MASTER LISTS FOR WRITERS: Thesauruses, Plots, Character Traits, Names, and More by Bryn Donovan Read Free Book Online Page A

causes conflict among the staff.
A shocking or embarrassing secret about an employee becomes known to her co-workers.
An affair or a wanted or unwanted flirtation is disruptive to the team.
A romantic liaison between co-workers ends badly, causing problems.
Two co-workers are competing for the same promotion or plum assignment.
Two people vie for control over a group project.
Someone on the team isn’t pulling his own weight. He hardly does any work, and he’s getting away with it.
An employee is difficult to be around, perhaps because of her negative attitude, inane chatter, or poor hygiene.
    Something’s been stolen—someone’s sandwich, office equipment, or sensitive files. It looks like an inside job, but nobody knows who did it.
Someone gets caught bad-mouthing a co-worker or superior. For instance, she accidentally sends a scathing email to the wrong person.
Someone takes all the credit for another person’s work. Maybe he presents her ideas as his own.

25 PLOT TWISTS
    Unexpected turns and dramatic reveals are one of the great pleasures of novels and movies. They are the reason why some people hate spoilers.
    A well-executed plot twist can keep readers riveted. When they didn’t know it was coming but then look back and realize there were hints all along, it’s really satisfying. Here are some classic plot twists for you to consider!
     
Someone who was presumed dead is still alive. In a supernatural or speculative story, he may have actually died and been resurrected.
Someone who was acting like an enemy reveals herself as an ally.
A trusted ally turns out to be an enemy.
A seemingly average and ordinary character reveals himself to be a genius, fabulously rich, or in possession of remarkable skills.
A character is actually a ghost or a figment of an unstable imagination.
The protagonist’s entire reality is fake. It’s a creation of someone in power, an alternate dimension, or his own extended hallucination.
A beloved character suddenly dies or is killed.
Someone murders or ruins the person who wronged him, long after it had seemed that he had forgiven the person.
A character unexpectedly seduces someone—possibly someone he has no business seducing.
    Two characters that no one would have ever suspected have been sleeping together all along.
Two characters are revealed to be siblings, or parent and child. Depending on how these characters have been interacting, it may be a happy or a disturbing revelation.
Someone suddenly remembers his true identity.
Everyone finds out that a character has been possessed or controlled by some other person or entity.
The outlandish thing a “crazy” person kept insisting was real? It’s real.
The person who thinks he is the con man is actually being conned.
Someone has a twin or a clone.
An investigator of a murder, or an assistant to the investigation, is the murderer.
The main problem is revealed to be just part of a much bigger and more horrible problem.
Some small concern or aberration that nobody paid much attention to turns out to be the biggest problem of all.
Someone’s attempt to solve a problem winds up making it ten times worse.
A character faces a difficult moral choice—and decides to do the wrong thing.
A victory is so costly that it seems to set someone up for a final defeat.
    Each character has double-crossed the other.
In his efforts to prevent something awful, someone actually helps it happen.
The whole story turns out to be a prequel to a movie or book that came before.

25 PLOT POINTS THAT CAN CRACK READERS UP
    Humor is one of the most difficult things to write—a fact generally ignored by prestigious film, television, and book awards. People sometimes think that funny writing is an innate talent, and you either have it or you don’t. While some writers have a natural gift for comedy, it’s something you can practice and become competent at, just like most skills.
    People often laugh when their expectations are subverted. There is something