trapped in dreamland

A boy starts having weird dreams about a girl in a fantasy land. One day, his mom turns on the news and he sees that this girl is missing. His dreams get weirder and weirder until he is transported to the dream land, too, and he finally meets the girl. They have to find a way out of the dream world before his dreams take over and he never wakes up.

AAP by bluebeanie41496

where magic is considered a curse

In a world where magic is considered a rare curse among humans, one unfortunate young lad/lass discovers to his/her horror that they are *gasp* afflicted! With the blessing of his/her (still very much alive) parents, said unfortunate heads out on a journey to rid themselves of this power. However, somewhere deep in the bowels of the earth, a similar power has stirred in response and wants nothing more than this power for itself, and attempts to keep our protagonist from achieving his/her goal at any cost.

AAP by Kaiyah

wizard versus magician

The plot is told from two perspectives: The first is that of the "hero," who has been told by a wise wizard (who has been his guardian since he was _ years old) that he must gather his most trusted allies and recover a dark artifact of great power from the evil magician who intends to use it.

The second perspective is that of the "villain," the same "evil magician," who is actually developing a powerful new spell which will allow the user to absorb and purify necrotic energy; his "lair" and the artifact that is key to his research are almost stereotypically dark and evil-looking, but only because he has been forced to conduct his research there because he cannot remove the artifact from it. He has actually barricaded himself into a handful of rooms, because the rest of the complex has been filled to the brim with monsters; they might have overwhelmed him by now, except for the help he's received from the tribe of orcs which he has converted to his cause.

As the hero journeys toward the lair, he gains one or two new allies in addition to his previous companions. Their descriptions and knowledge of the "evil magician" of the quest conflict with what the hero has been told, and while he at first brushes them off as simply being misled by said "evil magician," he becomes more and more worried that his mentor may have been hiding something from him.

This is, of course, proven accurate when the group actually reaches the "evil magician." After a mix-up which nearly leaves the hero and the magician dead, the hero's mentor appears and snatches the artifact, using a container he created which allows him to remove the artifact from the lair. The hero's group then joins forces with the magician and some of the orcs from the tribe to find and stop the wizard before whatever nefarious plan he's concocted can come to fruition.

AAP by Dreamaniac

Brothers (plot with mages, demons, tribal wars)

In a fantasy world, humans become mages by killing demons and ripping out their heart. However, before being allowed to go and hunt for a demon, all young adults must pass a test. If they fail, they must leave the village they live in. Two brothers do the test. One passes, and one fails. The one who fails the test (C1) gets cast out of the village, but manges to kill a demon. He then falls in love with the daughter of the chief of another village.

Meanwhile the brother (C2), who passed the test, managed to kill a demon as well, and now is sent on a mission to assassinate the chief of the village C1 now resides in (he married the daughter of the chief).

AAP by vulture

villain's memoir

On the eve of his/her execution, a villain sits down in his tower prison to write how he got where he is now. The story is his first person account of his rise to power, and how his good intentions went horribly wrong. We're talking betrayal, sacrifice, revenge, magic, lies and intrigue, assassins and kings, and so on.

AAP by jessymay

Depth Perception

MC is shallow, vain, everything-revolves-around-me, stereotypical beautiful/handsome Queen Cheerleader/King Jock (preferably a senior, otherwise they might be too young for this to work). Or so it seems. In fact MC runs their own website/blog/DeviantArt profile/whatever, and pours out their feelings to the Interwebs, with poetry or whatever else is expressive, and has for several years. Like, gets down into the deep nitty-gritty that everyone believes they're incapable of feeling or expressing. MC grows close with one of the commenters (who's been there from the first post), like really close... And agrees to meet the Commenter, however inadvisable this may be--albeit carrying their phone with 911 dialed just in case. Safety
first, you know--trust but verify.

When MC gets to the meeting place, instead of the coffee shop they expected to find, there's an empty lot. Stepping onto it, MC is transported to a Fantasy Land of your choosing--maybe completely made up, maybe alternate magical version of their city. In Fantasy Land, there waits the Commenter, aka the Love Interest, who is some sort of higher-up who has grown very attached to MC and wants them for a mate/consort/whatever. So MC has one week to decide whether they'd like to stay in Fantasy Land forever, where they can truly be themselves, or return to Earth with the deepest facets of the personality they've struggled to hide /removed/, so they can literally be as shallow as they seem.

AAP by Issa_October

Spell goes wrong: MMC and FMC switch bodies

Plot: Spell goes terribly wrong, and MMC finds himself being in FMC's body and the other way around. Body switch!

