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They went shopping instead of going to therapy.

{B}, compelled by her father to take a step which she believes will be fatal to her happiness, escapes the catastrophe by a stratagem.

The Week’s Prompt: {B}, compelled by her father to take a step which she believes will be fatal to her happiness, escapes the catastrophe by a stratagem

Last Week’s Prompt: {A}, unable to explain events of a seemingly supernatural nature, has a feeling that a ghostly visitor is at work.

Master Plotto Week Two Winner: Ilana Masad

Calling all undergrad and graduate writers (no matter your major) —we want you!

Master Plotto Week One Winner: Christina Li

Calling all undergrad and graduate writers, scribblers, fabricators, deep-thinkers, and plot-obsessives—we want you!

Last week, we asked the ten Plotto Challenge winners to construct an original Master Plot using their hard-won copy of Plotto: The Master Book of All Plots. To refresh, a Master Plot consists of three clauses, an “A” Clause, a “B” Clause and “C” Clause. Those three clauses carry the plot technically from its introduction, through ascending [...]

I am a slave for “based on your interest in …” derived algorithms. This is how I discovered Jon Fosse. Based on your interest in Thomas Bernhard and so on. I compulsively add movies to the Netflix instant queue, the vast majority of which I will never watch, much to the half-smiling chagrin of my wife. [...]

When you have worked so hard to get a voice you know the value of each word.

“FIRST AID TO TROUBLED WRITERS,” the Boston Globe announced in September 1928—“GRINDS OUT PLOTS WITHOUT ANY FALSE START.” Calling all writers who are obsessed with plot and obsessives who can write a mean story. We want you! THE RULES: Every Wednesday we will post a prompt from William Wallace Cook’s classic how to manual Plotto: The [...]

A record number of entries last week, with over 20 states and seven countries represented. And while we wholeheartedly thank South Korea for their first ever entry, the top prize this week goes to Bratislava born Andrew Stancek, whose tale of starvation reminded us of The Byrds‘ You Don’t Miss Your Water, and should not [...]

“FIRST AID TO TROUBLED WRITERS,” the Boston Globe announced in September 1928—“GRINDS OUT PLOTS WITHOUT ANY FALSE START.” Calling all writers who are obsessed with plot and obsessives who can write a mean story. We want you! THE RULES: Every Wednesday we will post a prompt from William Wallace Cook’s classic how to manual Plotto: The [...]

The problem with contorting is this: you change your shape enough, you start to act like you haven’t got one at all. By which I mean, you start to use change as a way to stop feeling like yourself. There’s no original shape, no default shape, no honest shape to which to come home to.

A seeks to throw open his home to friends and strangers alike, and be generously hospitable, but certain unpleasant conditions make it difficult.

“What does the housewife think when she finds her husband in the hall? Why does he look so wide-eyed? So nervous?”

A, husband of B, a very beautiful woman, persuades B to pretend that she is his sister.

This week’s Plotto prompt was: “B, unless she reveals a personal delinquency, will cause an innocent man, A, to suffer for transgression.” We enjoyed reading about characters refusing to disclose personal delinquencies ranging from a nail biting procrastinator, a late-night snacker with a wandering eye, and housewife with a criminal past, and an undercover alien with [...]

B, unless she reveals a personal delinquency, will cause an innocent man, A, to suffer for transgression

This week’s Plotto prompt was: “A, annoyed by a certain object, X, destroys it, but mysteriously it reappears; again and again A destroys X, but it always reappears.” We enjoyed reading about the stubborn indestructibility of white hairs, persistent ex-lovers, cellphones, and zombie coworkers. Congratulations go out to Ethel Rohan, a three-time Plotto contest contender, whose [...]

“FIRST AID TO TROUBLED WRITERS,” the Boston Globe announced in September 1928—“GRINDS OUT PLOTS WITHOUT ANY FALSE START.” Calling all writers who are obsessed with plot and obsessives who can write a mean story. We want you! THE RULES: Every Wednesday we will post a prompt from William Wallace Cook’s classic how to manual Plotto: The Mater Book [...]