Oggbashan Plot Bunnies

Copyright oggbashan May 2021

The author asserts the moral right to be identified as the author of this work.

This is a sort of how-to to give ideas to people who have difficulty thinking of a plot.

Unlike many authors, I am never short of plot bunnies. Why?

1.My plot bunnies often start it that time when I am not really awake in the morning. An idea occurs and I wonder. Sometimes I am not awake enough to recall it later, but usually I am.

2.My typical plot bunny starts with two people, usually two, meeting in a normal situation that might involve poor weather. I then think what if? How do they develop a relationship from there?

3.Sometimes I do a random search for bondage pictures on DuckDuckGo. Most are of bound women, but because of my fan base, I usually change the woman to a man. How did he end up like this, but some are overused tropes like meeting someone on craigslist and ending up as a bound, often crossdressed bound, captive.

4.Re-reading some of my stories can lead to spin-offs of minor characters having a story of their own, or the main characters developing another story.

5. Reading posts on Literotica can produce plots or incidents in a plot. For example there has been a recent discussion on the General Board about watches. That produced a feature about watches in jeanne-d-artois' latest story, currently pending.

6.I rarely have to sit and think of a plot bunny because there are just too many reproducing like rabbits. But if I need one, I use a method John Buchan wrote about for his novel The Three Hostages. He started with three separate scenes. There was a blind woman spinning wool; a boy dressed as a girl and a third scene which I have forgotten. His plot was to link the three apparently unrelated scenes together.

7.Only once have I sat down with a piece of paper and worked out a series of related plots. That was for my 2003 NaNoWriMo challenge. I wanted a series of chapters, all with a link, that ended up as 50,000 words. I used the idea of The Adventures of a Shilling by Joseph Addison, but the link was some hand-embroidered red silk panties. My original list had thirty-six parts but as I started to write, some of the parts grew longer and longer. I decided I didn't need all thirty-six (some of which have been reused for other stories) and that some were near duplicates of parts already written. The thirty-six became twenty-eight after duplicates were deleted. Eventually I finished the 50,000 words with only twelve parts.

8.The basic premise of almost all my stories is: man meets woman. How? Why? What do they do together? What challenges, adversaries do they face? How do they overcome them? And of course, most oggbashan stories end as Happy Ever After.

9.The Macguffin plot. This is the plot used in The Maltese Falcon, Romancing the Stone and the Indiana Jones movies. The whole premise is based on everyone chasing an object. What the object is and why they are chasing it doesn't really matter. It is enough that several people are after the same thing.

10.Saved by the hero. I have used this too often. Woman is in awkward, possibly even life-threatening, situation until he comes along, rescues her, sorts her out, and a relationship develops. Sometimes it can be reversed - she saves him.

11.Random people. I live on a sea front. There are hundreds of people to look at every day. I can look at passers-by and wonder : How did such a small woman meet such a large man, or such a large woman attract such a small man? Of course they might not be a couple. They could be just close to each other as they walk past, but I can think What If? How did they meet? What is their relationship? If any? I don't need to know the people, just be able to think about them. Any story may not be based on those individuals just be inspired by them.

12.Fantasy 1 - Ghosts. My ghosts have substance and can make love as beings with form and weight.

13.Fantasy 2 - Androids/Robots. My androids and Robots have human characteristics and emotions. Exploring the differences can be interesting.

14.Fantasy 3 - Invented Worlds. I can create a world that has some difference from the current earth. The important thing is that the created world should be internally consistent. The change could be minimal like my Shelacta series, or major like Tripletit. It is the differences that nake for the story.

15.Fantasy 4. The Earth but with some difference such as Edible Stockings where shape shifters are around together with a few other aliens. How do they react with normal human beings?

16.Themed Contests. The themes restrict your choice of subject. Some, like April Fools or Nude Day, can be difficult to think of an original twist that hasn't been overused. They require thought and perhaps those contests should be avoided and more effort be put into the easier themes. But entering every contest is a way to extend yourself and attract attention, some of it unpleasant.

17.Random expressions. Why is that person looking sad? or happy? Or bored? Or irritated? What was the cause?

18.Random Places. Why would a couple come here on a first or subsequent date? Would it be a success? Or a disaster? Will they find a shared interest? Or that their tastes don't match? Will they learn something about each other?

19.Supermarket Trolleys. If someone has an unusual load of item in their trolley, why? Burgers, sausages, kebabs? - A barbecue at which a couple might meet or argue. Many bottles of wine? A party - opportunities for people to meet or get to drunk and be annoying. A pile of kitchen rolls? Decorating? New house cleaning?

20.Injuries. Why is he/she on crutches? What happened? Who was to blame? Is he/she looking after the injured one or just letting them get on with it?

I hope this submission might give you some ideas. That is all it is intended to do.