MMC was obsessed about FMC. FMC tried to leave him behind several times, until MMC tried to bind her body into his soul, so she could never leave him. Well, he kinda made it, and he always had her body. MMC got obsessed about finding a spell which will fix the little "problem". FMC helped for a while, but then she realized, that she loves her life in male body. She sabotaged MMC's work and left the MMC.

OR

MMC tried to create a spell, and get ONE woman to arrive to him. Instead of the woman, he got womanHOOD.

OR whatever you wish to make it!

AAP by Riffi

chosen one is just a baby, so dad saves the world

There is a little Chosen One who is special but doesn't know it. The world is just waiting for the little Chosen One to save it from the Unimaginable Evil that threatens it. Problem is, the Chosen One was just born and wee little baby isn't about to go saving the world. So his dad has to go on a mission to fight evil wizards/dragons/store clerks with a baby, (and possibly a very disgruntled wife on tow). Or if you have a fondness towards odd bodyguard stories, maybe random blacksmith who was formerly a soldier/knight/something realizes what the world expects of this wee little Chosen One and becomes his guardian on this mission of terror.

AAP by esama

the coffee shop across the street

Across from the coffee shop where I work, there is an empty lot. Mostly people just use it to practice driving and sleep off coke binges. The other day, however, a small army of fire trucks, cop cars and hazmat response vehicles were swarming the lot. While bantering back and forth during the day, my coworkers and I decided that it was definitely some strange crime scene, probably involving Moulder and Scully. (As it turned out it was some abandoned truck with a half dozen propane tanks in the back.)

Still, it got me thinking. We always get the crime stories as told by the cops, PIs or friends of the victims looking for vengeance. What about the gang at the coffee shop across the street? What did they see? Did that strange alien spore get tracked into their shop and give them all a case of the death? Were those propane tanks really off gassing strange new elements from mars which give them all superpowers? Maybe this is the lot that EVERYONE uses to dump bodies, maybe the same cops always show up and the same coroner's assistants always get sent for coffee.

AAP by witchling

nymph goes to the big city

A young nymph, sick of life in the forest, decides to head out to the big city in search of adventure, despite the advice and remonstrations of her faithful toad companion, Glick.

While she is out having the time of her life, her former forest home begins to die off due to the lack of her protective magic. Even more cause for worry is the fact that an ancient evil is sealed within one of the trees. She realizes too late the trouble she has caused by leaving and the great evil is unleashed upon the land once again.

In order to halt its progress, the nymph must find the fabled "Golden Water" and a seed from the original host tree. Once she has the two in hand, she will be able to reseal the evil and rid the world of it. However, doing so will ultimately seal her to the tree as well, stealing away any chance she may have had for a life of freedom.

AAP by Kaiyah

warrior mage wants quiet life of embroidery

We have ALL heard the story about the princess/baron's daughter/whatever who wants to be a warrior/mage/free woman/whatever. My suggestion: turn it around. Make the girl be a warrior mage who really wants a quiet life of embroidery. Maybe she switches with a normal girl and mayhem ensues. Take it where ye may.

AAP by MirkwoodElf

tug-of-war over the weather

A boy and girl in the same town are each born with weather-controlling powers. Their families don't notice at first...but sooner or later they get into a tug-of-war over the weather, and it goes from rainy to sunny to thunderstorming to sunny to hailing in a suspiciously short span of time...

AAP by Raksab

Shape shifters in undercover assignments

Shape shifters are a government/organization created individuals who now work in all sorts of undercover assignments. Assassinations, protection jobs, infiltration, what ever. While doing this, they're not supposed to get attached to forms and personalities they conjure up for their assignment, because if they do get too comfortable, they might get stuck with the forms - and then they are no use to the whatever organization they work for.

Whether this idea becomes a raging love story between two shape shifters who aren't allowed to "get to know each other", or story of a shape shifter growing attachment to whom they become on assignment, or how they grow a fond of a kid of a rich crime boss who hired them to protect them, or if they run away and become a freelancer whilst the organisation tries to hunt them down, or lose their memories on assignment and after reading a comic book think they're a superhero/super villain... you choose.

AAP by esama

trapped in a story

MC: You
Setting: World of your creation

Plot: You are dropped into one of your stories. You've already written it, so you know what happens (even if you haven't, but pretend like you know what'll happen). You know that [name] will die, or be maimed, etc, and all the other fantastic things. You meet your MCs in real, actual flesh and become a part of their troop/traveling party/etc, trying to warn them as bad things are about to happen or as [name] will be betray them to [villain] etc.

