by Bryn Donovan
People usually hire the harpist to play at wedding receptions and the occasional fancy birthday party, but this time, she’s going to perform at a very different kind of event.
A woman is obsessed with how badly her ex-boyfriends hurt her…and is half-convinced she must not be lovable.
A man fires the man who stole his girlfriend several years ago—a matter that the other guy assumed was water under the bridge.
An ambitious executive is consumed with jealousy when a new hire seems to be the CEO’s favorite.
Close friends, lovers, or family must say goodbye, knowing they won’t see each other again for a long time.
A timid new guy at work finds a mentor in a clever, brash man who teaches him how to succeed and how to get away with just about anything.
A woman alarms her family by taking a dangerous journey while pregnant.
A man murders his neo-Nazi father.
A wealthy elderly woman is arrested for the first time in her life.
An airman in the U.S. Air Force kills people with drones without ever leaving his computer. His superiors accuse him of defying orders and purposely missing a target.
A family in an upper-middle-class neighborhood begins to live with extreme frugality in order to knock out their towering credit card debt.
A woman’s best friend moves into her apartment building, and the woman starts to get irritated with her habits now that she’s around all the time.
A detective can’t reveal that he’s an eyewitness to a murder—if people knew he was there, it would end his career. So he plants evidence to convict the killer.
A family disowns a son who wins the lottery soon after.
A grandfather gets remarried at the age of eighty, and nobody in the family approves.
Two sisters with a history of competitiveness plan weddings for the same summer.
A man and his ex-girlfriend become the best of friends and advise one another on future relationships.
A sister is called as a character witness in her brother’s trial and offers damning testimony against him.
A man learns his parents are allowing his ex-wife to stay at their house for a while.
An office worker cannot be persuaded to stop writing emails in all caps.
A daughter sells the gifts her parents give to her children.
A mother becomes increasingly jealous of her friend’s carefree childless lifestyle.
A husband pressures his wife to go back to work and then becomes jealous of her business success.
A woman tries to save her boyfriend from his out-of-control addiction to playing videogames.
A journalist goes undercover as a psychiatric patient to investigate a mental hospital.
A retired woman on a tight budget becomes an art thief. No one ever pays attention to her or suspects her.
A mother considers firing a nanny because she’s worried her children love the woman better than her.
After a severe head injury, a man discovers a new gift for picking up foreign languages.
A poor, fun-loving woman in New York City hosts a series of cocktail parties in public spaces.
CLASSIC PLOT PROMPTS
This section of the book takes inspiration from classic and time-honored stories. Contemporary writers often find pleasure in either changing traditional stories to reflect their own world views or giving traditional stories new relevancy and power by giving them a new setting or context.
Umberto Eco famously wrote in his novel The Name of the Rose, “Books always speak of other books, and every story tells a story that has already been told.” Many great works of literature were inspired by other great works of literature. Even Shakespeare stole ideas from ancient Greek and Roman writers and other playwrights and authors. If he did it, you can do it, too.
Some of these are plot points that I found interesting, rather than full-blown plots. I’ve sometimes described a story in broader terms in order to open up more creative possibilities, but you may wish to stay closer to the original material.
Because these are older stories, I haven’t worried about sharing spoilers, so read at your own risk.
50 Plots From the Bible
The Bible is one of the most influential books in the world. A lot of these stories are from Genesis because that book of the Bible contains so much colorful storytelling.
A man’s arrogance annoys his brothers, so they sell him into slavery. (Joseph and his brothers, Genesis.)
A female leader with the gift of prophecy tells a commander of the army to go attack their enemy forces. He says okay, but only if she goes with him. She says fine, but that means a woman is going to get all the credit. They wage a successful battle. (Deborah and Jael, Judges.)
A nobody agrees to fight a supposedly unbeatable enemy warrior—and slays him. (David and Goliath, 1 Samuel.)
A prince and a warrior love each other, but the prince’s father the king is jealous of the warrior and tries to kill him. (David and Jonathan, 1 Samuel.)
