Plot Gerbils

[Hypoxia]

Plot Gerbil: Something that eats its way into your story. Smaller than a plot bunny.

Let's discuss the little story elements I call Plot Gerbils. They are mostly gratuitous, not vital to the story, but they help build atmosphere. Maybe they're throwaway lines, like, "Before WalMart, you had to go to a circus and pay to see a bearded lady." (Context: story characters are discussing shopping.) Maybe they're bit of urban legend, like, "After she shampooed her poodle, she put him in the microwave to dry him off, and he exploded!" (Context: gossiping about a crazy neighbor.) Stuff like that.

Do y'all have favorite plot gerbils that you'll dare to reveal here?

 

[PayDay]

I do this all of the time. (gerbils, ha, ftw)

I use the seldom used words thread or lines from bad movies. The best sentence thread that just popped up is sure to be wealth of one liners.

I tend to use them as similies to descriptions of action or of an item.

I just referenced, in my last story, A Christmas Story, a movie I have used before ('Must be Italian')
It was about a snowsuit that wouldn't let a female character's arms go down: 'like that kid in that movie'

I once, also, named two characters Bud and Lou, and then made them banter and bicker.

 

[Acktion]

I do now. Specifically, "gerbiling". Thanks a lot!

 

[JAMESBJOHNSON]

Raymond Chandler was the Master of the Gerbils, and sweetened his books and stories with plenty. Mark Twain had the same gift.

 

[Hypoxia]

I want to be clear: a plot gerbil is NOT the same as an anal-joy gerbil. Y'all might recall urban legends of (reputedly gay) males who show up at ER with gerbils stuck in their rectums. Cheap thrills, but inhumane. Don't treat plot gerbils like that. Unless absolutely necessary, of course.

 

[Swilly]

Shitty way for the little critters to die, isn't it?

 

[Zeb_Carter]

Shitty way for the little critters to die, isn't it?

You just had to say that, didn't you?

 

[Hypoxia]

Shitty way for the little critters to die, isn't it?

Some plot gerbils could probably end up the same way.



I was prompted to start this thread by an old book based on an even older book. The older book is THE AMERICAN CREDO (1920) by HL Mencken and GJ Nathan, "a chrestomathy of shibboleths, prejudices, common beliefs and unexamined truisms held sacred by millions". The new book is an update of Mencken and Nathan titled THERE ARE ALLIGATORS IN OUR SEWERS & Other American Credos (1983) by P.Dickson and JC Goulden, "an outrageous collection of bunk, nonsense, and fables we believe". I haven't found a more recent update, but this will do.

ALLIGATORS is filled with great one-liners and a some slightly longer bits that could themselves grow into plot bunnies. For instance, four white women visiting New York are riding their hotel elevator down to breakfast. A large well-dressed black man with a leashed Doberman pincher boards the elevator and commands, SIT. The women all drop to the floor. Sounds like a good intro to a IR-NC tale, hey?

 

[JAMESBJOHNSON]

Speaking of alligators, I once stumbled upon a BDSM chat board, and started fucking with the King Dom. Soon enough his sub started PMing me, and we made a date to get together, as we were in the same city. King Dom shit. But the sub and I got together at the interstate rest stop then went to a motel. She had alligator clips attached to her nipples. We went to dinner, spent the night fucking, and the next day I showed her the sites.

 

[Zeb_Carter]

Speaking of alligators, I once stumbled upon a BDSM chat board, and started fucking with the King Dom. Soon enough his sub started PMing me, and we made a date to get together, as we were in the same city. King Dom shit. But the sub and I got together at the interstate rest stop then went to a motel. She had alligator clips attached to her nipples. We went to dinner, spent the night fucking, and the next day I showed her the sites.

While the wife and kids form both marriages stayed home and had porridge.

 

[patientlee]

I've got one, free for the taking.

Today one of my students told me that her mother started dyeing her hair blonde (the kid's, not the mother's) because her father had always wanted a blonde haired, blue eyed daughter, and her hair was starting to darken.

Now, I'm not going to speculate on what's going on (she's 18) in that house, but I'm gonna venture to guess that her father has checked out the incest section here at the Lit Library.

 

[StrangeLife]

I've got one, free for the taking.

Today one of my students told me that her mother started dyeing her hair blonde (the kid's, not the mother's) because her father had always wanted a blonde haired, blue eyed daughter, and her hair was starting to darken.

Now, I'm not going to speculate on what's going on (she's 18) in that house, but I'm gonna venture to guess that her father has checked out the incest section here at the Lit Library.

Being an erotica author has changed the way you interpret stuff you hear in your daily life, I suspect. Next time you see somebody buying a can of whipped cream at the supermarket, will your first thought be "She's baking a cake" or "Looks like hubby is gonna get lucky tonight?"

 

[patientlee]

Being an erotica author has changed the way you interpret stuff you hear in your daily life, I suspect. Next time you see somebody buying a can of whipped cream at the supermarket, will your first thought be "She's baking a cake" or "Looks like hubby is gonna get lucky tonight?"

While that is probably true, the parents are (third, I think) cousins. And I also heard that the parent's parents got divorced and then married each other. (The student's maternal grandmother married her paternal grandfather, etc.)

I think there's some interest in keeping it in the family.

(And yes, I freely admit that hanging out with you people has tainted me. I used to be such a goody two shoes.)

 

[JAMESBJOHNSON]

While the wife and kids form both marriages stayed home and had porridge.

When you aim for clever check for typos.

 

[johneb87]

After seeing Cavalia, I knew I had to incorporate a performance like that in one of my stories. Stuck it in chapter 3 of New Life.

 

[AMoveableBeast]

When you aim for clever check for typos.

Such incontinences have never crept me form being cleaver.