I was driving over the weekend and saw a billboard that prompted me to widen my eyes and think, what the ______ (fill in the blank as you deem fit; my word started with F). The billboard was so startling that I immediately thought: there's a story there. Not only what must have happened in real life to prompt that billboard but a fictional story I can create inspired by the billboard and/or using a billboard just like that. It's a great jumping-off point.
What did the billboard say, you're wondering. Sorry. Not telling. I hope to make use of it. But it suggested the idea for this blog. Billboards as story prompts. So I went looking and found some billboards that I hope might inspire you.
This has crime story written all over it. |
Prompt for a Thriller? |
I'm not even sure how to use this one. What do you think? |
Have you ever written a story inspired by a billboard? I'd love to hear about it in the comments. And what do you think of these three? I hope you can use one or more of them in your writing.
Well… I was ready to murder over billboards.
ReplyDeleteTo begin with, I’m not fond of highway blight, but I came to despise one particular egregious mega-advertiser, Stuckey’s. It would begin with a billboard that read something like, “Stuckey’s Pecan Shoppes (their spelling) 30,000mi ahead,” then eventually, Stuckey’s Pecan Shoppes 25,000mi ahead.”
As McDonald’s racked up burgers sold, Stuckey’s odious odometer ticked off mileage. Somewhere around the 600 mile mark, they began reeling off every 50 miles, then 25 until about the twenty mile marker, which found a billboard every mile until they converted to yards and feet, and for all I remember, inches. By that time, all I wanted was an ƒ-ing restroom and while I love pecans, I staggered into the shoppe with a crazed glaze in my eyes demanding a restroom with tissue paper not manufactured from pecan trees.
Like Cracker Barrel, they sold ‘Florida stuff’, cutesy ashtrays for those who hadn’t gotten the smoking message, cutesy alligators, cutesy T-shirts that read, “My other car is a swamp buggy,” and of course pecan logs. Which were delicious. But hated, because of 30,000 miles of billboards.
I’ve heard granddaughter Stephanie Stuckey is working to revive the business. I hope she makes it but without the 842,000 billboards that covered the eastern USA.
So you hated the billboards, but you still stopped there and ate the pecan logs. Sounds like the advertising worked. :)
DeleteI am old enough to remember advertisements on the roofs of tobacco barns in Kentucky. I haven't seen a billboard here in Maine in years. Most advertisement is digital or inserted into movies I watch on tv. I do miss Burma Shave.
ReplyDeleteA simpler time
the Ol'Buzzard
No billboards in Maine. That does sound nice.
DeleteI saw a sign along the road/Dreampt the story it could have told/Of thieves and kiillers by the load/Wrote it down and the it sold/Burmas Shave
ReplyDeleteDamn, Jerry. That'll work 'em into a lather! Well done.
DeleteThat's definitely a story prompt!
DeleteWhat a cool idea, using billboards as inspiration. A story about competing billboard ads or messages would be interesting. It doesn't feel like my story to write, but I hope someone else writes it, because I'd love to read it.
ReplyDeleteCompeting billboards do sound interesting, Leone. I'm thinking ...
DeleteBull Durham tobacco! Burma shave! Endless Stuckey's billboards! That's the south. Up here it's all Wall Drug billboards - endlessly. And, tucked up on South Dakota backroads:
ReplyDelete"Limousin Service". As a newcomer, I had two questions:
(1) why were there so many limousine services in rural South Dakota?
(2) why didn't they spell it right?
Someone finally told me that a Limousin is a French cattle breed and, of course, Limousin Service is about breeding. (Which sometimes happens in limousines, too, but we won't get into that.)
Eve, allegedly, there was even a Wall Drug sign (not a billboard) along with the mileage put up in Vietnam.
DeleteSo my followup question, Eve, is what are French cattle doing in S.D.? :)
DeleteWhy, mais certainement, they migrated from Canada!
DeleteEve, YES, Burma Shave. I remember the four-sign (line?) poems with the funny ending along the Michigan highways when I was young. I never thought of using one as inspiration, but they were usually funny. Wish I could remember examples now...
ReplyDeleteYou probably can find a lot online, Steve. I could have shared a lot more billboards, but ... copyright.
DeleteBarb, there was a Burma Shave series of signs that started out "Peach Fuzz Pringle Read every Burma Shave Jingle..." and I can't remember the rest. But, in any case I did name a minor character in my Prohibition series Peach Fuzz. He appeared in at least two of those stories published in AHMM. One more is in their e-slush pile.
ReplyDeleteGood luck with the story, R.T.!
DeleteOur favorite rumor is that there's a Wall Drug sign on the moon!
ReplyDeleteIf you Google Wall Drug on the moon, you can find evidence of it, Eve. Now whether it's real or manufactured, who am I to say? :)
DeleteHA ha ha ha!!!
DeleteCattle crossing,
ReplyDeletePlease go slow.
That old bull
Is some cow's beau.
Burma Shave
A cherished memory from my childhood in the Ice Age.
(laughing) That's a great one, Kathy.
DeleteAgreed.
DeleteI’m late to the party, but I did in fact have a story called “Bill Posters Will Be Prosecuted” in Mystery Magazine a while back. The title is the equivalent of the American warning “Post No Bills,” so it’s more a reference to inner-city poster advertising than highway billboards, but it’s all I got, Barb….
ReplyDelete