Help me build a Box o' Plot

[gnomi]

I maintained to a friend that every writer needs a big Box o' Plot so that if one is short on plot, one can find and use a plot from the box. So, I ask you all - what would you put in a Box o' Plot?

No suggestion too silly.

ETA: The Box o' Plot is being put together for the lovely farwing. If you know her, please do not divulge to her that I'm building her this Box o' Plot; I'd like to surprise her with it when we visit her this weekend.

E (again) TA: Now that farwing has received her Box o' Plot, I'm unlocking this entry so she can see everyone's great ideas. Thanks to all who contributed ideas, either here or off-line.

Comments

[asciikitty.livejournal.com]

small plot spark-

Voo-Doo BBQ (real place, seen in NOLA. i was amused greatly)

heh. what could we do with this one?

[seborn.livejournal.com]

A gaming run I'm in has convinced me that a tarot deck is wonderful for generating plot. If you get stuck, flip over a new card and look! Something happens! Of course, you have to then figure out what it means in your story. Maybe it's one of the general class of swordy events, whatever those mean. Maybe some character's about to experience or commit a betrayal. Maybe someone's tempted to evade their responsibilities. Or maybe you just have some guy grinning and tiptoeing around with a bunch of swords.

Or, if you just want random things: A Supreme Court decision, many will do. Teeth, from any kind of critter. Five thousand year old subway tokens. Old trees, and the things you find in them. These may be more drabble topics than plot, but drabbles are plot seeds.

[csbermack.livejournal.com]

Anything from Shakespeare.
Anything from James Bond.
Anything mythological.
Get a random page off of Google, and persist until it's not porn.

[asciikitty.livejournal.com]

Get a random page off of Google, and persist until it's not porn.

i've always been fond of the "computer as cyrstal ball" idea, myself...

[celli]

I like poetry. Shakespeare's sonnets, the psalms, anything by Edna St. Vincent Millay or Margaret Atwood. I guess that's more inspiration, though. For plot points, I like summaries of soap operas for the week, or grabbing a book off my shelf and flipping to a random page. I also have a deck of Tarot cards that use fairy tales as their theme...those are a fun source.

Is this helping at all?

[batwrangler.livejournal.com]

Plot-generators (and pieces thereof):

Exotic, multisided dice (and if you're feeling ambitious, some sort of plot element table to go with);

A tiny roulette wheel (see previous parenthetical);

A "kidnapped plots" book which is a blank book with tv, book, play, or movie plot synopses cut out of newsprint (papers, TV Guide, etc.) and pasted in;

A "snatched from the headlines" book which is similar to the above but has weird headlines or those little "strange news" squibs in it;

A "weird science" book....;

A copy of the Weekly World News;

A book of plot coupons (made up on your computer and printed out);

A clip file of interesting pictures;

The URLs of some of the on-line plot generators (for days of utter desparation or for fun);

A bunch of slips of card stock with phrases, names, actions, etc., on them that can be mixed up and pulled from a small hat, bag, or other container;

Fortune cookies;

Tour books or maps of exotic places;

And, though not-so-much-plot-generating, on the writerly support front, there's always dark chocolate (for when the plot Dementors get you down), music, and tea, a nice blank book, a good pen, colored pencils, a new box of crayons, a tiny plush Cthulhu.

More plot generators:

[batwrangler.livejournal.com]

Mix Master
Kryptonite
Stargates
Radiation
Hellmouths
psychic/mutant/magical powers (alone or in combination)
Secret Knowledge
Misunderstandings
Politics
Mysterious Objects
Cabals (except that they don't, of course, exist)
Spaceships (work best if on the lam, scientific expeditions should also suffice)
Government agencies
Grand Viziers
Borgias
Hatred, Envy, Lust (though those really belong in *Pandora's* box)
Scientists (pref. evil or at least amoral and driven)
Business cartels
Criminal organizations
Ancient Orders
That post office Box in NJ
Flight Schools (no, wait, those are *pilot* generators...)
Surveyors
Conspirators
Eldritch forces and their followers
Misplaced modifiers
Plots R Us

Plot detectors:
Investigatory (Research, Detective, Police, Paranormal, etc.) agencies
Emergency services
Conspiracy theorists
Psychics
Innocent bystanders