What is a plot bunny for you?

[Stella_Omega]

Bear's post about the video bordello made me think of this.

I've gotten several plot bunnies from conversations on the forums, but they were never presented as plot bunnies.

What gets my mind running is the idea of some kind of conflict. For instance, a while back, some woman got fired for showing off her packer (a soft dildo that mimics a man's basket) to people who evidently didn't want to see it. She claimed that it was sex discrimination, because she was about to start transitioning to male. But the company had at least one trans woman among the employees.

I can think of a lot of ways to run that item, some sympathetic to her, some not.

And this one came from a discussion on the silly things that young people write on fetlife:

Warrior sub, to me brings to mind a sub, probably male, who is a vet to the battle field and has killed a few and seen a few killed.

Most likely probably one of those death daring, maso adrenaline junkies who would shoot himself in the ass for fun if someone didn’t give him something productive to do. Definitely a handful, especially considering he would be far more powerful than any domme that would be crazy enough to get involved with that. I would assume stunguns come in handy.

And I'm thinking-- yeah. How would a small woman handle a big obstreperous guy with PTSD?

Sometimes, it's an image.

What sets you off?

 

[PoppingTom]

Sometimes, it's an image.

What sets you off?

A warrior woman with six-pack and full of rage and meanness, cruel to her environment except to other women, being sentimental to her love (man? woman? who cares?)

 

[Stella_Omega]

A warrior woman with six-pack and full of rage and meanness, cruel to her environment except to other women, being sentimental to her love (man? woman? who cares?)

Is there a conflict? What would it be?

(christ, I sound like Charley-- sorry!

 

[voluptuary_manque]

Just about anything that gets my fevered brain spinning. Right now I'm trying to deal with a potential transformation story that was inspired by the potential of genetic engineering and some things I read years ago. Plus I started (and then erased) a story about a couple at their first swingers' party where the woman draws the short straw and gets gang banged . . . and loves it, naturally. It didn't work so I pitched it.

But I don't think any single thing will set me off. It takes a bit of this and a chunk of that in combination before I go, "Oh now, that looks like fun!"

 

[Cruel2BKind]

I mostly pick up my plot bunnies from movies and books. I sometimes get plot bunnies from stories on lit, but I try not to write about those. It feels too much like plagiarism.

For instance, one commenter on my story File 66 said that I should publish it, but I wouldn't feel confident enough to publish it because it feels too close (almost fanficky) to the book that gave me the inspiration for it, "The Handmaiden's Tale" Somebody in the comments even picked up how close it was, saying that it reminded her of a gay version of the Handmaiden's Tale.

I can trace almost half of the stories that I've written back to a story or a movie that gave me the idea.

File 66=Handmaiden's Tale (book)
Bottom Tier series=The Windup Girl (book)
Alone at the End of the World series=Walking Dead (TV Show)/Cell (book)
Eyes Like Winona series=Twist (movie)
The Boy from the Sea=Midnight Pearls (book)

A few of the others are genuine inspiration, or I got the idea from other lit stories and tried to change it enough to make it my own. I haven't always succeeded, especially with my first series. A fan noticed that it was very similar to a BDSM story called 'Kate's Capture'. I erased the comment because I felt self-conscious and then I looked up Kate's Capture and I realized that I had read it a while ago before I was writing on the site.

I hadn't realized how much I had really taken from the other series.

 

[PennLady]

I've noticed I get a lot of ideas from songs. It doesn't always follow the song, although it usually does.

Facing the Past i/b (inspired by) Bad Co's "Love Me, Somebody"
Who Cares What I Wear? i/b Nina Gordon's "New Year's Eve"
Horses in the City i/b Nina Gordon's "Horses in the City"
Morning Sun i/b Bad Co's "Morning Sun"
Silver, Blue & Gold i/b Bad Co's "Silver..."

And a couple more in stages of development.

The next source is other stories I read, but it's that I'll read something and think I could do this better or differently. Or I'll think "I wish X had happened instead of Y" and write that.

Sometimes I'll just think of one random thing -- probably inspired by a song or story that I forgot about -- and put it on hold until I find a complementary idea. Occasionally there will be something from my own life that plays a part but I think that's kind of rare. The only one I can think of is "Lost in the Woods," where the main female character's fear of being lost stems from an experience I had as a kid.

 

[lovecraft68]

I like to people watch and as I'm sitting in a coffee shop or out to dinner with the wife, I'll look at a couple and start making up something about them.

Or maybe I'll see a guy by himself check out a girl and I'll roll with that.

The main thing that gets me thinking is any type of "contrast" maybe color, a big age difference, social stature.

 

[lance gt]

Plot bunnies come from many venues. Movies, commercials, real life events in the news, but some just pop into my head for no reason.

 

[oggbashan]

My plot bunnies are constantly breeding.

From time to time I use some for my 15 x 50-word stories but by the time I've submitted that set, another 30 or bunnies so have appeared.

 

[JAMESBJOHNSON]

Victor Hugo is the best when it comes to conflicts, all his characters have serious conflicts. Le Carre is good, too. Great conflicts should tie all the characters together like the balance of forces that hold a suspension bridge together. And the structure must collapse if one of the forces change value. Social networks resist change.

So! What I do is mix my knowledge of structural engineering and social dynamics to unleash chaos.

 

[scorallover]

Mine come from so many different places. News, songs, movies, commercials, strangers I might see in line at a store. I get mine from almost anywhere and everywhere.

 

[oggbashan]

Mine have even come from Chairman Mao's Little Red Book.

