Take one of the ideas you’re excited about, and then audition five different characters for the lead role in that story. Make sure they’re all different from each other. For he treasure hunter story. Originally, I'd envisioned this to be a dual character story, but with both characters occupying similar roles. Therefore, for the audition, I'm going to try replacing both characters at once. In this way, I hope to see how the characters enter into conflict with themselves, rather than with others. 1: Burly, machismo-focused men. Roughly middle- aged, they have a good amount of experience, and significantly more confidence than the stakes require. Neither needs to get to the treasure room, per se (no one will die, the bills will still be paid, etc), but the competition continues due to a personal history of “I win, you win, I win” encounters. Story is heavy on hijinks, laughter, bravado. It is light-hearted & fun. 2: Young girls, 12 and 14. They are sisters, who caught a ride on a friend's planet-cruiser after insurance co. denied their father's surgery claim. Being stuck between childhood and adulthood, they have a little of both, though their age difference allows a “this side, that side” dynamic. Few people believe the stories of the treasure planet, and the younger drags the older to look around in it. Story is more about the sisters reconciling their relationship to the pains of adulthood, while yet maintaining the positive outlook of childhood. It features cooperation prominently, though it is preceded by annoyances. There is only one robot, which the younger smuggled with her. Or! The younger has been playing at adulthood by wearing a bra she stuffs with socks. Everyone knows this (duh), but the younger smuggles two robots instead of socks. Extra chance for older to be annoyed by younger on planet cruiser ride. 3: Both sets of characters above, in my head at least, were white. Being white myself, this is largely what I default to. The next set is a pair of older black women. Though beauties, younger in life, both women have gray hair, wrinkled faces, clothes which signal their dissociation from society. None of this bothers them. Both have made separate pacts with infernal figures to prolong their health, and are now staring down the conclusion of this pact. In this version, the riches are not commodities, but rather a holy weapon which can maybe defeat their contractual partners. Story would have sense of fighting back against inevitability, rather than hope of escape. 4: A team of techies, with this instance being older men for whom technology's advance has been difficult. One attempts to use the new sub, while the other sticks with what he knows. A bug in the new sub's code (or perhaps some “feature” which was added to juice sales) has caused problems with it, which requires the old to repair. Likewise,the old is too clunky to access many areas, and needs the new to help. 5: Two old witches (women who direct the dolls(more acceptable in fantasy than robots) at a distance. They use a boiling pot to see the action, and the story mostly happens in their home. Neither likes cooking, but the dolls require delicacies to move, so they have to trade of food prep & cauldron duty.