#plot prompts

[literaryvein-reblogs]

Writing References: Plot

Basics: Plot Structure & Narrative Arcs

Basics: Plot & Other Elements of Creative Writing

Plot Methods: Save the Cat! ⚜ The Story Circle

Plot Development: The Transformation Test

Plot-Driven Story ⚜ Plotting a Novel ⚜ Plot-Planning Worksheet

Plot Twists ⚜ Types of Plot Twists ⚜ Subplots

Ten Story Genres ⚜ Elements of the 10 Story Genres

The 3-Act Structure: History & Elements ��� A Guide

The Shape of Story ⚜ The Shapes of Stories by Kurt Vonnegut

Tips

From Margaret Atwood ⚜ From Rick Riordan

Before Writing your Novel ⚜ Burying Information

How to Get "Unstuck" when Writing your Novel

Editing

Chapter Maps ⚜ Editing your Own Novel

Plot Holes & Other Structural Issues ⚜ Structural Edit

Self-Editing ⚜ Novel Editing

For Inspiration

Archetypal Narrative Arcs ⚜ Character & Literary Tropes

Snowflake Method ⚜ Ways to Generate an Idea

More References: Character Development ⚜ World-building

Writing Resources PDFs

[vivsinkpot]

Romantic Prompts: Prince(ss) vs. Prisoner

Some loves are born in sunlight — others in locked rooms, in whispered defiance, in glances that risk everything.

This is for the royal who was never truly free, and the prisoner who refused to kneel.

For the kind of love that sharpens like a blade, hidden in plain sight, waiting for the right moment to strike. Pronouns are interchangeable.

1. “The prince is forced to visit the dungeons for political reasons but becomes strangely fascinated with the defiant prisoner who refuses to bow.”

The prince descended into the dungeon, his footsteps echoing through the cold stone. He was prepared for the usual scene — broken men, eyes cast low, waiting for mercy. But when he reached the cell, his gaze fell on her: a woman standing tall, unyielding, her eyes fixed on him with a quiet, burning defiance. She didn’t bow. She didn’t flinch. “Your Highness,” she said, voice steady, “Do you come to remind me of my place, or is this just another political game?” The challenge in her tone caught him off guard, and for a moment, he said nothing. Her unwavering gaze lingered, a thread pulling at something deep within him.

2. “The prisoner knows a dangerous secret about the royal family — and the princess must decide whether to silence them, or protect them.”

The princess stood in the dimly lit chamber, her hands clenched at her sides as the prisoner’s words hung in the air, heavy with danger. “You don’t understand,” he said, his voice low but unwavering. “The secret you protect — it will bring your kingdom to its knees. I know the truth about your father, about your family’s legacy.” She felt the blood drain from her face. The weight of his revelation threatened to crush her, but his eyes remained fixed on hers, daring her to act. To silence him would mean burying a truth that could destroy everything she knew, yet to protect him would risk everything she’d been raised to defend. A choice loomed before her, one that could shatter her world, and she wasn’t sure she was ready to make it.

3. “When the princess is attacked during a coup attempt, the only person who saves her is the very prisoner she is supposed to despise.”

The princess barely had time to react as the blade flashed toward her, the air thick with the scent of smoke and chaos. The coup was swift, unexpected, and she had been caught off guard. Her guards lay motionless, the hall filled with shouting and the clatter of steel. But before the assassin’s strike could land, a figure appeared from the shadows, moving with an urgency she had never expected. The prisoner. She blinked in disbelief as he knocked the attacker aside, his chains still rattling as he fought with a ferocity that seemed born of something deeper than mere survival. “Stay behind me,” he commanded, voice rough, but clear. For a moment, she was frozen, her mind struggling to reconcile the man who was supposed to be her enemy, now standing between her and death. He didn’t hesitate, and neither did she, though her heart pounded in her chest — a mix of gratitude, confusion, and a growing realization that everything she thought she knew might be a lie.

4. “The prince sneaks down to the dungeons night after night under the guise of interrogations, but finds himself listening to the prisoner’s stories instead.”