Optional Twist: You /are/ your MC, and must now try to rewrite the story from within, because you don't want to die/be maimed/etc and you know what will happen.

AAP by Issa_October

strange new blood-type (dragon plot)

The year is 1992, when in the small country, (insert country), children are born with an unknown blood-type. They call it 8 or infinitas. Every child has been given an unique code and their blood is taken for further research. Eighteen years later, those same children all disappear without a trace, and the world is being terrorized by dragons. When one of the dragons is killed, scientists study it and find the same blood-type, infinitas. Not only that, but the blood sample matches one of the missing children's sample. In further research they come to the conclusion that the blood and DNA is 100% the same.

AAP by heartless

hero and villain are twins separated at birth

C1 and C2 are twins are separated at birth. They can be m/m, f/f, or m/f. C1 is brought up by one parent, and he(she) grows up not knowing of his twin. C1 becomes the leader of a band of heroes, who decide to look into the disappearance of a child from their village.

C2 is taken by the other parent, a sword for hire who sells his(her) soul to the highest bidder. C2 becomes the leader of the antagonists, and follows their rise to power, becoming the villain of the story.

The missing child was kidnapped by C2's minions, to work as slave in the lair, and C1's band of heroes have to save the kid.

What happens when the C1 and C2 meet? What do you do when you meet your twin who is the opposite of you, but knows how you will react to any situation? Do they even know they're twins? How do they react, with hugs or a battle to the death?

Let me know if you use it, so I can follow with interest!

AAP by treaders12000

Second Chance (MC lives his life all over again)

MC has lived a poor life, didn't take school seriously, drank, lost the love interest of their life and generally messed everything up. Due to random plot device, they suddenly find themselves as a child again when everything is still possible and nothing's yet ruined. Whether they use this chance to make themselves a better person or use their knowledge about the future to take over the world is your choice.

AAP by esama

villain falls for hero's love interest

An inexperienced villain-for-hire [can be human, elven, dragon, whatever] gets what he thinks to be the break of a lifetime when he accepts a position as antagonist for a roving band of adventurers searching for immortality. He gets more than he bargained for though when he falls in love with a young lady on the road and discovers to his chagrin that she is, in fact the love interest for his employer-- the hero of the adventurers!

If he decides to turn over a new leaf and try to win over the damsel, there is a very good possibility that his beloved minions forced into early retirement as well. How would they pay for their little imp's college fund? How would Hazel get her much-needed wart placement surgery?

The only option (so he thinks) is to be the best damned villain he can be, and hope that his beloved damsel can somehow find a way to love him for who he is.

Okay, that's all I got. Hope it can help in some way. I'd love to know if anyone uses these ideas. =)

AAP by Kaiyah

human kills monster who's in love with her

Monster falls in love with human. Human kills monster. The villagers rejoice. The end.

You can make it a tragedy, or a drama, or I'm thinking a parody...(*coughvampirescough*) Whatever you want.

AAP by Raksab

the last refuge from man-eating monsters

The City of [name] is different from its contemporaries in a few ways: it is bigger than any other city, and it houses every living thing currently in existence. Drow (Dark Elves), Dragons, Orcs, Humans, Dwarves, Fairies, Man-Eating Plants...whatever. It has them all. It is virtually self-sustaining, and is surrounded by a massive wall that is like the Great Wall of China on steroids. But why is it like that? The answer lies in what is outside the walls... The Locust.

The Locust are bug-like monsters that eat everything, except other Locust. They've consumed everything except that which lives in the walled City. And now, the Grand Army of the City is all that stands between the people of City and the monsters outside. But are there really monsters outside, or is it just propaganda fostered by the Grand Army to maintain a "Siege Mentality" to ensure the continued support of the massive population? Are they really keeping people from the walls for their own safety, or is it an elaborate hoax to maintain control? One brave MC is about to find out...

Alter as you see fit, but please give me credit for the idea; nothing fancy, even a simple "thank-you" would do.

P.S. Information on Siege Mentality (Or Perpetual Warfare, if you want to include aspects of that) can be found here:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Siege_mentality
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Perpetual_war

AAP by Lord Fhalkyn

Worth (dystopian plot)

All I've got to go on is one sentence: What is the price of life?

I'm imaging a futuristic society (dystopian, obviously) where murder is legal, so long as it's done by a paid assassin and only with magic...

Let me know if you take it, I'd love to read what you can do with this!

AAP by Issa_October

The Girl From the Hartz Mountains

This is based on a song:

The story of a young girl who lived in the Hartz Mountains. She had given up her life to save her lover's soul. When he died, his spirit met hers in the air. Then, in the last verse, he jilted her spirit, and went on with another spirit.

