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“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 [...]

Misplaced messages abound this week as Plottoists took on yet another plot from William Wallace Cook. With tales of cursed fortune cookies, international assassins, and cats falling from the sky, we were impressed with the various ways one could lose a note. Extra bonus respect for no one blaming a dog. Congratulations go out to [...]

A receives half of an important message, X, and is looking for a stranger who has the other half.

Remember the mantra: math, murder, profit.

“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 [...]

Twenty-Eight-Inch Hedge

“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! Again! THE RULES: Every Wednesday we will post a prompt from William Wallace Cook’s classic how to manual Plotto: The [...]

Congratulations go to Richard Osgood, whose story “Millennium House” not only incorporated the three clauses in a unique and “Calvinoesque” way, but also managed to finally bridge the gap between free will and fire codes.

The winner of THE FINAL MASTER PLOT CHALLENGE will be announced Wednesday, March 28th

{B} receives, in a mysterious manner, a photograph, not of herself but of someone greatly resembling her.

{B} receives, in a mysterious manner, a photograph, not of herself but of someone greatly resembling her.

It was another tough Plotto bout this week, with lots of good hooks, slips, jabs, uppercuts, knockdowns, and knockouts. Congratulations to Henry Leung, whose story reminded us of Sly, and Portland native Katherine Dunn’s collection, ONE RING CIRCUS: Dispatches from the World of Boxing. Be sure to check back later today for this week’s prompt. [...]

Calling all writers who are obsessed with plot and obsessives who can write a mean story. We want you!

“The crowd gasped as the Matador vomited kerosene onto the candle, lost his balance and fell into the explosion he’d created.”

n case you missed it, Paul Collins was on Weekend All Things Considered this weekend, talking about Plotto: The Master Book of All Plots.

{A’s} profession is a hazardous one—aviator, automobile racing driver, steeple jack, “human fly”—and {B} considers this fact an obstacle to their marriage.

“A Romanian woman in Room 119, whose bed I pushed against the door, said I reminded her of Ted Danson, which she followed with an emphatic “Norm!” I told her Norm wasn’t played by Ted Danson, to which she puttered her lips, rolled over and went back to sleep.”

Calling all writers who are obsessed with plot and obsessives who can write a mean story. We want you!

There was a box under the awning. A sort of take-a-penny-leave-a-penny arrangement. In it was a modest pair of black orthopedics. They’d belonged to a clergyman. I took them. Fr. James O’Connor was stitched into the right instep.

Calling all writers who are obsessed with plot and obsessives who can write a mean story. We want you!

Plotto, an invention which reduces literature to an exact science.

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