Each night, the prince descended into the dungeons, his footsteps soft on the stone, the flickering torchlight casting long shadows across the walls. He told himself it was for the sake of duty — interrogations that were necessary, that would protect his kingdom. But every time he reached the prisoner’s cell, the questions he had prepared seemed to slip away. Instead, he found himself drawn into the prisoner’s stories: tales of distant lands, of forgotten legends, of a life outside these cold, confining walls. The prisoner spoke with a quiet intensity, eyes gleaming with memories and regrets, and the prince couldn’t help but listen. With each passing night, the walls between them grew thinner, until it was no longer about the interrogation, but the strange connection that pulled him back again and again.

5. “The prisoner was once a noble accused of treason, and the princess begins to doubt everything she has been taught about loyalty.”

The princess stood before the prisoner, the weight of her family’s teachings pressing down on her. He was once a noble — a man of high birth, accused of treason and thrown into these chains. Her father had called him a traitor, a villain who sought to destroy everything they held dear, and she had believed it. But as she listened to his quiet explanations, the calm in his eyes, doubts began to stir within her. His story didn’t fit with the one she had been told all her life. He spoke of loyalty, honor, and love for his kingdom — not betrayal. The princess felt the foundation of her beliefs tremble as the lines between truth and lies blurred before her, and she wondered how many other things she had been taught were nothing more than carefully crafted myths.

6. “An arranged political marriage looms over the princess, but the only one she dreams about is the prisoner with fire in his eyes.”

The princess paced the ornate corridors of the palace, her thoughts heavy with the looming marriage that would bind her to a man she barely knew, a man chosen for political gain rather than love. It was the price of duty, of securing alliances, but as the days grew closer, her heart felt colder. In the quiet of the night, her thoughts always drifted back to the prisoner — his eyes, burning with defiance, with something more than survival. He had been a shadow in her world until now, a name whispered with disdain, yet in the secrecy of her chambers, she could almost feel the heat of his gaze on her. The fire in his eyes was something she couldn’t ignore, a fire that burned brighter than the cold promises of the marriage awaiting her, and she couldn’t help but wonder if there was a future where she could choose him instead.

7. “A magical bond accidentally forms between the princess and the prisoner during a moment of shared danger — linking their fates irreversibly.”

The princess felt the ground tremble beneath her as the explosion tore through the air, sending debris flying in every direction. She barely had time to react before a pair of strong hands seized her, pulling her into the shadows just as a wall of flames surged toward them. For a moment, time seemed to stop. The heat of the fire burned at her skin, but it was nothing compared to the shock that coursed through her when she locked eyes with the prisoner. His breath was ragged, his expression wild, but then something strange happened. A pulse of energy crackled between them, as if the very air had thickened with magic. She gasped, feeling it wrap around her, pulling her heart into sync with his.

8. “The prince must choose one prisoner to release to earn public favor, but his heart has already chosen long before logic can intervene.”

The prince stood at the edge of the courtyard, the weight of the decision pressing down on him like a thousand stones. His father’s voice echoed in his mind, demanding he choose wisely, that the prisoner he freed must be the one who would best serve the kingdom’s image, securing public favor and quelling unrest. But as he scanned the line of prisoners, his gaze inevitably drifted to one — the girl with the haunted eyes, the one who had never begged for mercy. He had watched her for months, listened to her quiet defiance and her unspoken truths. The prince’s heart clenched, and before logic could even take root, he knew what her choice would be. The kingdom could wait, the politics could wait — but his heart had already made its decision. The girl who stood before him wasn’t just another prisoner; she was the one the prince could never let go.

9. “In the shadows of the palace, the prisoner teaches the sheltered princess about the outside world and about love that cannot survive in the light.”

In the dim corners of the palace, away from prying eyes, the prisoner spoke of a world the princess had only ever heard of in whispers — a world of dusty roads and endless horizons, of rebellion and freedom, of love that could never be seen in the light of day. As they sat together in the shadows, he shared stories of lives lived in the margins, of people who loved without the safety of royal protections, who risked everything for a fleeting moment of truth. The princess, sheltered by her gilded cage, listened intently, her world expanding with every word he spoke. With him, she discovered a love that burned fiercely, but was never meant to be displayed in the daylight, a love forged in the secrecy of stolen moments. The more she listened, the more she found herself yearning for a freedom she never thought possible — a freedom that came with a price, but one she was beginning to understand she might be willing to pay.

