Wednesday, August 01, 2012

A Cluster of Cliches

Take one of the cliche plots and brainstorm as many twists and off the wall approaches as you can.

  • The princess has been kidnapped and must be rescued.
  • A boy and girl from families who are mortal enemies, fall in love.
  • Character wakes up with amnesia.
  • Two characters who hate each other, must work together for a common goal.
  • A character is granted 3 wishes.
  • Characters dare each other to spend the night in the "haunted" house.
  • It's revealed the character is "the Chosen One."
  • An inheritance stipulates the heir must do accomplish something that's counter to their nature within a year or they don't get the inheritance.
  • A character has sold his soul to the devil, and now it's time to pay up.
  • Au unpleasant character is visited by ghosts from Christmas Past, Present and Future.
  • Character has prophetic dreams.
  • One character meets their perfect match, but the perfect match is in love with the wrong person.
  • The relative from hell moves in for a couple of weeks.
  • A ghost has some unfinished business.
  • Character is imbued with superpowers or a destiny when all they want is to be normal.
  • Aliens want to take over Earth.
  • Two brothers, one ruthless and one principled, are in competition with each other.
  • The "monster" who is trying to be good.
  • Santa Clause can't deliver the presents this year.
  • The character has been hidden and his evil twin has taken his place.
  • Character wakes up (from spell, from cryosleep, etc.) 100 years in the future. (Or past.)
  • Character must go into the past to stop something from happening.
  • The ultimate evil has been unleashed.
  • The Search for the Holy Grail.
  • The Search for eternal life.
  • Characters get shrunk to bug size.
  • Characters need to be shrunk to bug size to accomplish something.
  • The parent/spouse you thought was dead is actually alive.
  • The aliens can take on human form and are secretly among us.
  • Character is yanked into the past with a head full of modern knowledge.
  • "Angel" must redeem himself on Earth to get back into Heaven.
  • A period of time keeps repeating until the character gets "it" "right".
  • Bodies of two very different people get swapped.
  • Sucked into a video game.
  • Modern person sucked into a fantasy world.
  • Imaginary friend no one else can see isn't imaginary.
  • The "prince" and the "pauper" switch places.
  • The ugly duckling must be turned into a swan before the time is up.
  • We want our town back!
  • Long lost love has returned.

No comments: