As of right now, I don’t necessarily have any concrete ideas for a long-form story but here are some potential ideas that I may bounce around and brainstorm more about:

A story from the perspective of an impoverished, refugee child in a foreign country.
– For this topic, I feel like I could learn a lot about the treatment of refugees fleeing their homes in search of safety. This is a highly relevant topic and I’m very interested in engaging more in human rights research.
– The story would take place in a country that doesn’t necessarily have the resources to care for an influx of immigrants, showing the dichotomy between a poor refugee child and an upper class child born in the country. The two would go on adventures, with the rich child showing the poor one the beautiful, extravagant things in life, while the poor child shows the converse, life as an impoverished refugee. There would be conflict with the parents and authorities, as well as most likely some pivotal moment involving the death of someone important.
– I typically enjoy reading and writing fantasy and sci-fi, so this more realistic approach would push me out of my comfort zone and give me a great deal to learn about.

A tale about a schizophrenic man who falls into a dream where is in a video game world representing his brain and his schizophrenia, with the different levels representing the different voices, but with power ups and special moves that represent his strengths in the real world.
– The story would lead the character through an adventure inside his own mind, confronting and battling the voices that have troubled him for years. I have had friends with schizophrenia and mental health is extremely important to me. I am no stranger to mental illness and would like to stay away from any gimmicky or rude interpretations of said condition, but this gives me the opportunity to research more about schizophrenia and mental illness as whole. I’d like the story to wrap up as a tale of someone relieving the intense power of the voices in their head, reminding them that they are in control and that they are strong. The goal of this would not be to mock the condition, but illustrate a journey of dealing with it in a more fun, light way. Having different types of voices represented as certain video game boss tropes and styles could be a fun way of tackling this idea. Hopefully it’s not too on the nose and inconsiderate.

I plan to come back to this and expand on it more with either fresh ideas or more details as they come to me. I haven’t necessarily considered what exactly I’d like to write at this point in my life, but these are two things that heavily interest me currently and are things I’d love to attempt to tackle in some way.