OMG the F#*&ing plot bunnies

[NaughteeDragon]

I’ve recently gotten back into writing and have several stories at various stages of completion due to priorities and deadlines. I had forgotten about the attack of the random plot bunny.
While walking to the restroom this morning, “She Just Started Liking Cheatin’ Songs” popped up in my playlist. By the time I got back to my desk I had a full story idea for the husband of a woman that decides she is going to write romance after spending $5 on an e-book that she says “is complete shit. I wrote better than that as teenager writing Twilight fan fiction.” She’s been at it for 6 months now and he’s trying to figure out if her music taste and internet searches are because she’s writing or if she’s cheating.

I don’t have time for this distraction. I’m 1 threesome away being done with my current project and then I need to start on my Pink Orchid challenge story.

 

[Rob_Royale]

Keep a plot bunny word doc for just such occasions. So you can revisit the idea later. But be careful. Those bunnies breed. My ideas page is up to 78.

 

[NaughteeDragon]

I posted it here so I can pull it when I get home.

 

[Kasumi_Lee]

I’ve recently gotten back into writing and have several stories at various stages of completion due to priorities and deadlines. I had forgotten about the attack of the random plot bunny.
While walking to the restroom this morning, “She Just Started Liking Cheatin’ Songs” popped up in my playlist. By the time I got back to my desk I had a full story idea for the husband of a woman that decides she is going to write romance after spending $5 on an e-book that she says “is complete shit. I wrote better than that as teenager writing Twilight fan fiction.” She’s been at it for 6 months now and he’s trying to figure out if her music taste and internet searches are because she’s writing or if she’s cheating.

I don’t have time for this distraction. I’m 1 threesome away being done with my current project and then I need to start on my Pink Orchid challenge story.

What the hell is a plot bunny? I've also experienced the distraction of new story ideas intruding into my thoughts and usurping valuable cognitive capacity that I want to devote to a writing project I've already started, but I didn't realize there was an actual term for it. You didn't just make this up, did you?

 

[stickygirl]

What the hell is a plot bunny?

If you have a bit of land set aside for family burials? Rabbits move in...
YW

 

[BobbyBrandt]

Songs are also the worst for me where ideas for new stories come from.

I am almost done with a novel-length story that was inspired by the old Wayne Newton song, "Daddy don't you walk so fast". I have also started plotting out a story in the Mature category inspired by the Ed Bruce hit, "You're the best break this old heart ever had". One of my stories from 2022 was inspired by the Doug Stone song "In a different light."

 

[NaughteeDragon]

What the hell is a plot bunny?

You didn't just make this up, did you?

I first encountered the term while writing HP fan fiction from 1997-2002.

 

[Rustyoznail]

What the hell is a plot bunny?

https://literotica.com/p/ghost-writers-in-the-sky

 

[KittyOfSteele]

Keep a plot bunny word doc for just such occasions. So you can revisit the idea later. But be careful. Those bunnies breed. My ideas page is up to 78.

I was about to say this! I have a notebook to freeze those pesky bunnies that are more like a plague of cute critters than pets. It's nowhere near finished because it's quite thick, but it has helped me to dump keep those pesky bunnies trapped.

 

[WCSGarland]

Heh, I just published one before I could get back to work on what I intended working on.

 

[TiberiusPrime]

Keep a plot bunny word doc for just such occasions. So you can revisit the idea later. But be careful. Those bunnies breed. My ideas page is up to 78.

I've got one of those! Mainly consisting of character names, titles, and basic plots. I have 5 story ideas in it. I've also got 3 or 4 partially started stories.

 

[SimonDoom]

Regular plot bunnies are bad enough. Erotic plot bunnies multiply too fast to count, eat all your lawn, break into your house, raid the pantry, drink all your booze, and run off with all your sex toys.

 

[VallesMarineris]

Keep a plot bunny word doc for just such occasions. So you can revisit the idea later. But be careful. Those bunnies breed. My ideas page is up to 78.