10. “The prisoner dares to call the prince by his true name — not his title — and it shakes something deep inside the royal’s carefully built walls.”

The prisoner’s voice cut through the stillness of the cell, low and steady, but it wasn’t the words that made the prince’s heart falter — it was the name. His name. Not his title, not the cold, distant mask he wore for the court, but the name only a few still dared to remember. For a moment, he stood frozen, the torches casting wavering light across the stone, the walls he had spent years building around himself trembling under the weight of it. No one had spoken to him like that in a long time — like he was a man, not a crown. The prisoner met his gaze without fear, and something inside him shifted, something dangerous and unbearably human, a crack in the armor he wasn’t sure he could ever mend.

Whether you’re writing defiance, forbidden connection, or the unraveling of power into something far more vulnerable — this dynamic lingers long after the final page.

More dynamic-driven prompt sets coming soon.

[leevingthisplace]

Plot Ideas For A Fantasy Book

To figure out what the central plot of my fantasy book should be, I listed the central objectives of many fantasy and fantasy-adjacent pieces of media and tried to group them.

So here's a list of possible plots or "missions" for a fantasy story:) (plus examples)

Finding an artifact (Harry Potter and the Deathly Hollows, Talus Duology)

Finding an animal (Shadow and Bone, Fantastic Beasts and Where To Find Them)

Unraveling a secret (Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone, Stranger Things S1-4)

Murder mystery / Unraveling the circumstances of someone’s death (The Grimoire of Grave Fates, Cemetery Boys, Stranger Things S4)

Finding out the cause of someone’s disappearance and finding them (All Our Hidden Gifts, Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets, Stranger Things S1)

Curing a curse (King of Scars, Stranger Things S2)

Heist (Six of Crows)

Defeating a villain (Harry Potter Saga, Shadow and Bone Trilogy)

Overthrowing the regime (THG: Mockingjay)

Winning a game (The Hunger Games, Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire)

Getting revenge and/or justice (Crooked Kingdom)

Saving a business/company/house/… (Lockwood & Co.)

Saving the motherfucking world (Umbrella Academy S1-3)

[unhumanlycreativeprompts]

Plot prompt, 12/5/2023

There is a woman they call "Lady Luck." She does not bring you good luck, oh no. She absorbs good fortune instead. She leeches it from people, places, good luck charms. It is all needed for her glorious purpose, and she must ensure success.

[fayewildefox]

The Dragon's Bride

The Dragons Bride: Every year Muse A’s village sacrifices a “pure maiden” to the Dragon that terrorizes them. No one knows what happens to these maidens, only that they are never seen again. This year, Muse A has been chosen to be the sacrifice. The ceremony happens and as usual the Dragon arrives and carry’s Muse A away, who passes out on the way there. When A awakens, she is not greeted by a blood thirsty beast like she expects. Instead, what seems like a human is leaning over her. A quickly realizes this is no ordinary human, the first sign being the horns protruding from their head. This person (Muse B) then explains that they, in fact, are the dragon. They state that they can shapeshift between the two forms. B then explains that they always let the Maiden of the past go free with a small amount of gold from their hoard so they can start a new life. However, for muse A he has a proposal. They ask Muse A to become their bride and bear their children. Will A accept?

[enchantingepics]

Story Prompt 63

They collided like two stars in a chaotic dance, drawn together by some unseen force. From the outside, it seemed like they were meant to be, but as they drew closer, the cracks began to show.

"I just don't understand why it's so hard," she said, frustration evident in her voice.

"Maybe it's because we're just not meant to be," he replied, his tone resigned.

They both knew it deep down, but admitting it was another thing entirely. They had fought against the inevitable for so long, clinging to the hope that love would conquer all. But reality had a way of intruding, and they found themselves facing the truth.

"We're just not compatible," she whispered, the words heavy with sadness.

"I know," he said softly, reaching out to touch her hand. "But that doesn't mean we can't still care about each other."

And so they made the difficult decision to part ways romantically, but to remain in each other's lives as friends. It wasn't easy, navigating the transition from lovers to friends, but they were determined to make it work.

"We might be soulmates in another life," she mused, a small smile playing on her lips.

