One of my WIP's involves a subplot of what can best be described as 'Southern California miracles.' This is meant to be somewhat tongue-in-cheek and somewhat smart-alecky as SoCal is not generally known for it's piousness. With that in mind, there has to be a certain degree of narcissism or selfishness involved re:what people want / pray for. For example: "I want two parking spaces for my car." "I want a low body mass index." "I want an emotional support animal that does not judge me." "I want an expensive designer dress so I can look fantastic at my charity dinner for the homeless." Things of that nature. I'm kind of stuck on conjuring up other examples that would have a high level of snark and irony pertaining to self-absorbed people. Any suggestions?
"I want promotions at work even if I haven't earned it" "I want to take a really good selfie for Facebook" "I want to be attractive but I only want attention from those I deem worthy" "I want 100k followers on twitter"
Hmm I live in Southern California I think I know what you're getting at haha maybe some of these could work as jumping off points here what I see daily: "I post on social media letting people know how humble I am." "I drive my new mercedes benz to AA meeting and share about how material possessions don't matter" "I want people to know how much I anonymously donate to my church" "I pray for the homeless people in my town to get housing and jobs... so they don't lower home values in my neighborhood" "I want my children to be popular"
"I want people in the neighborhood to notice me when I go for a jog." "I want (good-looking person) to compliment me on my looks." "I want my (wealthy) husband to get a pay cut so people quit judging us for our money." "I want a black family to move to our neighborhood so I can say I have black friends." "I want to do such-and-such thing so people know how hard I work all the time." An image of White Goodman "reading" the dictionary when influential people visit him in his office just crossed my mind too. "Look how smart and educated I am!"
There's a British TV show called Episodes that deals with a bunch of these. I don't remember if it's on Netflix, but it may be.
Based only on my extensive watching of "Real Housewives of...": I want a personal chef who really gets me. I want my new shoe line to show girls growing up in difficult situations that they can achieve. I want the new surface on my tennis court to be ready for when my son's friends come by at the weekend, in case they want to play. In RH of Melbourne, Jackie relied on 'the angels' to write a business plan for her line of premixed cocktails. That one was pretty good.