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8/11/2020

Blank Pages Virtual Salon August 15, 2020 - Plot Clichés

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Let’s have fun with Clichés!
Here are a few classic plot clichés. Pick one and write a 100(ish) word story (or poem, or script, or dialogue, or infographic) to break the cliché mold.
Submit your piece here (Leave a Reply) by 5PM on Saturday August 15th.
Read your fellow writers’ work and comment.
Feel free to tweak gender or plot or use another cliché or just make up your own thing.
Mystery:
John Smith is sitting in the park, feeding the squirrels, when a beautiful girl runs up, kisses him, and whispers, “Pretend you know me.”
Science Fiction:
It is the year 3030 and the Time Tourists are receiving their final instructions in the lounge of Time Travel Incorporated: “Remember,” says the guide, “do not try to bring back any souvenirs with you.”
Young Adult:
Johnnie Smith is thirteen-years-old today and he’s been hinting for weeks that what he wants for his birthday is a brand-new bicycle, but nobody even says “Happy Birthday” to him and he is sure that everybody has forgotten his birthday.
Romance:
Jane, the quiet, mousy, intelligent graphic designer mentions to her vivacious, buxom coworker that she’s interested in the new guy. The coworker says, “He looks like my kind of guy.”
Romance Part 2:
Two people meet. They dislike each other. They are thrust into a situation where they have to cooperate and subsequently fall madly in love, only to have a setback, which they overcome and fall even more madly in love.

18 Comments

moon bukas

8/12/2020 08:21:08 am

I'm sitting in the park I'm feeding the squirrels
I am John I am the girl
I kiss my cheek pretend you know me
I know me
I don't know she my grandma is twisting in the dirt
pushing daisies pushing trauma centuries
I'm standing on a bench swarming w squirrels
eating my cheeks
feeding the girl
we left the shore
girl you're made of beliefs
girl, I can't pretend you
twisting in the dirt skirts bloodlines down my leg
what he did what he spoke words in the dirt with my grandmas
dry stale knuckle sandwiches
white supreme insurance package in the balloon front Lee jeans
squirrel swallow the pain birthing in my face shape
his shirt buttons burst into daisies
I'm covered in silicone somewhere in the future, sleek
not pretending anything.

Mike Cooper

8/16/2020 01:30:50 pm

Yup. That broke the cliche mold.

Randy W

8/14/2020 12:11:50 pm

Mystery:
John Smith is sitting in the park, feeding the squirrels, when a beautiful girl runs up, kisses him, and whispers, “Pretend you know me.”

He looks her over. “Fine.” He starts kissing her. Kissing her as if it were the last time.
She breaks loose of the embrace and smacks him across the face.

“Ouch.”

“When I slap you, you'll take it and like it.”

“So, we’re into kink now. I hardly know you.”

“You know how you sound? Like a man who’s trying to convince himself of something he doesn’t believe in his heart.”

“You always have such a smooth explanation.”

“What do you want me to do, learn to stutter?”

“You despise me, don’t you?”

“If I gave you any thought, I probably would.”

“I hope they don't hang you, precious, by that sweet neck. Yes, angel, I'm going to send you over. The chances are you'll get off with life. That means if you're a good girl, you'll be out in twenty years. I'll be waiting for you. If they hang you, I'll always remember you.”

8/16/2020 01:32:06 pm

Sam Spade in a "meet cute."

8/15/2020 07:50:35 am

The Last Trip
“FASTEN YOUR SEATBELTS. WE’LL BE RETURNING TO THE YEAR 3030 SHORTLY.”
“That was amazing! Did you see that giant dinosaur? Bronto-something?”
“Yeah, that was cool.”
“It was a little weird getting frisked on the way back into the pod. I’m glad I wore clean underwear, even though they didn’t check inside.”
“Yeah, a friend told me they never do.”
“I guess it makes sense to check us, they don’t want us altering the time-space continuum and whatnot.”
“That’s bullshit. Hey, check this out: it’s called a butterfly. They used to have millions of them. They’d migrate over continents. I like the pattern on the wings. See there? Hey…where’d you go?”

TOM FILCICH

8/15/2020 12:00:35 pm

I WAS SITTING, OR RATHER JOHN SMITH WAS SITTING ON A PARK BENCH, FEEDING BIRDS OF A
COLOR.
A DREAM=FASHIONED WOMAN COMES BY and gives me, or .RATHER, JOHN A KISS, CLOSED-MOUTHED
WHILE AT THE SAME TIME, SITS ON HIS LAP , FACING HIM
AND WITH THE TWO-LEGS SPREAD.
"I'VE ALWAYS WANTED TO DO THIS, IN PUBLIC"SHE SAYS, AFTER THE KISS.
JOHN SAYS "OH"
SHE SAYS "LETS SEE, WHATS NEXT" *STILL ON HIS LAP.
"HUH ? SAYS JOHN (THE DOPE)
"HEY YOU CAN SPEAK...... BRAVO "
"YES, IF YOU WILL PERMIT ME " JOHN SAYS AS HIS NOSE ENTERS THE CLEAVAGE-ZONE.
SHE SAYS >>>"JERK" AND FLEES FROM JOHN IN A PURELY SHAKESPEARIAN FASHION.

