Plotblock -- when you can't figure out what should happen next in your story.
If you're stuck and can't think of what strife to put your characters through next, here are some workable ideas:
-An inconveniently placed bomb
-An inconveniently placed army
-An inconveniently placed inconvenience
-Someone steals someone else's woman
-Someone attacks your protagonist
-Kill someone off
-Find a creepy kid in the forest
-Make your protagonist talk to a lamp
-Break something important
-Break something that isn't important but your protagonist thinks it is
-Make a character go insane
-Bring said insane character in for a chat
-Insert an object with a secret map on it (perhaps a map in code)
-Set something on fire
-Cripple an important character
-Physically injur your protagonist or take away their special powers so they have to deal with being "normal" for a while
-Throw in a blind or mute character
-Non-villain psychopaths are always a nice touch
-Crash the car the protagonist's in
-Insert some gangbangers
-Chase a squirrel and find something awesome or unawesome
User-submitted ideas:
-Power outage and make your characters scrambling around in the dark and awkwardly bump into each other
-Find a secondary antagonist bloody on the side of the road
-Make the protagonist kill somebody by accident
-Natural disasters destroy everything your character knew and loved
-Drive your protagonist into a situation where they have to kidnap someone
-Have someone kidnap your protagonist
-drug your character and have them experience moment of enlightenment during acid trip
-character recieves mysterious call in the middle of the night that threatens their life/ life of a loved one/ life of their pet/ life of their favorite stuffed animal
-make an innanimate object start giving your character advice, have character follow advice, advice backfires, later reveal that the innanimate object was possesed by the devil/evil spirit sent to create upheaval for your character
-make objects/ people start randomly disappearing, protagonist must find them
-introduce someone from your character's past
-give character a deadly virus from taking the city bus to school/work/mall/etc. and sitting next to an old homeless woman with a beard that sneezed on him/her
-Make your character(s) need to pretend to be the opposite gender for some reason
-Throw in a new love interest
-Throw in some supernatural happening (Entirely your choice whether said happening is really supernatural or has a rational explanation)
-Have a cute little animal trick your character(s) into doing something evil
-Have someone come out of the closet
-Have your character almost get shot
-Have your character's significant other break up with them
-Give your MC an obsessed fan
-Make them ill so that they end up having a fever
-Send them on a road trip
-If worst comes to worst, use the NaNoWriMo Travelling Shovel of Death
-get lost somewhere with your enemy
-add a pregnancy
-Develop a backstory that shows another side of the character
-Dance off. Always a dance off.
-Have the main character dream of a perfect paradise to give insight on what they want--it's a type of goal.
-Turn the character's world upsidedown--literally.
If you have more ideas, post in the comments and I'll add them to the list above!
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Yuffie's Writing How-To's
RandomA story isn't just a bunch of words slapped onto a page. It's a living, breathing manifestation of your imagination. This guide explores aspects most guides don't touch on such as memorable protagonists, world building, character psychology, and bac...
