We’d all like to “take a meeting”. I’d love to take a meeting with a Film Producer/agent to discuss some of my feature scripts or a publisher/agent to discuss how to make my novels, currently available as e-books on smashwords.com/profile/view/davidburton, into bestsellers.
Taking a meeting is usually a good thing, unless it’s your tenth meeting of the day and all your meetees are trying to sell you something and none of the pitches, whether for a movie, book or some new million ( in the pitcher’s mind) dollar gizmo the world can’t live without, are worth a damn. And none of the ideas are worth a damn, except yours. And if it’s your tenth pitch of the day, all ending in “No.”, “Hell no!”, “Get the %$@& out of here!”, taking that last meeting may be a bit tough to get through. But, you have that idea, gizmo, scheme that you believe in, and because you’re one of those annoying people inflicted with positivity, you grin and bear it because number ten just may be the one. In the novel I just rewrote and sent to my publisher the hero now has POSITIVITY and he survives in Hell. So think POSITIVITY, number ten or twenty or twenty-six may be the one.
There’s lots of ways to take a meeting. The traditional your people talk with my people and we meet. Or, you could kidnap a meeting, say of big company CEOs, and hold them for ransom. 10-12 CEO’s, an easy million bucks per, a good pay-day. Or, hijack a large public meeting to spout off on your own agenda, like Global warming, War (any of them), or spending money on wars instead of education so that our kids will be smart enough not to start a war, or preventing crime. Or, taking a meeting with the Devil at the crossroads, should you conclude in a fit of righteous anger that peace on earth goodwill toward men and women is worth trading your soul for, along with the usual 7 years of debauchery with big money and big women, or big men. Your choice.
Being taken to a meeting may not be so good. Like when you do something bad to a bad guy and you walk out of your door on the way to work and you’re all smiles because you’re quitting that damn boring job with that jerk boss who’s not as smart or good-looking as you because you stole a million dollars from a bad guy and are on your way to Brazil or Hong Kong or the Seychelle Islands for a life of luxury and debauchery, but there are two big men with guns waiting to take you to a meeting with the bad guy which somehow you know will not end well for you.
Or, the meeting could come to you. Maybe you’re up on Mars base and the rest of the team is out poking around for alien bugs and water and stuff and you’re alone inside doing janitorial or some such other important job and a spaceship lands just outside with a contingent of representatives from several alien cultures who have come to negotiate whether the Earth should join the Galactic Union or be destroyed because it’s pollution is spilling out into public space and the neighbors are complaining. You need a break anyway so you put your mop down and take a meeting.
Ideas
What if you decided you needed to make a deal with the Devil to get what you wanted. You stood in the middle of that crossroads and called him up for a meeting. And, somewhat to your surprise, the Devil, or one of his trusted executives, arrived in smoke and black leather. And he or she said – We can do that, no problem, but.”- There’s always a but. This time it’s that what you want requires two souls, not just yours. Payment due when your good times are up. You choose the second soul. Would you make the deal? Who would you choose? What if the second soul was a down-payment, payable right now? They got to come back once you went down. Someone you know. Name the Name, right now! Who would you pick?
What if you took a meeting in the middle of the ocean, at a particular latitude and longitude, say in the calm water of the doldrums. You and two or three others meeting in separate boats. What would be the reason for such secrecy? Criminal, political, world saving or world destroying. What if one of the participants (you?) were planning on screwing the others. Would they (you) succeed? Hundreds, thousands of miles from civilisation how much sway would the Law hold? The difference between being a good guy or a bad guy is one second to make one decision. And if an Alien were to join the meeting, what stakes then? The same with a sea demon, monster, mermaid, spirit. What would they want? Maybe that bad guy in chains down below, virgins being so passe’.
What if you were a divorce lawyer and you had a meeting with your client and his spouse and her lawyer. (Feel free to mix and match genders) You and the other lawyer haven’t met before, but there’s an instant attraction. The attraction continues after the meeting and quickly becomes all-consuming to the detriment of your clients, your jobs, your families, and finally to yourselves. Does one or both of you eventually realize that you two together are a tragedy waiting to happen and pull one or both of you away from that brink? Or is it too late to live happily ever after, like your clients, and you end up dead, or worse, alive but apart?
What if you had a business meeting with 2-3 other business people and once you got together you realized that you were all high school classmates and friends, and that you all hated your jobs and had no real prospects of making it big anytime soon or at all. You also realized you’d be willing to rob your employers blind if you could, which it turns out you can, using your individual skills. And you do, through action, drama, comedy and a little romance.
That’s all. Gotta go take a meeting.
October 1 is coming fast. How are those dimes and quarters stacking up?
David Burton's What if? And Novel Writing Blog 