"Maybe," he agreed, returning her smile. "But for now, I'm just grateful to have you in my life, even if it's just as a friend."

[rae-butter]

Honestly, I love it when characters relapse. When someone who’s gotten over their anger issues falls into a situation so out of their depth they fall back on their old habits. When someone who’s learned to open up becomes a recluse again in order to cope with something outside their control.

There’s just something so horrible, so toxic, about watching a character grow and then slip back into their old selves in order to cope, bc you know they still care, that they’re the same inside, but watching them hurt so hard they don’t know what else to do brings a sense of catharsis.

[thewordsarestuckinmyhead]

me when the plot won't plot like it should

[literaryvein-references]

Writing Notes & References

Alchemy ⚜ Antidote to Anxiety ⚜ Attachment ⚜ Autopsy

Art: Elements ⚜ Principles ⚜ Photographs ⚜ Watercolour

Bruises ⚜ Caffeine ⚜ Color Blindness ⚜ Cruise Ships

Children ⚜ Children's Dialogue ⚜ Childhood Bilingualism

Dangerousness ⚜ Drowning ⚜ Dystopia ⚜ Dystopian World

Culture ⚜ Culture Shock ⚜ Ethnocentrism & Cultural Relativism

Emotions: Anger ⚜ Fear ⚜ Happiness ⚜ Sadness

Emotional Intelligence ⚜ Genius (Giftedness) ⚜ Quirks

Facial Expressions ⚜ Laughter & Humour ⚜ Swearing & Taboo

Fantasy Creatures ⚜ Fantasy World Building

Generations ⚜ Literary & Character Tropes

Fight Scenes ⚜ Kill Adverbs

Food: Cooking Basics ⚜ Herbs & Spices ⚜ Sauces ⚜ Wine-tasting ⚜ Aphrodisiacs ⚜ List of Aphrodisiacs ⚜ Food History ⚜ Cocktails ⚜ Literary & Hollywood Cocktails ⚜ Liqueurs

Genre: Crime ⚜ Horror ⚜ Fantasy ⚜ Speculative Biology

Hate ⚜ Love ⚜ Kinds of Love ⚜ The Physiology of Love

How to Write: Food ⚜ Colours ⚜ Drunkenness

Jargon ⚜ Logical Fallacies ⚜ Memory ⚜ Memoir

Magic: Magic System ⚜ 10 Uncommon ⚜ How to Choose

Moon: Part 1 2 ⚜ Related Words

Mystical Items & Objects ⚜ Talisman ⚜ Relics ⚜ Poison

Pain ⚜ Pain & Violence ⚜ Poison Ivy & Poison Oak

Realistic Injuries ⚜ Rejection ⚜ Structural Issues ⚜ Villains

Symbolism: Colors ⚜ Food ⚜ Numbers ⚜ Storms

Thinking ⚜ Thinking Styles ⚜ Thought Distortions

Terms of Endearment ⚜ Ways of Saying "No" ⚜ Yoga

Compilations: Plot ⚜ Character ⚜ Worldbuilding ⚜ For Poets ⚜ Tips & Advice

all posts are queued. will update this every few weeks/months. send questions or requests here ⚜ Writing Resources PDFs

[platypaws]

Day 39: Isabella // Day 6: Pets

pnf revival challenge hosted by @howtonerdoutovereverything! ✨ pnfspiritweek hosted by @animationnut & @pftones3482! ✨

Isabella doesn't play around with unneccessary secret keeping. This is vaguely continued from this, but also like a dozen other comics I did for the revival challenge because theres overarching plot I guess dhfugihdfgu

[revival challenge masterpost]

[stealingyourbones]

A Danny Gets Summoned By Cult AU but he’s actually bound to their summoning and has to do everything he’s commanded to.

Small twist: he’s not the Ghost King. He has the power level he has in the TV show. Not Uber powerful, just a mid tier meta going rogue.

As the local heroes go to stop this rampage they see something off.

The apparition like being that just leveled a city block with his war cry and looks like he’s about to collapse is crying. Glowing green tears flow down his cheeks as he’s commanded to freeze civilians and create havoc. The only reason why he’s standing is because he’s bound by summoning magic to completely level the city and not stop until he’s completed his task.

At this rate if Phantom isn’t stopped, he will fully die before the town is leveled.

