Bulletproof Kink #3

Theme: heartbreak hotel. Minus the hotel.

It goes like this: leading lady is a teenage girl whose grandmother is dying, so she hangs around the hospital after school every day for three months, keeping her grandmother company. While there she meets a boy and, while they’re both abrasive and abrupt at first, they become friends. They talk and play cards, bring each other food and jokes and make up ways to entertain her grandmother. He, too, is there every day, but the girl doesn’t know why, and she doesn’t talk about it, until she finds out, near the end, that the boy has a twin brother who is dying, and the boy, who suffers from a terminal illness of his own, is going to give up one of his lungs to save his brother, and then likely die shortly thereafter as a result. During this three months, of course, girl and boy fall in love, and the boy insists that the girl stay away after the operation, because he doesn’t want her to see him dying. The day before the operation, the girl’s grandmother dies, so she never does see the boy, and she never finds out who his brother is (because they are fraternal, not identical twins - I like to think they will be chiaroscuro twins, one blond and one dark), and she misses the boy fiercely because she knows she will never see him again. Then one day at school, across the cafeteria, she sees a new boy who has a familiar smile, and they get to talking and become friends, and one day, when she goes over to her new friend’s house for a study date, she sees a picture in the foyer, and she knows that the boy she loved is dead and the boy standing before her is breathing with his brother’s lungs. Living boy falls in love with girl, but she knows she will always love his brother and cannot give him what he wants, and there is a walking away at the end. I would want this to feel the way the novel Plum Wine made me feel at the end.

(358 words)

Bulletproof Kink #2

Theme: bulletproof plot kink - alternate universe!

Leading Lady: is a hard-working grad student in biochemistry who spends all her time in the lab, teaching, or doing martial arts for stress relief.

Leading Man: is a civil engineer at an architectural firm who loves his job and his wife and wants to have kids and a dog.

Conflict: Leading Man goes to sleep in a hotel in Chicago at an engineering conference and wakes up in an alternate universe where he is an immensely popular film star and not married to his universe’s version of Leading Lady. Complications ensue, wherein Leading Man tries to get home to his wife, Leading Lady is dragged into the shenanigans, and we all know Leading Man is in the wrong universe because in his universe his father died and that’s why he took the practical route of becoming an engineer instead of an actor, but in this universe his father is alive and there is something of an emotional breakdown the first time leading man calls him.

Resolution: this tale calls for a broken heart. After a year of being in the new universe, Leading Man surrenders himself to the fact that he is never going home and asks Leading Lady to marry him and she, against her better judgment, says yes. Every morning when he wakes up she asks him, “Which one are you?” and he always says, “Yours” until the morning when he doesn’t.

(242 words)

Bulletproof Kink #1

Theme: bulletproof plot kink - amnesia!

Leading Lady: is a young working professional who enjoys life, is decently pleasant, has easy hobbies (movie night with the girls) and is newly-married.

Leading Man: is Leading Lady’s husband, also a young working professional, who likes to play sports and spend time with the guys but is an amazing cook and loves his wife.

Conflict: amnesia! Leading Man suffers head injury during a sports game and wakes up in hospital with no memory of who he is or what he used to do. Doctors recommend that he be allowed to remember slowly and without outside interference, i.e. the emotional overload of a worried but now relieved wife, so Leading Lady must pretend she does not live in her own home and that she and Leading Man are simply close friends (she is his closest friend; she moves in with one of her movie night girls). Chaos ensues when an old flame of Leading Man discovers his memory loss and attempts to win him back.

Resolution: Leading Man comes home from work (because he has retained his skills, just no memory of his projects or his coworkers) and finds Leading Lady asleep on couch with open wedding photo album on her lap, realizes the truth, and there is happily ever after, and also possibly some catty comeuppance for evil old flame.

(227 words)

Gender Role Reversal #1

Theme: gender role reversal!

Leading Lady: ex-military, skilled with weapons and unarmed combat, a little abrupt on the interpersonal action, but efficient and well-meaning; honorably discharged after a black ops mission ended in the death of most of her team.

Leading Man: certified super-genius and the mind behind the newest solution to renewable energy; beautiful and aloof and abrasive and under threat by various terror groups; also possible target of political/industrial espionage.

Conflict: abrasive genius and no-nonsense bodyguard stuck together for the foreseeable future, dodging danger and getting to know each other and, ultimately, falling in love. Bonus points for awkward conversation, attempts to teach Leading Man how to use a gun, and other fine romance cliché moments. Also maybe Leading Lady on duty while Leading Man is on a date? And comfort after emergency/gunfight/attack.

(142 words)

Teen cliché plot #2

Leading Lady: girl working simple/menial job; comfortable, finished with school, in a big city, but a bit lost as to directions in life

Leading Man: an actor, handsome, fresh out of drama school and on his first big project, a primetime family-friendly adventure show

Conflict: bodyswap! gender confusion due to body swap - potential for shenanigans to abound. Leading Lady falls in love with Leading Man’s best friend!

Basic arc: in the beginning, adjusting to each other’s bodies and working up a compromise to make sure they don’t ruin each other’s lives; Leading Man in Lady’s body just has to keep up with work and friends; Leading Lady in Man’s body is at the end of shooting and just has to finish some stunt scenes and then head home. In the middle, Leading Man confesses to Leading Lady’s best friend and she helps him maintain the charade. Leading Lady, so far from Leading Man’s home, feigns partial amnesia due to a stunt gone wrong. In the end, bodies and souls are restored, revelations are had, and romance blooms.

(179 words)

Teen cliché plot #1

Leading Lady: young, professional, working in a city. Possible backstory as a young widow or perhaps her fiancée died? An eclectic mix of hobbies and likes, a solidly loyal friend or to.

Leading Man: a prince of some random unheard-of country in Europe (because that’s easy), on a quest to find the best woman for him (since marrying commoners is acceptable on The Continent these days).

The ruse: Leading Man disguises self and two bodyguards as homeless people and actually lives the homeless life. Starts at one end of the country and moves westward, traveling through big cities and small towns and looking for a kind soul.

The meeting: Leading Lady is a charitable soul and occasionally brings food to the homeless men who stand on the corner near her apartment building, and one day she brings food to one of Leading Man’s bodyguards.

Conflict: Leading Lady continues to bring food to the ‘homeless men’ and even makes conversation with them; Leading Man is humbled and grateful for her charity but does not know how to tell her who he is; Leading Lady is still heartbroken over her dead fiancée husband.

Resolution: Leading Lady needs time to mourn, and Leading Man realizes he needs to give her time, so he returns to his country, and later they meet and realizations are had and there is happily ever after.

(229 words)

Project #73: Nanowrimo plot bunnies

It's been a terribly long time, and I am so, so sorry. But...I'm back, and WE are back with a vengeance! I'm not going to lie - I don't have the energy to do Nanowrimo this year, not with other writing projects coming back to haunt me. But...brainstorm! Use 500 words or less to spit out a plot you've always wanted to write but never had the chance to do. Store it here and inspire a friend, or give it a chance to air and get some feedback and maybe, one day when you have writer's block, you can come back here to the plot bunny farm and give something a go. If it's ridiculous or bizarre, cliché or genius, let us know what it's like. Go, fight, write!