The Bible and Shakespeare were too easy as sources for plot bunnies.

 

[Stella_Omega]

I like to people watch and as I'm sitting in a coffee shop or out to dinner with the wife, I'll look at a couple and start making up something about them.

Or maybe I'll see a guy by himself check out a girl and I'll roll with that.

The main thing that gets me thinking is any type of "contrast" maybe color, a big age difference, social stature.

All of these have worked for me, too. Especially that last one, go figure.

Mine have even come from Chairman Mao's Little Red Book.

Like what, though? What about a phrase starts your mind whirring?

 

[PoppingTom]

Is there a conflict? What would it be?

(christ, I sound like Charley-- sorry!

The conflict would be that she wants sex with men, but whenever it seems to happen, she gets paranoid and nearly kills the man. She wants to be defeated, but she hates those who defeat her. Does this make sense?

One day she mets a guy who is sensitive, and she falls in love with him, but that guy wants to prove her what a real man he could be - and takes her into situations where she had to play the protector, what leads to more trouble. She's angry about him and nearly kills him by this, then she's shocked about her brutality - while he likes that.

 

[oggbashan]

...

Like what, though? What about a phrase starts your mind whirring?

I don't need a phrase. A word, a picture, a glimpse - all could be enough.

As for Chairman Mao - I just glanced at my library and there he was. My first attempt was rejected for being all Chairman Mao and not oggbashan, except in the selection and juxtaposition.

My second effort: Getting Nude With Chairman Mao

 

[Stella_Omega]

The conflict would be that she wants sex with men, but whenever it seems to happen, she gets paranoid and nearly kills the man. She wants to be defeated, but she hates those who defeat her. Does this make sense?

One day she mets a guy who is sensitive, and she falls in love with him, but that guy wants to prove her what a real man he could be - and takes her into situations where she had to play the protector, what leads to more trouble. She's angry about him and nearly kills him by this, then she's shocked about her brutality - while he likes that.

I hope you write this! It kind of turns the "Damsel In Distress" trope on its head-- without making the man not have manly desires at least, even if he can't fulfill them.

 

[Stella_Omega]

I don't need a phrase. A word, a picture, a glimpse - all could be enough.

As for Chairman Mao - I just glanced at my library and there he was. My first attempt was rejected for being all Chairman Mao and not oggbashan, except in the selection and juxtaposition.

My second effort: Getting Nude With Chairman Mao

Classic Ogg! Did you get the idea from reading Mao? or from something else?

I remember reading Roget's -- the sections dealing with transgression, arrest, judgement, penalty, penance, redemption... Just these long strings of words that had me breathless. It was like reading a thriller.

 

[litfan10]

I have two fictional writing stimuli I guess.

My norm is I hear about a situation or catch a glimpse of a scene as I'm going by and my gears engage wondering "how that came to be" and "what are those people thinking?" I react to second guessing what motivates people especially in more intense situations. The situation develops in my head and characters start to create themselves reacting to it, and I stir it all up and watch it in the petri dish in my head. At some point either I feel it is fascinating enough to me that others would be entertained or the characters start screaming so much in my head to have their story told that I take the time to commit it to paper and get it published.

The other bunny comes again from becoming aware of something and going "wouldn't it be neat if...." and again characters develop that live and react with such a "neat" thing.

 

[TxRad]

Pictures, people i see out and about. Just stray thoughts. What if's. Take your pick but pictures is number 1 with me. A picture can be a novel and has been on several occasions.

 

[lance gt]

I should have used an example. My latest series started from a 5 min. video clip of one of my main characters, that's now into the 15th chapter and still going strong with ideas from it.

 

[desertslave]

Music does it for me. Weird, it works that way for my artwork, too. It can be a song title or a particular part of the lyrics, but I catch the words and the way the music works with it, and I'm off. Most of them end up as snippets, unfortunately. I've had the basics for a "Good Girls Don't" story since whenever-the-hell that song came out.

 

[Stella_Omega]

I had an image in my mind, of someone at last finding his lover, nearly dead-- lots of drama-- in the middle of a terrible drought. he kisses her and the first rain falls.

So what a lovely last scene right? I can think of several types of characters that i would use, to make it all portentous and meaningful, and I can think of beginnings for the characters, but I got nothing much for the middle.

Fucking bunnies.

 

[_Lynn_]

Lyrics inspire me. Sometimes I'll use a single line. Other times I write my interpretation of the entire song. I wrote Maggie's Gift from an image of a mountain cabin and a blizzard. And most of the 300-500 word pieces I write are non-fiction.

But I don't think about writing unless I'm at the computer writing.

 

[voluptuary_manque]

Sir Alastair Fitzronald wonders into the sun room of the manor house to find one of his youthful tenants tied naked to a St. Andrew's cross. The young man pleads piteously for release and the baronet, much annoyed, unlocks the chap, hands him his clothes and goes off in high dudgeon in search of Lady Debora. "Confound it, woman, I don't care if he's a legal adult, the operatin' word here is 'consentin''!"


Great comic opening scene but what to do with it?

 

[Stella_Omega]

Sir Alastair Fitzronald wonders into the sun room of the manor house to find one of his youthful tenants tied naked to a St. Andrew's cross. The young man pleads piteously for release and the baronet, much annoyed, unlocks the chap, hands him his clothes and goes off in high dudgeon in search of Lady Debora. "Confound it, woman, I don't care if he's a legal adult, the operatin' word here is 'consentin''!"


Great comic opening scene but what to do with it?

ROFLMAO!
Dashed if you ain't become a dab hand at the lingo these days, what? what?