[stars-obsession-pit]

The “insane” twin

The Fentons found about Danny being Phantom and… it could have gone worse?

They don’t hate him. He’s not in any danger of being vivisected or having his adoption annulled. However, they’ve convinced themselves that he’s not actually a ghost; clearly he must be just a Meta with ghost-like powers and delusions of being dead!

So now he’s spending time in a psychiatric institute. Oh joy.

Well, at least they aren’t shooting at him?

…And of course this is when his twin brother Damian finds out he’s alive and comes to see him. While he’s in the looney bin.

Great.

[sonrium]

DP X DC: A Minor Drinking Problem

Phantom is a relatively new member of the JLA, but it's been a few months, and things are settling in well. He's shy and polite but is a master of the snark with villains.

Before a big mission, the all hands on deck kind, everyone is talking about scars and the crazy stories behind them to distract from the coming fight. Danny, finally feeling like he can join in the conversation with all these adult heroes, pulls off his right glove to show a pretty gnarly scar on the back of his wrist. “I got this one when I fought a guy from the Revolutionary War a few weeks ago! Didn't think he'd charge me with a bayonet.” He shares a couple more stories and scars, but only the ones that he can easily show off.

Because of stories like that and some historical depictions of Phantom from different time periods, they think he's this ancient and powerful immortal that just looks like a teenager, it wouldnt be the first time. He's powerful enough to go toe to toe with Superman, so there's no way he's actually a kid. He even sometimes has the haunted, world weary eyes that their most hardened members only get after experiencing too much. Danny, being our lovable, obliviously dense idiot, has not realized that they think he's an ancient being.

After the mission concludes -it was a rough one-, the JLA celebrate their victory with a couple drinks back at the watch tower. Danny is understandably uncomfortable with this whole situation and keeps asking, “Are you sure I should be here?” They reassure him it's fine as they pass around beers, which Danny politely declines several times. Danny eventually sees this as the perfect chance to pad his blackmail folders on his inebriated coworkers.

Anyway, as the night goes on, they have a good time, but Phantom still hasn't gotten a drink like the rest of them, and Green Lantern (or hero of your choice) really wants their shy friend to come out of his shell. So, he slams an open beer bottle on the coffee table in front of Phantom. “Come on Phantom! Let loose a little. Celebrate!”

“Dude! What the hell?! I'm 16! That's illegal!” Phantom squeaks in shock.

“We don't care how old you were when you died. It's how long you've been a ghost that counts.” Flash slings an arm around Danny's shoulders from where he’s sat next to him on the couch. Flash can't get drunk, but he also thinks it would be fun to see their uptight new member drunk.

“That's even worse! You'd be giving alcohol to a two year old!” Phantom is horrified that his coworkers are so casually breaking the law.

“But you said you fought in the Revolutionary War this morning!” Green Lantern said with his eyebrows knit in confusion.

“No, I said I fought someone from the Revolutionary War. As in, the ghost of someone from the revolutionary war!”

“You can't pull that on us. There's murals and stuff of you from thousands of years ago.” The Flash waves off with a laugh.

Phantom’s finger presses painfully hard into Flash’s chest. “I do not need to explain time travel to you of all people. My mentor hates you, and I'm STILL sent on missions constantly to clean up your messes.” Phantom's clear and low. Flash liked it better when he was shouting and not staring him down like a predator with narrowed eyes.

(This random idea popped into my head. It made me laugh, so I thought you might, too. Here you go!)

[corkinavoid]

DPxDC "Pick Me Up"

The stream goes live on the first day of the school year. It's the usual song and dance - mad laughing, threats, poor jokes, terror, and about thirty kids huddled together in a classroom behind Joker's back. Tim recognizes it as one of the Gotham Academy classrooms. Dick can't imagine the horror those kids' parents must be feeling right now. Jason jokes about middle school traumatic experiences. Damian is feeling very justified for skipping classes today.

Bruce, all suited up in his Batman garb, is making his way to the Academy as fast as he possibly can. Those are kids.

Gotham is once again anxiously kept on the edge of their seats, watching as Joker decides to interview the kids on their learning experience so far. Something about leaving a good first impression on the new generation or some other bullshit. Most kids stutter over their words - it's true that Gothamites are way more composed when facing life-threatening events, but those kids are only fourteen or fifteen for the most part. They are not old enough to keep their cool in the face of a murder clown.