I have over 50. I think it's all fine. Mao once said, "Let a thousand flowers bloom."

Of course, after those flowers bloomed he started a purge to pull them all out by their roots.

I'm not sure what that means. Except you're Mao and they're your bunnies. Lots of people eat bunnies. There's this fancy restaurant in Napa that specializes in bunnies. They're tasty. So do whatever you want with them.

 

[TheLobster]

Plot bunnies? Nah. I do like my pants bunnies though.

 

[StillStunned]

I've got one of those! Mainly consisting of character names, titles, and basic plots. I have 5 story ideas in it. I've also got 3 or 4 partially started stories.

Only 3 or 4?

 

[jaF0]

Song lyrics are generally filthy....

If I said you had a beautiful body, would you hold it against me?

I'll wrap myself in dreams
I'll wrap myself in solitude
But I wish I could wrap myself
In thee.

Bunnies make great plots.

'A Bunny's Tale' and 'A Tale of Two Bunnies' could have been so much more Lit-ish.

 

[jaF0]

My plot bunnies often become dust bunnies.

 

[Comshaw]

Plot bunnies? not mine. They end up as begun (from a paragraph to a page or two) stories. I've got over 100 of those little beggars. My working story folder is like a motorheads garage. You walk in and there are piles and piles of partially assembled projects: a nail head Buick engine in one corner, a 1948 Indian Chief with the motor sitting next to it, a 440 CID block on an engine stand with the heads sitting under it and the body of a Triumph TR3 hanging from the rafters. And if ask about any of them it's: "Yeah, I'm gunna' get to that one soon!"

Of course some of them (like the Buick engine) are covered in dust and you wonder how long they've been there and when "soon" will come.

Comshaw

 

[PennyThompson]

This is why I like posting in the Story Ideas forum.

Someone writes a prompt, and my brain goes "Oooh, you could do this, and then this could happen, and then they'd do this..." and then I can wash my hands of it and not feel compelled to write it myself

 

[TiberiusPrime]

Only 3 or 4?

View attachment 2476845

You made me go back and count... I had way more than I guessed. 11... plus that doc with 6 ideas. Damn. Some of those were started in 2020 or 2021! I guess I better look over some of these. If you don't hear from me, send out the search party!

 

[Lumiere_Amie]

I have a Pages file with over 100 plot bunnies and scene bunnies, plus Notes with snippets of stories and dialogue. My bunnies are multiplying out of control!

 

[StillStunned]

You made me go back and count... I had way more than I guessed. 11... plus that doc with 6 ideas. Damn. Some of those were started in 2020 or 2021! I guess I better look over some of these. If you don't hear from me, send out the search party!

I have about 70, ranging from a single line to 10k words.

 

[Belegon]

I first encountered the term while writing HP fan fiction from 1997-2002.

The term plot bunny has been used in the AH since at least 2003. Maybe it's less common recently, but I assure you it has been around...

 

[Zootonius]

Keep a plot bunny word doc for just such occasions. So you can revisit the idea later. But be careful. Those bunnies breed. My ideas page is up to 78.

Not only do they breed, they bifurcate like amoeba. I thought up a plot a couple weeks ago. Then I realized the plot could do down two paths. I now have two plot ideas...

 

[Belegon]

Plot bunny got me yesterday. Thus, my good output for the day, over 4K words onto electronic paper. You never know what's gonna get you started. I saw a picture of a girl online that reminded me of a girl from college I had dated briefly, which led me to remember sharing a beer with her while kicking it on the fire escape outside my kitchen window in downtown Dubuque, IA... and boom, we're off!!!


edited to add; Thurs. Feb 20th - finished the climatic scene and writing a short bit to wrap it up. Should be finished tonight and hopefully will be available to read next week. Still need an appropriate title, though...

submitted - I called it An Evening with the Queen, since the girl in question was the Homecoming Queen that year, our senior year. It's not completely a true story, but many of the details are correct. In the real world, events were not all in a single evening... and a couple didn't actually happen.