10 Plot Prompts to Spark Creativity

Throughout the history of stories, the same tales are told over again in different ways. With a finite number of plots in the world, true creativity comes from how the story is told. Consider the following plots. Think about how can they be told in unique ways.

Different writers could take any one of these prompts and each would come up with completely unique stories. What's yours?

1. A couple falls in love when certain obligations won't allow their love, and they pay a harsh penalty in unfortunate circumstances.

2. A married couple become estranged due to false judgement but comes out happily from a serious entanglement.

3. A Lawless person rebels against the controlling power and foils a delicate plot by thwarting the guilty plotter.

4. An erring person is the victim of mistaken judgement and takes on a mission that ends in catastrophe.

5. A benevolent person calmly faces persecution because of the refusal to betray another person's secret and comes out of tribulation with much gained wisdom.

6. A protecting person, who works in the service of the needy and unfortunate, makes the supreme sacrifice for the benefit of others.

7. A perfectionist gets involved in a circumstance that challenges deeply held values and ideals and reverses certain opinions when his or her fallacy is revealed.

8. A normal person learns a crucial secret that requires decisive action, and as a result, has a total and permeant change of character.

9. A person is swayed by a criminal pretending to be engaged in an honest endeavor. The person learns the folly of pretense.

10. Any person becomes entangled in some sort of complication and meets any fate, good or evil.


These plots have been adapted from Plotto: The Master Book of All Plots by William Wallace Cook