That is, until Joker points his camera at one of the girls. Black hair in a high ponytail, blue eyes without a trace of fear, a slightly displeased, even bored expression on her face. She looks straight into the camera, not even waiting for the laughing madman to finish his question, and deadpans:

"I don't think I like school. Pick me up, please."

Joker sputters.

"Not so scared, I see," he sneers, and, in the next moment, a comically large gun painted in purples and greens is pointed to the girl's forehead, "How about now?"

The girl scrunches her nose and makes a so-so gesture.

"It's kinda meh," she admits, "Like, yeah, points for style, but you know, size doesn't matter. It's all in the technique."

Dick snorts over the comms. It's a bad time for laughing, sure, but the phrase caught him off-guard. This is not what you'd expect to hear from a teen, and definitely not something you'd expect anyone to say to the Joker. Jason's comms are muted, but Barbara knows he also laughed a little.

"Technique, you say?" Joker hisses, pressing the gun closer to the girl's head, and she winces, leaning away from it, almost as if she is disgusted by the touch.

"Yeah, I mean, guns are not that scary anyway. What are you gonna do with them, blast my brains all over the floor? Been there, done that," the girl shrugs, "Kinda nasty, but overall, it's just like slime, only sticky." She pauses and looks to the side, seemingly lost in thought, "Huh, maybe we should have added Borax to it. Or was it baking soda?.."

"Listen here, you little brat," Joker's fingers catch the girl's chin, and his voice becomes sickeningly menacing. Bruce is almost there, just two more minutes. Tim is already grappling onto the wall.

But none of them get to finish.

"Put your dirty fingers away from my sister," a low, cold, and even in a way that speaks of barely contained fury, voice comes from out of the screen.

The camera spins, like whoever is holding it turned really fast, and everyone watching the stream sees a fairly normal guy standing by the window - a turtleneck and ripped jeans, same black hair as the girl, same blue eyes... Wait, they are not blue.

And that's not a guy.

The camera falls down to the floor, and there are a lot of panicked screams coming from the broadcast now, but none of them sound like children's voices. It's the screams of adults, of grown-ass men, and later, someone even claimed they heard Joker's scream among them, too. The picture on camera glitches a few times, and the angle is awkward, but everyone still gets to see how shadows in the room morph into eyes, wide open and green, and how the darkness grows sharp teeth, countless grinning mouths that don't belong to any faces.

Screams turn into gargling and then to quiet whispers, filling the ears of all those listening with countless words in languages they don't know.

Red Robin turns off the recording and looks to that same guy from the levestream, sitting across him on the couch. The guy - Daniel, or Danny, as he introduced himself - looks him in the eyes and raises an eyebrow.

"Okay, and?"

"How did you do it?" Tim asks for the third time this evening. Danny blinks.

"Did what?" He asks, completely incomprehending. Tim groans. He's been trying to get his answers, any answers at this point, from the guy for thirty fucking minutes already. So far, he's got nothing. Danny, whoever the fuck he is, proves to be the most annoying human being on Earth.

"Seven people in a coma, including Joker himself, with no physical injuries and none of the children remember a thing! How?!" He demands, and a girl's face peeks from around the corner:

"I remember!"

Tim snaps his head at her, "What do you remember?"

The girl pauses, blinks, and looks to Danny. Then shrugs, "My brother picked me up from school."

Tim drops his head down and breathes out in frustration. He can't force the information out of civilians, he is a vigilante, not a mafia.

"Would it make you feel better if I promise not to do it again?" Danny asks, and his voice is way too innocent for Tim to believe him. He raises his head to look the guy in his shameless, amused eyes.

"I hate you."

"Thanks," Danny grins.

[unhumanlycreativeprompts]

Plot prompt, 11/19/2023

Persona A is going through a gradual transformation (as literal or figurative as you want). They are hiding it from Persona B. Little do they know that B is also being transformed. The same way? Different?

[nondelphic]

don’t forget your villain is a poet too. let them monologue under candlelight. let them fall in love with the protagonist's handwriting. let them cry in the rain and say it’s strategy.