Plot Bunnies

[Fyri]

I can't remember where I first heard the term, but I think it was on this site.

Plot bunnies, from what I remember, are like little sparks of ideas for plots or concepts that you don't really have time or motivation to fully develop. Wherever I was when I first learned the term, they were sharing plot bunnies like candy, allowing anyone to take the plot and develop it as their own as they saw fit.

Wanna share any of yours?

The one I just saw was "A team of people named Mackenzie, but all spelled in different ways" because I work in a high school and I swear we have at least five people with the name, but spelled McKenzie, MaKenzye, Makenzi, Mackenzee, Mckenzy, and so on. Idk, maybe this could be a comedy skit or something like the whole world is now variously named Muh'Kensieieie and you have to deal with it.

 

[MSadiq]

Yours reminds me of Ed, Edd, and Eddy, lol.

I have a couple of my own.

1- A people trapped in a lush grotto that supports life with a monster that's very sensitive to sound, which they can't kill nor escape, but, somehow, they survive, and after a few generations, they lost their language and purely communicate through signs. Some guy stumbles upon and tries to communicate with them to help them escape or kill the monster.

2- In the 1960s, a young date farmer kills his father in spite. He prevented him from getting an educated in the time when urbanization was taking over and framing dying, leaving them destitute. Now he's haunted every night by a cat and a donkey that can speak and bring him into a realm between life and death where specters try to kill him. It won't stop until he repents and confess to people that his father didn't go missing, but he killed him and hid his corpse.

 

[Fyri]

I love it. The first one is like a different angle of "A Quiet Place"!

The second one is interesting specifically because... Why a cat and donkey specifically? I love it. XD

 

[MSadiq]

.. Why a cat and donkey specifically?

It's in reference to the young man. He pretends to be a good son to his deceased father in front of other people to gain sympathy, just like how cat cuddles up to you when it wants something. As for the donkey, in my mind, he was offered an education by clergyman, so he could read and write, which at the time, the 60s, could do you much good in the GCC. You can be a secretary, which is a job that made a decent amount. But he instead chose to bury himself and self-pity and not see the opportunity, how the knowledge of writing and reading could make his life much better, which reminds me of a part of a Quranic verse, which, roughly, means "their likeness is that of a donkey which carries books." A donkey carrying books on its back is carry something really precious, but it can't make use of it, but he chose to be that donkey.

 

[Fyri]

Oh! Your bunny is much more developed than I expected! Sounds like you've got the story all fleshed out already!

 

[pmmg]

I don't know where I encountered the term first either, but its been around for a long while.

I am pretty focused at this point on my current WIP, and I kill those little bunnies pretty ruthlessly. Other than others putting up prompts, I don't need these distractions. While I have gotten them at times, I cant bring any immediately to mind.

 

[JBCrowson]

I get plenty popping into my head for in-world ideas for events historical, backstories for minor characters and so on. One or two have hopped over and nibbled their way into the main plot arcs for later in the series. As an example:

A man had a father possessed (in both senses) of a powerful magical sword. He had an opportunity to take it from his father but did not. The father became a tyrant due to the power of the sword, killing thousands of people. When his father is slain he inherits the sword but is afraid to take it even to destroy it, fearing becoming like his father. He trains his two children, the older to be mean to the younger; the younger to be resilient to the meanness, repeatedly pitting them against each other until they reach adulthood. The younger he pushes into taking the sword, they feel the temptation to kill their sibling, resist and finally destroy the cursed blade.