A couple gets banished from a paradise after breaking the rules. (Adam and Eve, Genesis.)
A nation suffers a series of terrible plagues. (Moses and the Plagues, Exodus.)
A man who squandered his inheritance while living a worthless life returns home humbled—and his father rejoices to see him again. (The Parable of the Prodigal Son, Luke.)
A respected teacher chooses to dine with a dishonest man nobody can stand. (Jesus and Zacchaeus, Luke.)
The inhabitants of a growing city suddenly find themselves all speaking different languages, so they can’t understand one another. (The Tower of Babel, Genesis.)
A man is asked to kill his only son as a proof of his loyalty, and is stopped at the last moment. (Abraham and Isaac, Genesis.)
A man receives a list of holy laws. (Moses and the Ten Commandments, Genesis.)
A woman takes away a man’s strength by cutting his hair. (Samson and Delilah, Judges.)
A boss makes some of his employees angry by paying those who worked a short time the same amount as those who worked a long time. (The Parable of the Workers in the Vineyard, Matthew.)
A king falls in love with the wife of one of his soldiers. He sends the soldier to the front lines and orders the commander to have the rest of the troops retreat so the soldier is killed in battle. (David and Bathsheba, 2 Samuel.)
A chariot of fire drawn by horses of fire takes a man to heaven. (Elijah’s Departure, 2 Kings.)
A powerful woman whose false testimony led to an innocent man’s execution is thrown out of a high window. The fall kills her, and stray dogs eat her dead body. (Jezebel, 1 Kings.)
A man is swallowed by a huge beast and survives in its stomach for three days before getting spit out again. (Jonah and the Whale, Jonah.)
Dry bones and skeletons become flesh-and-blood humans and get up and walk. (Ezekiel’s Vision, Ezekiel.)
A man receives a cash payment in order to betray his leader. (Judas and Thirty Pieces of Silver, Matthew.)
A man and his friends are sentenced to be burned to death, but they don’t burn. (Daniel and the Fiery Furnace, Daniel.)
Learned men notice a new portent in the sky and believe it to be a sign of the birth of a great person. (The Three Wise Men, Matthew.)
A man becomes enraged by dishonest moneychangers in a temple, overturns their tables, and chases them out with a whip. (The Cleansing of the Temple, Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John.)
A man and his pregnant wife are traveling and they’re desperate to find a place to stay, but all the hotel rooms are booked. They take shelter in a stable. (Mary Gives Birth to Jesus, Luke.)
A ruler promises his daughter he’ll give her anything. She asks him to execute a prisoner. (John the Baptist is Beheaded, Matthew.)
A man murders his b
rother out of jealousy, and he’s cursed as a result. (Cain and Abel, Genesis.)
An angel shows up at the jail in the middle of the night and sets an innocent prisoner free. (Peter’s Escape from Prison, Acts.)
Two travelers suddenly realize that a stranger is actually the man they’ve been telling the stranger about, although they believed him to be dead. (The Road to Emmaus, Luke.)
Before his inevitable death, a man sits down to a final meal with his followers. (The Last Supper, Mark.)
While one sister does all the cooking and preparations for her guests, her sister just sits around talking with them. (Mary, Martha, and Jesus, Luke.)
A man’s skill at interpreting the king’s dreams earns him great privileges at court. (Joseph Interprets Pharaoh’s Dreams, Genesis.)
A man is ordered to take off his shoes because he’s standing on holy ground. (Joshua and the Man With the Sword, Joshua.)
A woman chooses not to part ways with her widowed mother-in-law and makes a difficult journey with her. (Ruth and Naomi, Ruth.)
A man wrestles an angel all night and won’t give up until the angel gives him a blessing. (Jacob Wrestles the Angel, Genesis.)
Supernatural messengers tell peasants about something incredibly exciting that’s happened nearby. (The Shepherds and the Angels, Luke.)
A man pretends to be his older brother and tricks his dying father into giving him the blessing reserved for firstborn sons. (Isaac Blesses Jacob, Genesis.)
