Plot Bunny Catching

I have been having terrible writer's block for months. The only thing I managed to write all summer was a short story for a YWS contest. That's it.

It's not that I don't want to write, it's just that I can't think of anything to write. November really isn't that far away, and I'd like to participate in NaNoWriMo, but I don't have the slightest idea of what my novel would be about. Does anyone have any advice for catching plot bunnies and finding story ideas?

Actually, I know of a game that sounds too simple, but actually works really well to get the ideas flowing.
You ask someone for three words and a name. That name is the name of the main character, and based off those three words, you have to create a plot. It doesn't have to have much to do with the words you're given, just what they make you think of. The first few times you play, it's really frustrating, but after a while, it's rather addictive.

Hmm. I've caught the most plot bunnies in nature. I'll go to the park or walk along a street with lots of gardens by the road (so I don't trespass) and look for fantasy in the plants. The story usually goes on a completely different tangent, but nature is what inspired it.

Catching plot bunnies? Why, set enough traps, and the bunnies will drop right into them.

What I mean by setting traps is looking around at whatever occasion and asking the following question: "What changes to this situation would make it interesting?" If you do this in whatever circumstance you will likely start finding ideas in no time.

But this is all to get the idea. You still need to build a story out of the idea. Interview yourself:
Who do you want to be the main character of the story?

Why do you want him/her to be the main character? What's special to their circumstances that makes them interesting to read about?

How are they going to affect the plot? How will they impact on whatever it is you want to build the story around?

Where will the story occur?

What is special about its location?

And so on...

Then you need to start building subplots and other characters up who will influence the story. Repeat the same exercise as the one above with each character and each subplot.

If you ask yourself enough questions, you should ultimately get a story.

Have a great one!

Crap... I've been setting rabbit traps all morning.

*goes to check them*

OH GOD! MUFFINS! NOOOOOOOOOOOOO!

When I get in a bind like this, I tend to turn to writing prompt sites. I can go through a lot of useless ones before I find something I like, or I can acutally run into a gem right away. And sometimes I just pick and choose elements of the prompt that I like.

You can turn prompts into short stories, scripts, novels, anything... That's why I like them. My current project is actually based on three seperate prompts and some obervations I was smart enough to write down in my notebook.

My two ultrafavorite prompt sites:

1) I love this one. It is where the prompts for my current project came from. Very inspiring.
http://www.magatsu.net/coolbits/index.php
(Just pick the number of prompts you want.)


2) This has got to be one of my favorite websites. Period.
http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/storygen.php
(With this one, just click on the words they give you and it will take you to the relavent article on the site... but this is TVTropes, so be warned: It is exceedingly addictive.)

I hope this helps. If not, I hear carrot cake and milk are a good way to catch them...

~GryphonFledgling

I always thought that plot bunnies were something totally ridiculous, very dumb and slightly contrived, that you injected into your story when you had nothing else to write about.
Or maybe that was plot funnies.
An example: your writing some dialogue taking place in a mall, cafe, any closed atmosphere. And you run out of things to say, or you just stop.
Plot bunny (or funny): A rhinoceros escaped from the neighboring zoo and plunges into the mall/cafe. Maybe it can talk. Maybe it charges at your main character. Either way, that's words on a page.
other plot funnies; dancing inanimate objects, men in suits/get ups with guns/lazers/hairspray.
Which gets me to my main point: nanowrimo is crazy and fun. It's the one time of the year when you are allowed to write drivel.
Sure you can make observations, go for walks in the park till your feet are numb; stare at dewdrops until your blood vessels pop or watch casa blanca nine hundred times.
Or you can write about flying polar bear-hunters in the amazon (whether the hunters or polar bears fly is irrelevant)