but it has phonecalls to a donation hotline in it. More a of a date gone wrong element though.
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