I don’t know about y’all, but me, I got a lot of lagomorphs infesting my brain. Every time I consider a “what-if” or a “how about…” or a “what would happen if” there’s a whooshing sound that I end up following, at least for a while, until I bang my head on a burrow I can’t get down.
As an example, let’s say I need a new bit character in a novel to pass along a piece of information to the hero. “Well,” I say to myself, “maybe it should be that unnamed merchant across the street that he waves at sometimes. Maybe that guy also happens to know who the fellow is who’s spying on the place. No, wait, I know… that’s his cousin, and he’s got this special skill that… what… what… something to do with the crisis that’s coming up, whatever that turns out to be… etc., etc.
Just by opening the gate to the first what-if, I end up letting all these plot bunnies escape like lit firecrackers, and they set other bunnies off in a cascade.
Thing is, these bunnies are fruitful and multiply, and sometimes they’re worth following. Most often, they’re just entertaining and nothing results from the explosion of random movement, except a smiling waste of time. Still, I can always point to important surviving plot points that rational process would never have taken me to.
At least the furry explosions keep me entertained.
Ever have any useful plot bunnies of your own? Ever make up unexpected storylines to accommodate one?
Mad Genius Club 
9 responses to “Release the Plot Bunnies”
Oh, jeeze. Yes. And they’re as fertile as the real life ones.
“Wait-a-minute! How did they get away with that? With so much of it? Didn’t anyone NOTICE!” and suddenly I’m looking around for a policeman . . . to deal with a problem I created two years ago . . .
Um. I just passed 11K words on “If I write this random plot bunny down, I can get back to the WIP.”
My first published novella, Cloak and Stola, was a plot bunny. I’m still working on the WIP it came from.
“Faster, please?” 😁
[blush] Well, I just posted another snippet on my substack today: https://maryh10000.substack.com/p/risus-arrives
Unfortunately, I’m missing something rather vital on this WIP: a plot. I get scenes, that I’m posting to my substack, and when I figure out the plot, maybe I’ll get to the point where I have another novella, or even a novel.
The worst one I have is a guy that was supposed to be a ‘walk on.’ He’s the master of the Seattle vampire council. Vigo Morrison. Short ugly little bastard is going to end up getting his own book.
I killed a character because he was getting too prominent. Then he managed to haunt the rest of the book figuratively.
I do this constantly, but most of the background information never makes it into my stories, or at least not explicitly. I tend to imagine very detailed worlds and characters, and then have to make a conscious effort to decide what to include on the page and what the reader doesn’t need to know. I like to think that it adds to the reality of my stories, but mostly I do it because I have difficulty focusing on any one character’s story.
You guys have plot bunnies that actually relate to the project in hand? Luxury! Mine are usually galloping off in the opposite direction 🙂