Plot Generator

[dr_mabeuse]

The hardest part of novel writing for me is generating a plot. I've tried lots of different methods, sometimes even resorting to tarot cards when i get stuck.

Kicking around on the web, I came across a site that gave this advice on a never-fail method for coming up with plots for romance books:

Go to a used bookstore and find some romance books that are at least 10 years old, buy them, and rip off the plots from these. This isn't plagiarism, the author of this idea says, because when you rewrite the story in your own words, the plot will change enough that it will be unrecognizeable and in fact will now be original. Characters will change, motivations will change, even the ending might change.

He says that this is the way our brains work creatively anyhow, only normally we're not aware of it. The only difference in his method is that you're aware that you're ripping someone off rather than doing it unconsciously.

He points out that there are only like 7 basic romance plots anyhow, and everything else is a variation on these seven plots. (No, he didn't say what they were.)

I haven't tried it, mainly because I can't stand reading romance (yes, I can't stand reading the kind of thing I write) but I'm kind of tempted.

What do you think? Is this a legit idea or unutterably scummy?

--Zoot

 

[oggbashan]

If you buy Mills and Boon romance novels, or Georgette Heyer's Regency novels, you will find that the same basic plot can be re-used interminably - and still be readable.

Og

 

[rgraham666]

I rarely read romances either, doc. And for the same reason.

I've never consciously used another person's plot, but a ton of my stories came from 'what if?' questions raised by other people's work.

 

[JAMESBJOHNSON]

Writers have ripped-off the Bible forever.

Steinbeck got a Nobel Prize for re-packaging Genesis in EAST OF EDEN.

 

[jomar]

Sounds like a spin on Marshman's How to Write Romance.

On the other hand, try the Regency Romance Generator

 

[Guest]

Didn't someone post one time there was a dodad online that you could go there and push the button and it gave you the premise of the story... some of them were hilarious. I lost the link when I pc became a door stop. Anyone still have it?

 

[Stella_Omega]

Totally legit, for exactly the reasons the author said. But wouldn't it have been so much easier if he'd just outlined the seven plots! I mean-- who wants to read those damn books?

I googled "romance plots" and came up with this very funny blog post.

I can also recommend a book; the writer's little helper. Buy it used from amazon, it'll be the best 46¢ plus shippipng you've ever spent!

The book itself is going to be an artifact of the '00 years in about a minute-- but it suggests a ten-scene plotting diagram that is the first method that's ever made sense to me.

 

[JAMESBJOHNSON]

STELLA gets her plots from examining chicken entrails spread across the op-ed page of the LA TIMES.

 

[dr_mabeuse]

STELLA gets her plots from examining chicken entrails spread across the op-ed page of the LA TIMES.

I usually work out mine in my Dr. Mabeuse Sock-Puppet Theater. Three-ways are tough.

 

[Stella_Omega]

Didn't I just hear JBJ say "cluck cluck?"

 

[sr71plt]

When my own mind stops generating plots, I'll just stop writing (until it's ready to generate plots again).

 

[Safe_Bet]

Didn't I just hear JBJ say "cluck cluck?"

Why yes. I think you did! Want me to get the papers ready?

 

[Emperor_Nero]

Why yes. I think you did! Want me to get the papers ready?

I'm curious to see where this plot goes

 

[AllardChardon]

Did anyone see that article about how even Jane Austin couldn't get published today? A man rewrote several of her stories with new names and modern times and submitted them all to different publishers. Not a single one was picked up. One editor said to make some changes because it was too much like Pride and Predjudice. In fact, it WAS Pride and Predjudice.

 

[OhMissScarlett]

I have no trouble thinking up plots, it's the actual writing of the story that gives me problems.

 

[Vermilion]

My own filthy filthy dirty mind conjures up the plotlines. If I don;t come up with it myself, I can't write it -- I need to be involved right from the start or I haven;t a clue of where to go from there...

x
V

 

[jomar]

I googled "romance plots" and came up with this very funny blog post.

Funny!

 

[JAMESBJOHNSON]

AC

Very true. People today like things in a picture & paragraph form.

 

[Lady_Guenivere]

Shakespeare comes to mind as someone who gets borrowed from quite often, especially in screenplays. You can see loose versions of his plots in many modern stories.

 

[Guest]

I usually work out mine in my Dr. Mabeuse Sock-Puppet Theater. Three-ways are tough.

*perk*

Puppets?

 

[rgraham666]

I've figured out how to do three ways. But one of the puppets will need to be washed afterwards.

 

[Safe_Bet]

*perk*

Puppets?

Yeah, puppet porn. Matter a fact they just released a couple of brand new puppet porn movies - "Lambchop does Dallas" and "Behind the Green Pond Scum" (Starring Kermy "The Wad" Holmes).

 

[Guest]

I've figured out how to do three ways. But one of the puppets will need to be washed afterwards.

Just one?

 

[Guest]

Yeah, puppet porn. Matter a fact they just released a couple of brand new puppet porn movies - "Lambchop does Dallas" and "Behind the Green Pond Scum" (Starring Kermy "The Wad" Holmes).

*tea spew*

But wait -

No lesbian puppets?

 

[TheeGoatPig]

Yeah, puppet porn. Matter a fact they just released a couple of brand new puppet porn movies - "Lambchop does Dallas" and "Behind the Green Pond Scum" (Starring Kermy "The Wad" Holmes).

I know a Lambchops on another forum. I should link him to this