Writing Exercise: let's plot!

[StillStunned]

To tie in with the latest "On Writing" thread, let's have some stupid fun: a crowdsourced plot!

The premise is simple: your post should add to the outline of the plot. If you know all the techniques such as Save the Cat and the Hero's Journey, feel free to draw on them at the appropriate moments. If you don't, or you'd just like to throw in a bit of mayhem, describe a twist where a stranger appears on the scene with his cock a strapon a gun in their hand.

While of course nobody expects the result to be a viable story plot, and the wilder the better, I think it can be a useful exercise in planning and brainstorming. Try to follow previously established storylines, but feel free to add new lines if you think they can tie in somewhere.

Try not to hog the plot. Give other posters a chance to add their ideas. If a post is added while you're typing, let's assume that a new storyline has been added. The basic rule of improv applies: "Yes, and..."

(Also try to avoid anything that's too culture- or country-specific. If a storyline is set in New York or London, for example, make it the New York or London that everyone around the world knows from movies, cop shows and sitcoms.)

 

[StillStunned]

The setting is a big city. Ben has a boring office job. He lives in a flat with his partner, who has a much more exciting job.

 

[BeechLeaf]

His partner Bill is older than him, is in the police, and is on an undercover mission infiltrating a people-smuggling gang. Unfortunately he has been followed home by one of them, suspicious of him, who now scuttles back to the gang to report the suspiciously middle-class home.

 

[anthrodisiac]

Meanwhile, Ben has found some strange documents hidden in the back of the closet. An ID, a passport, with Bill's undercover persona on them. But Ben has no idea that Bill does undercover work, so many possibilities go through his mind, it's overwhelming, and he doesn't know what to think. So he goes to confront Bill about it.

 

[Bamagan]

When confronted, Bill is alarmed, and thrusts a rag of chloroform in Ben's face. When Ben regains consciousness, he finds himself in a cage in the basement, along with a dozen other victims of the human trafficking ring Bill is secretly orchestrating.

 

[Kumquatqueen]

A man in the cage with Ben groans. 'Weed...?'
'Chloroform, I think,' Ben explains.

'No, he's the small guy who brings us food and water three times a day. I think he feels bad about working for whoever has us here. Maybe we can get him on side?'

Ben nods, and begins to think of a plan.

 

[StillStunned]

Across town, Bella has just got a job as reporter for a local gossip rag. She lives with her father, a geologist, and his two cats.

 

[NuclearFairy]

His two cats, who are always whispering secrets into her ears. She would think that they're hallucinations and seek a therapist, except the unbelievable secrets always turn out to be true.

 

[StillStunned]

Mr Grey is the mastermind behind the human trafficking ring. He's also ruthless about collecting mystical items. When the sister of one of his victims tells him about the cats in exchange for her sister's freedom, his interest is piqued.

 

[SimonDoom]

Bella, before being a reporter, worked as a stripper at the PussyKat Lounge. She's caught wind of the trafficking ring and decides to go undercover to find out more about it.

 

[StillStunned]

(If this was on HBO, I'd be glued to the telly.)

 

[redgarters]

The PussyKat Lounge is run by a woman named Jessica, who soon discovers what Bella is up to and joins forces with her. But Bella is unaware that Jessica's cat, Luna, is secretly working to rescue an ancient Egyptian statue of Bastet from Mr. Grey's collection.

 

[Stanfield2025]

Mr. Grey's right hand man, known as Alvin, stays in hideout with his leader, awaiting orders.

 

[ElectricBlue]

There's a lull in the action. The girl behind the counter in the café on Fourth Street is absolutely delicious, a bit punky and goth, wearing torn stockings. A whole 'nother story begins.

 

[Britva415]

Yes and, she (Punky Barista, incongruously [for a goth] named Sunnie, possibly lampshading an in-character contrast and an out-of-charcater easteregg regarding the aforementioned Luna character) escaped a trafficking situation herself some time in her past. After work, she goes to counsel at a humanitarian organization helping victims re-enter society after escaping traffickers themselves.

She has a relation/connection with: (character _________ )

 

[XerXesXu]

Sunnie has unnatural sex with ___________ for 8 pages. Readership trebles.

 

[StillStunned]

Bill convinces Ben to go along with the trafficking thing to find out who the connections outside the city are. Ben doesn't trust Bill, but he realises that they'd both be killed if he exposes Bill as a cop.

Also, he's looking forward to spending some time in the countryside this summer.

 

[Britva415]

Pursuing the connections outside the city, Ben - obviously a vulnerable type - gets noticed by Mr. Grey. Now the connection is pursuing him. Mr. Grey's new psychic cats signal to him that something's not right, here, so Grey has a henchman watch Ben closely.

 

[Seurat]

Sunnie's half brother, with whom she occasionally crashes when clubbing in the city, lives across the hall from Ben and Bill. A wannabe guitarist for the neo-goth punk progressive revivalist band "Mabel's mother is a twat", that only covers Phil Collins songs, accidentally overloads the fuse box with his newly acquired amp, and shuts down the electric on the floor. He and Sunnie head down into the basement to find the fuse box, where he spots Ben (and others) in cages in the basement.