Parents lose their child after a festival and finally find him at the church. (The Boy Jesus in the Temple, Luke.)
A woman convinces her new husband, a king, not to slaughter her people. (Esther.)
A man miraculously transforms water into wine. (The Wedding Feast at Cana, John.)
Men meet divine punishment for burning the wrong kind of incense in a temple. (The Death of Nadab and Abihu, Leviticus.)
A lion attacks a boy’s parents, so the boy rips the lion apart with his bare hands. (Samson and the Lion, Judges.)
A catastrophe wipes out most life on earth, but a few people and many animals are chosen to survive. (The Great Flood, Genesis.)
A man intercedes with a mob of people about to kill a woman for her crime, pointing out that all of them are guilty of some wrongdoing. (The Woman Caught in Adultery, John.)
A man catches a fish and finds money inside. (The Coin in the Fish’s Mouth, Matthew.)
At the age of ninety, a woman becomes pregnant. (Sarah Becomes Pregnant, Genesis.)
A man forgives his contrite brothers for the terrible thing they did to him. (Joseph Forgives His Brothers, Genesis.)
A woman welcomes an enemy commander into her tent, and once he’s asleep, she kills him by driving a tent peg into his head. (Deborah and Jael, Judges.)
A man orders a storm to cease, and it does. (Jesus Calms a Storm, Mark, Luke.)
When soldiers receive orders to slaughter the royal family, one woman escapes with her infant nephew. (Athaliah and Jehosheba, 2 Chronicles.)
A man invites a lot of people to a dinner party, but at the last minute, all his guests make excuses for why they can’t come. So he has his servants go out and invite poor strangers to his feast. (The Parable of the Great Banquet, Luke.)
There’s only a little food, but miraculously, it feeds thousands of people. (Feeding the Multitude, Matthew, Mark, Luke, John.)
50 Plots From European Fairy Tales and Mythology
A lot of the stories I came across in researching were too confusing, inappropriate, or downright disturbing to include. Some of the ones that made it in are still pretty bizarre. Many of them involve winning the hand of a princess, so there are several variations of that here, but in your story, the hero might have a completely different goal. In some cases, I’m only including part of the story, but they’re all pretty easy to look up if you’re curious.
A warrior’s magical weapon is stolen by an enemy, who says he’ll only give it back if he can marry the warrior’s sister. The warrior agrees and later dresses up like his sister to go get it back. (Thor and Thrym the giant, Norse mythology.)
Two sisters befriend a bear who turns out to be a prince who’s under an evil enchantment. (“Snow White and Rose Red,” German fairy tale.)
A man ventures into the realm of the dead, hoping to find his wife and bring her back to the world of the living. (Orpheus and Eurydice, Greek mythology.)
A father, imprisoned with his son, creates a spectacular invention that will allow his son to escape. However, the son gets carried away and ignores a warning about the invention, which causes his death. (Daedalus and Icarus, Greek mythology.)
A knight’s best friend is fighting and doing very well at a tournament. Near the end of the day, the knight’s liege lord orders him to go and fight his best friend, who is now exhausted from battle. The knight doesn’t want to do it, but he’s sworn to obey his liege. (Tristan and Lamorack, Arthurian legend.)
All the princesses are locked in their bedrooms at night, but in the morning, their dancing shoes are always worn out. An old soldier accepts the king’s challenge to figure out what’s going on. (“The Twelve Dancing Princesses,” German fairy tale; versions from other countries also exist.)
Men escape a giant by strapping themselves to the bellies of sheep and getting away when the giant lets out his flocks to graze. (The Odyssey, Greek mythology.)
A strange knight in full armor attacks an unarmed king in the forest. He makes the king agree to meet him there in one year with the answer to a difficult question. If the king doesn’t get the answer right, the knight will cut off his head. (The Wedding of Sir Gawain and Dame Ragnelle, Arthurian legend.)
