Plot Bunnies, Plot Chickens, Etc.
As a lot of people aren’t familiar with plot creatures, I thought I’d shed some light on the members of the mental menagerie…
The Plot Bunny - Story ideas that come bounding in and start multiplying.
The Plot Chicken - They squawk, flap around, and shit everywhere, but when you actually need to do something with them, they scatter.
The Plot Sloth - Takes its sweet goddamned time turning into something useful.
The Plot Mule - When you mash two plots together and get something cool, but you can’t get a sequel out of it to save your life.
The Plot Cat - Lazy little bastards who take up your headspace, scare away all the other plot bunnies, but won’t actually do anything except lay there.
The Plottweiler - Barks loudly and viciously so you can’t ignore it, distracts you from everything else you want to write, but leaves you too paralyzed with fear to actually put words down.
The Plot Squirrel - Cute, distracting, full of nuts, and just TRY to keep up with that train of thought.
The Plot Bedbug - Shows up during the night, chews on you so you can’t sleep, and disappears in the daylight.
The Plot Tick - Burrows in, bleeds you dry, and leaves you with the creepy-crawlies. Mostly preys on horror writers.
The Plotroach - Totally unappealing, but so tenacious they’ll survive anything until you finally give up and write them.
What Plot Creatures have you encountered?
The Plot Dolphin - Either something very intellectually stimulating and probably surreal, or porn without plot, no inbetween.
The Plot Fin Whale - It’s a longfic, but a surprisingly fast-moving one that just flows right out of you.
The Plot Dragon - A gigantic pile of your most treasured tropes that probably don’t go that well when mixed together haphazardly like that but so shiny
The Plot Gryphon - A crossover.
The Plot Chimera - An especially ambitious crossover.
The Plot Hydra - WHERE ARE ALL THESE SUBPLOTS COMING FROM
The Plot Salmon - A love story that ends tragically.
The Plot Peryton - That deathfic you don’t want to write because you like that character and don’t want them to die but its shadow will be cast upon you until you give up and write it.
The Plot Stick Insect - You thought the plot was going to do one thing but SURPRISE! The characters have decided to go in a completely different direction.