I'm not quite sure of the details, but it was a very sad song. (I'm not even sure if it's a real song, or a song from a story.)

AAP by [unknown]

a gift-curse

Here's a plot-inducer, more than anything.

You character has been cursed (somehow), but that curse doubles as a gift.

For example, if they can see into the future, then for every time they use their Sight, they forget a memory of the past.

Or if your character can heal rapidly, then they start to lose feeling in the injured area. Eventually, they can't feel any part of their body. This would be really sad in a novel with romance. Sex just wouldn't be fun.

Or possibly, your character is gifted with fire-manipulation, and then maybe any kind of cold will have them unconscious (for how long depends on how cold it is, and how long they're exposed to it).

Whatever plot you throw your character in should put them in a situation where they have to use their gift alot, and get to the point where they must decide whether its worth having their gift if all they end up doing is losing a part of themselves.

AAP by jemcat

when making a wish, be very specific

FMC is 6 years old, and all she wants to do is read. Unfortunately, that's the one thing she can't do. Her eyesight may be the worst the world has seen. Her glasses will somewhat help her see far away, but nothing has been found to help her read. Her older sister reads out loud to her as often as she can.

So when she accidentally releases a genie, she wishes that she had the best sight ever. As all genies do, he doesn't do exactly what she had in mind. Now she has x-ray and infrared vision, can see even the smallest details, even in the dark (think fine print on the other side of a room), and sees colors that no one knew existed. Without a second thought, she tells her kindergarden class about what happened the following morning.

AAP by -Katlyn-

People without reflections

MC1 is heading somewhere when she runs into MC2, literally. MC2 looks at MC1 and then freaks out about bumping into her but runs away before she can catch him. A few minutes later, MC1 is walking across a crosswalk and a car speeds right in front of her.

Later that day, MC1 is for some reason in front of a mirror and she has no reflection. Naturally she panics. A few days later she has become a major paranoid person, avoiding mirror at all cost. Then she meets MC2 and realizes somehow that he doesn't have a reflection either. She confronts him about it and he explains that on the other side of the mirror is an alternate universe that does the exact same thing as ours all the time. For some reason though, one person once did something different and their counterpart across the mirror died. After that, they had no reflection. When they interacted and stopped a person from dying when they were supposed to, that person ended up like them. It continued a lot, and everything was figured out so they would continue to save people's lives and they would join the ranks of the reflectionless people. Eventually, there was a fight about whether they should keep turning more people like them or not, and the group split into two. Now the one group continued to try to turn people into their situation and the other tries to prevent that.

AAP by Moisoha

The two year marriage

Have you heard about the proposal about two year marriages? Mexico City has put it forward and other cities around the world have been taking notice so here's my concept: it's a world where the concept of marriage is much changed and the rate of "divorce" is almost nonexistent (at least in name only). People get married on contracts (a year and a day at first because that's very old world) with the option of renewing it every year afterwards with no real penalty or stigma of not renewing it.

The story in my head would take place around two couples during their first year of marriage: one couple would have entered marriage thinking that it's a joke and end up really falling in love, renewing their commitment every year, while the other who were very much in love at the beginning realize that they're not suited to each other after all.

AAP by Anjirika

The worthy

One day an Event occurs (original idea was that a Mythological Creature went on a rampage) and all the 'bad' people in the world are dead, or just plain disappeared. Only the children below a certain age, and those deemed 'worthy' are left alive on the planet. How long will it last though? Will corruption and bigotry come back quickly in a world re building? What is the definition of 'worthy' in your story anyway?

AAP by Viianny

The kidnapping ring

A kidnapping ring makes one ransom demand that contains all the information needed to pay the ransom. The demand has always been delivered in a manner that is pretty much untraceable, including such low-tech methods like taping a note to the door. The demand always says that there will be no negotiations. If it's paid, the victim will be released, if no payment is made by the deadline, they will never see their loved one again. And so far it's always been that way. Whenever a ransom was paid, the victim always woke up alone, unhurt and having nothing of value to tell the police about the kidnappers. When the ransom wasn't paid, that was it. No further contact, nothing. Not even a dead body being found months later. The kidnapped person just disappeared. It's the perfect crime.