A woman whose stepmother and stepsisters are mean to her gets dressed up, attends a ball, and wins the heart of a prince. (“Cinderella,” French fairy tale; many earlier variations existed around the globe.)
A king receives a beautiful mechanical bird, made of gold and encrusted with jewels, that has a voice almost as beautiful as a real nightingale’s. Unfortunately, the king isn’t able to wind it up. (“The Nightingale,” fairy tale written by Hans Christian Anderson.)
A man steals life-saving technology to help humankind and is punished severely for doing so. (Prometheus, Greek mythology.)
A foolish prince frees a villain from his chains. The prince’s wife is the one who had the guy locked up. (“The Death of Koschei the Deathless,” Russian fairy tale.)
A woman becomes jealous of her husband’s love for the children he had with his first wife, so she turns them into swans. (The Children of Lir, Irish mythology.)
To defend the Jewish people from a Roman emperor, a rabbi creates a man out of clay and uses a special ritual to bring it to life. (“The Golem of Prague,” Czechian folk tale.)
Two villains murder the wisest person on earth and brew mead with his blood. Anyone who drinks the mead turns into a poet or a scholar. (Odin and the Mead of Poetry, Norse mythology.)
Whoever can ride their horse up a steep glass hill can marry the king’s daughter. (“The Princess on the Glass Hill,” Norwegian fairy tale.)
A king feeds a flea his own blood until the insect grows to be the size of a sheep. Then he kills it and skins it. He says any man who can guess what animal the skin came from can marry his daughter. (Gross. And poor flea.) An ogre guesses correctly and takes the princess off to his lair of horror. She escapes. (“The Flea,” fairy tale written by Giambattista Basile.)
A girl’s evil stepmother sends her to the hut of a terrifying witch, hoping the witch will kill her. Instead, the girl returns home with a lantern made out of a skull. It catches fire and burns her stepmother and mean stepsisters to death. (“Vasilia the Beautiful,” Russian fairy tale.)
An escaped slave helps someone who’s dangerous, but injured. Later, this individual refuses to fight the slave. (“Andr
ocles and the Lion,” Aesop’s fable, ancient Greece.)
A woman is ordered to spin straw into gold. A weird guy shows up and does it for her, but when he eventually demands her firstborn as payment, she finds a way to get rid of him. (“Rumpelstiltzkin,” German fairy tale.)
A young man is kind to all the animals who cross his path—ducks, bees, and even ants. They help him with the feats he must accomplish to win the king’s daughter. (“The Queen Bee,” German fairy tale.)
A hunter shoots a bird, and the bird begs him to take her home instead of killing her. She tells the hunter that when she falls asleep, he should hit her in the head. The hunter does all this, and the bird turns into a beautiful woman. (“Go I Know Not Whither and Fetch I Know Not What,” Russian fairy tale.)
A woman gives birth to a bizarre-looking baby with goat’s legs and horns. She screams in horror, but the father thinks his new baby is hilarious. (The Birth of Pan, Son of Hermes, Greek mythology.)
A queen plans to appease a vengeful god by sacrificing her daughter to a sea monster. (Perseus and Andromeda, Greek mythology.)
A shoemaker and his wife are poor, but when elves start making shoes for them in the middle of the night, business starts booming. The elves only have rags to wear, so the shoemaker’s wife sews little elf outfits for them. They’re so proud of how they look that they run away and don’t make any more shoes, but the shoemaker and his wife have already been lifted out of poverty, and they continue to prosper. (“The Elves and the Shoemaker,” German fairy tale.)
During a royal wedding, a white stag runs through the church, pursued by sixty black hounds and one white one. The king’s advisor says the stag must be hunted, so the king sends two of his best knights after it. (Sir Gawain and Lady Ablamar, Arthurian legend.)
An old man grows a turnip so huge he can’t pull it out of the ground. He asks his wife to help pull it, but they have no luck. They recruit the dog to join in the effort, and then the cat, and finally, when a mouse also helps, they get the vegetable out of the ground. (“The Gigantic Turnip,” Russian fairy tale.)