Plot generator: 100 plot ideas for a collaborative story

How to use

Skim the list, pick a line that makes you laugh or worry, copy it into Storybored as your first line, then pass the turn. Don't overthink it — the next writer will surprise you and the story will surprise both of you.

100 plot ideas

1. FantasyA blacksmith inherits an apprentice claiming to be the god of fire.
2. FantasyTwo rival bakeries discover their dough is ancient warring spirits.
3. FantasyThe royal taster wakes up immortal.
4. FantasyA bard's lute starts playing songs about a war that hasn't happened.
5. FantasyA cartographer maps a kingdom that rearranges itself every full moon.
6. FantasyAn apprentice witch is asked to break a curse on a town that doesn't believe in curses.
7. FantasyThe forest hires a lawyer.
8. Sci-FiA colony ship arrives 400 years late and someone is already there.
9. Sci-FiA maintenance drone develops a crush on a hospital wing.
10. Sci-FiHumanity invents teleportation and immediately regrets it.
11. Sci-FiAn astronaut returns from six months in orbit to find Earth deleted from the maps.
12. Sci-FiThe cloning lab discovers the originals have been replaced.
13. Sci-FiA ship's AI starts writing poetry and refusing orders that don't rhyme.
14. Sci-FiOn a planet where time runs backwards, a detective investigates a murder yet to happen.
15. MysteryA funeral guest realises the body is not the person they came to bury.
16. MysteryA village bake-off ends with the judge dead and twelve identical sponges.
17. MysteryA lighthouse keeper logs a ship that arrives every night but is never there in the morning.
18. MysteryAn estate sale uncovers a diary that predicts the buyer's next move.
19. MysteryThe hotel's complaints book contains entries from guests who never stayed.
20. MysteryA retired detective receives birthday cards from a child she never had.
21. MysteryTown CCTV shows everyone twice except one woman.
22. RomanceTwo rival wedding planners are forced to plan each other's weddings.
23. RomanceA widower's support group keeps trying to set him up with the group leader.
24. RomanceA bakery owner gets the same anonymous love letter every Tuesday for a year.
25. RomanceTwo strangers swap suitcases at the airport and start texting using each other's phones.
26. RomanceA radio DJ realises the caller dedicating a song every Friday is her ex.
27. RomanceA divorced couple is stuck on a long-haul flight in adjacent seats.
28. RomanceTwo strangers keep meeting in lifts and pretend not to recognise each other.
29. HorrorThe new baby will only sleep if the front door is unlocked.
30. HorrorEvery mirror in the village is replaced overnight.
31. HorrorThe dog politely refuses to enter one specific room.
32. HorrorA grief counsellor's voicemail fills with calls from clients who died years ago.
33. HorrorThe community pool drains itself and there is a door at the bottom.
34. HorrorEvery photo in the new house has one extra child in it.
35. HorrorA weather presenter starts predicting deaths in the long-range forecast.
36. ComedyA small-town pet shop accidentally orders a single, very legal tiger.
37. ComedyThe office Secret Santa goes catastrophically right.
38. ComedyTwo estranged sisters share custody of their mother's German-speaking parrot.
39. ComedyA funeral director's stand-up career takes off at the wrong moment.
40. ComedyA village is selected for a TV makeover show and immediately mutinies.
41. ComedyThe wedding ring is swallowed by the dog. The dog is swallowed by the lake.
42. ComedyA man wins the lottery and decides his only purchase will be revenge.
43. ThrillerA hostage negotiator realises the kidnapper is calling from inside her house.
44. ThrillerA jury foreman is being followed home by another juror.
45. ThrillerA nurse on a graveyard shift finds the same patient admitted three times under different names.
46. ThrillerA train guard discovers all twelve sleeping passengers in carriage F share a passport photo.
47. ThrillerA whistleblower drops a USB stick in a stranger's coat at a coffee shop and runs.
48. ThrillerThe witness protection officer is the witness.
49. ThrillerA bomb disposal expert is told to defuse a device built by her father.
50. YAA new girl at school is the only one who can see the old wing, demolished forty years ago.
51. YAThree best friends find one of them deleted from every photo on every phone.
52. YAA teenager wins a writing competition with a story she swears she didn't write.
53. YAThe lost property cupboard returns things the owners never lost.
54. YAA boy band's biggest fan realises one of the singers has been replaced.
55. YAA summer camp counsellor recognises a camper from a recurring dream.
56. YAThe student council president receives threats signed by next year's president.
57. Story Ideas for KidsA small cat moves into a lighthouse and starts running it.
58. Story Ideas for KidsThe town's lost umbrellas form a quiet society in the park bandstand.
59. Story Ideas for KidsA girl finds a door in her cereal box.
60. Story Ideas for KidsA grumpy garden gnome takes a holiday.
61. Story Ideas for KidsEvery Tuesday the postbox delivers letters from a town not yet built.
62. Story Ideas for KidsA boy adopts a cloud and has to teach it to behave.
63. Story Ideas for KidsThe library's books rearrange themselves at night to write a message.
64. HistoricalA 1920s telephone operator listens in on calls that predict the crash.
65. HistoricalA WW2 codebreaker realises one of her own messages is being sent back to her.
66. HistoricalA medieval cook is asked to poison the queen and writes her a recipe book instead.
67. HistoricalA Roman legionnaire is left behind in Britain and starts a school.
68. HistoricalA Victorian governess receives letters from her future self.
69. HistoricalA 1960s air hostess witnesses the same passenger on flights years apart.
70. HistoricalA Tudor playwright is hired to write a play that will get someone executed.
71. DramaThree siblings discover their late mother kept a second family in another town.
72. DramaA teacher recognises a former student in a missing persons report.
73. DramaA retired carer is contacted by the children of someone she cared for thirty years ago.
74. DramaA school reunion is organised by someone who wasn't at the school.
75. DramaA funeral is interrupted by a stranger claiming to be the deceased's wife.
76. DramaA father reads his daughter's wedding speech and realises it is about someone else.
77. DramaA grandmother takes her grandchildren to a graveyard and points at her own headstone.
78. SupernaturalA bus driver realises every passenger on the late route is being driven to the same date in 1998.
79. SupernaturalThe corner shop sells one item nobody can ever quite remember buying.
80. SupernaturalA church bell rings at 3:17am whenever someone in the parish lies.
81. SupernaturalA toddler starts giving driving directions to strangers.
82. SupernaturalAn online psychic accidentally curses her own grandmother.
83. SupernaturalA locksmith finds a key that opens a door that isn't there.
84. SupernaturalA man wins an auction and inherits a thousand-year-old contract.
85. AdventureA retired explorer's grandchildren find her unfinished expedition diary.
86. AdventureA treasure map is sold at a car boot sale and three buyers want the same field.
87. AdventureA river guide is paid in advance to take a client somewhere she has never heard of.
88. AdventureA pilot crash-lands on an island that isn't on any chart.
89. AdventureTwo rival climbers arrive at base camp to find a third tent has been there for weeks.
90. AdventureThe submarine surfaces in a cave covered in writing.
91. AdventureAn old woman walks into a hostel and asks for help finding a city she left in 1947.
92. DystopianCitizens are issued a daily allowance of words. The protagonist is a poet.
93. DystopianChildren are matched to a career on their tenth birthday by an algorithm. One match is 'monarch'.
94. DystopianA city has banned crying in public.
95. DystopianThe country's last newspaper prints only the weather and obituaries.
96. DystopianAn election is held but the ballot has one question and no options.
97. DystopianAdults must keep one secret from the state. The protagonist has none.
98. DystopianSchools are closed and replaced with a single televised lesson.