TESTING OUR CREATIVITY THEORY. Help Please?

Question

I'm posting this again here:

My co worker and I are having this arguement about the human mind. She is under the impression that humans lack the ability to be creative because there are too many outside factors that help mold whatever thoughts that might pass through one's mind. Basically, she's saying only blind people can be truly creative. I beg to differ. I think that 'using' these very factors, we are able to create and develop ideas... I'm confusing myself here. Listen, help me out..

A mom
An 8 year old son
An ex boyfriend (mom's)
?
?
?

Without thinking of any TV shows, movies, songs, books, or ANYTHING like that, can ANYONE give these people a story? Nothing generic. She's betting everyone will come up with the 'Mom meets new man, son doesn't like him 'cause he's not dad, but eventually warms up to him... happily ever after' story. Add stuff, take stuff away, but go nuts. We HAVE to prove her wrong!! (We're each at our desks hitting 'refresh' every 2 seconds). PLEASE???

Answer 1

Wow. I thought that would be easy but it's quite tough! Everything I can think of has been done already!
OK, best I can do:

Anita doesn't like being Mum to 8-year-old Charlie. He's a good kid, but she was never cut out to be a mum. The first year or two were tough, especially after Tom walked out to 'find himself' and never came back. Last she heard he was touring America with his new band. She'd told him to never come round again after what she found out anyway. But it soon became apparent that Charlie was a really, REALLY intelligent child and needed constant input to keep him from being bored. Anita just didn't have the willpower or the energy to motivate him. And to be frank, she didn't love him that much.

On this particular winter morning, Anita was seriously thinking about abandoning Charlie. She couldn't be a proper mum anyway, he needed better than this and besides, she'd lost herself. She needed time to think, to rediscover her dreams, maybe start a career. She might come back, she might not - to be honest, she probably wouldn't. The last 9 years had been some kind of nightmare, a mistake waiting to be corrected.

The doorbell rang. Charlie answered it - she heard a man's voice. No, it couldn't be... it was...Tom! How dare he come here, after all the warnings she'd given him!

'Anita, I need to talk to you. Mom's been telling me about Charlie and I couldn't leave it any longer. I'm taking him with me.'

'He doesn't know you. You'll make him like you. I won't have a gay son.'

'You might as well not have a son at all! He can live with me, I'll send him to a good school and I will take care of him. It's got to be better than this. You live in squalor, you love your precious dogs more than your son and it's clear you're never going to do a decent day's work. Besides, I'd rather not have to visit him in a prison, which is were he'll end up if he stays here! You don't want him, so let him come and live with me'.

Two hours later, Anita watched from behind the curtain as Charlie packed his one bag into the car. Good riddance, she thought. Nothing to do with me any more. I can get on with my life now.

She turned away from the window and picked up the bag that she'd packed for herself. As she started to unpack again, a tear rolled down her cheek. 10 minutes later, she was sobbing. She realised that she'd just let the most important thing in her life walk away.


OK there it is, best I can do in twenty minutes, needs a lot of work I know but at least it's not a 'happy ever after' story!

Answer 2

Your coworker is wrong, but if you let her set the limits of he story beforehand, you are limiting your options to create something meaningful. The blind also includes those blind to the ways of the world as well as to its sights. Creations mean nothing if they don't relate to some real life questions based on real life experiences and problems. Good science fiction always has real life problems at it's core, for example. What is created is a new perspective on these so-called outside factors that your coworker would have you ignore completely.

If you have to use these three characters, ask yourself what was there about each of them that made it difficult for them to trust each other in the context of whatever life situation they were in at the time, and what type of new situation might they suddenly find themselves in where it would be difficult for each to trust anyone other than the three of them together. It would involve a lesson in perspective that is a teaching tool only when experience is a factor. Their prior knowledge of each other would point out the strengths they had to deal with in the new situation that had appeared as weaknesses under the old life they had shared.
Remember, this is supposed to be advice to help you be creative, not to do the creation for you. If you follow these other suggested scenarios, your coworker wins the bet.