....TOM SMITH / RATHER, FILCICH

8/16/2020 01:37:57 pm

Next chance I get, I'm going to flee in a purely Shakespearean fashion.

Marcia Eldredge

8/15/2020 01:56:31 pm

If Johnnie’s 13th birthday was anything like his last birthday or the one before that there would be no presents, no cake, not even a “Happy Birthday.” His birthday came in the hottest, driest part of the summer when the ground was so hard and parched that the dust didn’t stick around. As he walked toward the two-shelved library, crafted from a metal cabinet set atop a weathered fencepost, a pickup with a fat, sad dog chained to something inside the back passed, leaving grit to settle in Johnnie’s hair, on his teeth. He opened the library door, hoping for another graphic novel. Between some newly added books, there was an envelope. He slid it out. In red ball point pen was his name.

8/16/2020 01:34:03 pm

"You're a wizard, Johnnie."

Irene Cooper

8/15/2020 03:10:28 pm

“I hate to interrupt, you appear deep in thought…”

“And yet you can’t help yourself.”

“It’s just that, I seem to be a bit lost.”

“Do I look like a GPS?”

“OK, you’re right, that was a line. I’m really very attracted to you, though. I think it’s love.”

“It’s not love, it’s biology. But fetch me a grasshopper and we can experiment with chemistry.”

“Now who’s wooing whom?”

She made a sound like a laugh and leaned in for a nibble, then bit off his whole head. He carried on, headless, as she chewed. “Hmm,” said the Mantis, “it is love.”

8/16/2020 01:37:20 pm

Grasshopper. Good one.

Cat

8/15/2020 04:04:49 pm

“Pretend you know me,” she laughed. “Follow me.”

They walked along a damp single-track trail that led to an old wooden house with a long odd-shaped yard, and behind, a wooden structure that looked like an observatory on it’s side. It faced the creek. The water was huge, looked like a circular boiling tsunami, and above, a blinding field of stars.

There was a “for-sale” sign, hand painted, and a wood podium similar to what a hostess would use to seat people for dinner, and a stack of soft cardboard booklets that looked like menus.

He returned the next evening. She led him outside and showed him where to stand with his bike (although he hadn’t remembered having a bike) to see the show. He asked her if the place was for sale knowing that she might not like that question, might perceive it as an invasion of privacy, and she looked at him in a slightly odd way and said “sometimes.” He could no longer see the sign. She said that she would take him back to where the creek and the observatory were later.

8/16/2020 01:35:47 pm

Nice. I sometimes forget I have a bike.

8/15/2020 04:45:20 pm

WITH HUST MINUTES TO GO, SUPER CONFIDENT
JOHN SMITH RUSHES INTO THE OFFICE AND FINDS
JANE AND ASKS HER
:JUST WHO DECIDED YOU WERE <MOUSEY>
AND IN 2020, WE DON'T IDENTIFY A WOMAN BY HER
BUXOM-ITY.
THE PERSON WHO IS IN NEED OF "MANNERS" TO BEGIN WITH HAS LEARNING TO DO. THIS IS WOMENS===LIBERATION TIME. Men, get out of the way
Tom FILCICH.......

-

8/16/2020 01:36:42 pm

I love the urgency: just minutes to go...

Ellen Santasiero

8/16/2020 08:38:56 pm

John Smith is sitting in the park, feeding the squirrels, when a beautiful girl runs up, kisses him, and whispers, “Pretend you know me.”

“OK,” says John, taking her hand.

“Let’s move to another bench,” says the girl. They get up, still holding hands, and sit on a nearby bench. Just as they begin to feed the squirrels, a beautiful couple runs up, kisses them, and whispers, “Pretend you know us.”

OK, say John and the beautiful girl, taking their hands.

“Let’s move to a bigger bench,” says the beautiful couple, “so we can all fit.” The two couples get up, still holding hands, and sit on a bigger bench. Just as they begin to feed the squirrels, a foursome made up of two sort of beautiful, and two not so beautiful people runs up, kisses them, and whispers “Pretend you know us.”

OK, say John, the beautiful girl, and the beautiful couple, taking their hands.

“Let’s move to a grassy area” says the foursome, “so we can all fit.” The four couples get up, still holding hands, and sit in a grassy area. Just as they begin to feed the squirrels …

8/16/2020 09:23:44 pm

A beautiful scenario, but are there enough squirrels?

8/17/2020 09:08:29 am

.......AND FROM THE HEAVENS ABOVE CAME A
LOUD, .BOOMING.. VOICE...
"YOU ARE ALL BEAUTIFUL........., NOT JUST SOME OF YOU....."GET WITH IT......."

Blank Pages Virtual Salon August 15, 2020 - Plot Clichés

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