AAP by Ray55

wolf turned into human by curse

The MC was born a wolf with their pack, however, when MC was young, they were turned human by a curse; retained some wolf like features, but not enough to think that they were originally a wolf. They fall in love with the human world over time, and don't think of themselves as being a wolf. However, when puberty hits, the curse starts to weaken, and they revert when (insert emotion here) shows up in them. MC realizes that they were born a wolf, and has werewolf features as well, but the wolves hate humans and just want to kill as many of them as possible. As the curse continues to weaken, MC has to fight between their heritage as a wolf and their love for the human race in general.

AAP by bravrayj

reincarnation gone wrong?

(Note that the genders here are all extremely fluid; you could have a heterosexual or homosexual couple, or the roles could be reversed.)

A young woman remembers her past life, especially the man she loved. After saving up (or receiving) enough money, she plans to travel around the world in order to find the reincarnation of her lover. She finds a man that claims to be him, and they quickly fall in love and get married. However, the more time she spends around her new husband, the more she notices that he's not exactly as she remembers. She passes this off to both having led very different lives this time around. As time passes, though, the feeling that something isn't quite right about the whole situation grows larger and larger. Eventually, when she asks him, her husband admits to not being the man he claimed to be. What happens?

-I always liked (being a fantasy writer) the idea that the soul of her former lover split somehow upon reincarnation, and even though her husband may not entirely be the reincarnation of her former lover, he still has a piece of the split soul, and that's why they were attracted to each other and managed to marry before she noticed anything was wrong. From there, there's tons of possibilities. Do they get the rest of the soul back? What if all the pieces are in a bunch of different guys? What if she has pieces of her husband's soul inside her?

AAP by Tsukasa

The bloodthirsty aliens from Earth

Aliens invade the planet. Aliens who look a lot like us, but who are much more violent and bloodthirsty, and who are willing to kill anyone and everyone who stands in their way of taking over. The story could follow any number of characters - soldiers defending their planet, rebels who take matters into their own hands, or a band of innocents just trying to survive. In the end, it's revealed that the "aliens" are actually humans from Earth, on a voyage to conquer alien planets.

AAp by imaginepageant

Hero School, Villain School

A parody of the superhero story. In this world there are quite a few people born with powers, and there are schools to accomodate these people. Villains go to villain school, heroes to hero school, and sidekicks to sidekick school, where they learn all of the techniques they need to do their job.

The only problem is, the schools teach ridiculously over-cliche and dramatic techniques that always seem to result in the same epic battle with the villain making the same mistakes and losing. The way I imagined it, the MC1's parents forced her to go to hero school even though she didn't want anything to do with the whole hero business because they're such quacks. MC2 wanted to be a hero more than anything but only got into sidekick school, due to his powers being less than spectacular. Both are upset, and wind up being assigned to one another as part of a school program to create teams early.

MC3, the villain, is an actual genius and realizes what idiots the villains are for always making the same mistakes. Properly equipped with the Evil Overlord list, he starts to break all of the established rules and cause real trouble. The heroes, faced with a real threat from a cunning adversary, start to panic. MC1 and MC2, as two of the only halfway normal people on the hero side, are the only ones who might be able to stop him.

AAP by Bishu

The animal spirits are angry

Some people said the animal spirits live within their people. They are there to guide a person in life and occasionally protect them. Some people say the animals don't exist, that they are just stories from a past that need to be let go.

When dark magic attacks, both sides of the argument are going to learn a painful truth. The Animal Spirits are real, and they are very angry.

AAP by guardian-hope

gods become human, try to break curse

The Greek gods, due to some sort of divine accident, are stuck as mortals and are reborn anew each time they die. The way I imagined it was from Athena's perspective (she's my favorite...but you could pick another if you like) in modern day high school as she grows up in her newest life.

She's had her memories back for a while and knows who she is, but is only just starting to find her divine family scattered across the modern world. I thought they'd probably be trying to find a way to break the cycle of mortal reincarnation and get back to their god states, something they'd been trying and failing to do for centuries, but do with it what you will.

AAP by Bishu

nothing left to live for

An organization recruits people who've lost everything through some sort of personal disaster (car accident, disease, murder, etc.) to train them as elite fighters. Throughout the book, I imagined the organization seeming very kind and benevolent, but in the end the MC discovers they're the ones staging the catastrophes in order to recruit individuals they feel are especially promising.

Pretty bare bones, but could make for a good thriller.

AAP by lydiasarah

Trapped in Death's realm

Narian has been raised her entire life by a mentor, Tim. Suddenly, something happens, casting her into a different world where Tim can't get to her. Trapped in this dark and strange world of endless night, the one the mysterious woman called Death's realm, Narian must try to find the answers to the reasons she is here, escape the forces trying to kill her, and find her way back to her own world....

AAP by lkgarith