Answer 3

Brief synopsis:
The eight year old son (Ashton) has epilepsy. The mom (Carolyn) who is 36, is already having pre-menopausal symptoms, and the ex-boyfriend (Dean) is healthy and already engaged to a pleasant and intelligent woman, Marie. Marie is a surgical nurse who sometimes works with Patrick, a neurologist at a children's hospital in the town where Marie and Dean live, which is five hours away from where Carolyn and Ashton live. Ashton's epilepsy is not being adequately controlled by medicine, and Carolyn is having a hard time keeping her emotions together because her hormones are completely out of order; she is worried for her son and also because she can't even leave the job she detests because she is concerned that a new health insurance company would reject her and her son due to pre-existing conditions. She gives up on her son's neurologist for many reasons, among which were the impossibility to ever get an appointment for Ashton, and she always had to miss half a day or even a full day to get him examined. She was in the process of looking for a new neurologist, when she received a call from her mother, who still lives in the town where Carolyn grew up (yes, you guessed it, the one in which Marie and Dean live). Carolyn's mother, Connie, informed her that Carolyn's father has suffered a stroke and is in the hospital. Carolyn wearily drives with Ashton to see her father that night, and after a brief visit (brief because her father was not conscious), she drove both Ashton and her mom to her mom's home to rest. She grabbed McDonalds on the way back to the hospital, as she wanted to stay with her father, Tex. As she was finishing the last of her fries and Coke, a nurse stopped in to check on Tex, and chatted with Carolyn for a bit. It turned out that Tex needed surgery in a few hours, and they would soon begin prepping him. The nurse politely said goodbye, and Carolyn let her head drop on her dad's bedside; she was quite exhausted and needed some rest. She was able to get a couple hours of sleep before Marie knocked quietly on the door and roused her.

MORE TO COME

Answer 4

Good one!!! Some of the greatest inventors in the history of the world were not blind. Let's begin... She's a professional woman, her son craves her attention so he decides to get it by calling her ex-boyfriend from hell, the housekeeper finds out and she tries to save the day by calling her best friend since high school, who's a detective. The mom relies in her housekeeper and her mom to help her son, and the detective earns a promotion by putting in hell the ex-boyfriend who was in murky business with the mafia. If you love happy endings, mom will solve her issues with her own mother and her son, and the housekeeper will finally realize she was in love with her friend, and vice versa. I love happy endings. If not, the ex-boyfriend was covered by his friend in the police (the detective), the housekeeper had an affair with the ex-boyfriend, the kid gets killed in suspicious circumstances and the mother blames the mom for everything, she loses her job and end up in the streets.

Answer 5

Point out the the co-worker that you could easily be creative and pretend to be blind somehow.
On with the story..
Mom split with boyfriend because she thinks that he's a pedophile.
Son explains that he loves the guy.
Mom relents, but never loses suspicion.
Time goes by.
Mom catches them in bed together when son is a young teen.
Man goes to jail and everybody is happy.
Everybody except the son that is.
Mom tries to get man out of jail.. but it is too late.. the law is the law.
...and so on and so on.

Answer 6

This Mom takes her 8 yr old son all the way to France and runs into her exboyfriend. She can't believe it!! He begs her to get back together, but she's already met a Frenchman she's fond of. Her 8 yr old didn't like the old boyfriend much anyway. He has a crush on this older girl who is on yahoo answers doing a test cause this girl is dumb and won't believe people are creative! She's to old for him, but he thinks she's cute!

Answer 7

child and mom go around the country trying to find the real father of the boy. An abusive ex boyfriend claims that the boy is his. blood tests are run and the boyfriend is right. so instead of being with the exboyfriend the boy runs away.

Answer 8

Daily News 10/31/06 ex-boyfriend tracted down after alleuding police,for three days."Yes" the police said,this is the man who killed that fine woman that works at local----company----and her 8 year old son.,This halloween will be safer tonite..due to his apprehention How,s that for horror story this Hallows eve? 10 points for effort...I only went to 5 th grade back in 1959...lal :?