Okay, so I’m a plantser, with an emphasis on the pants. (And if that’s mumbo jumbo to you, it means that I by-and-large dive into my books with only a vague plan. :D) So as the start of November looms, I was intrigued when Reedsy sent me an email about their plot generator! This is a lot more thought-out than other story/character generators I’ve seen; you can set your genre (drama, romance, mystery, fantasy, sci-fi) and lock in the elements that ring true to you, until you have your perfect story.

I decided to treat the “kicks off” bit as a scene in the book, rather than the very start of the book, since I already have the opening part of my project written. Some of the character jobs I treated a bit loosely, given that I already have a decent conception of my characters, but the whole thing really got me thinking and helped me come up with some decent ideas.

I’m doing a Beauty and the Beast soft sci-fi retelling, so because it has both sci-fi and romance elements I did two of them! Here was the sci-fi version I came up with:

An airship pilot, who has an obsessive nature. A supercomputer, who has the patience of a saint. It’s a soft science fiction story about what it means to be human. It kicks off in the dunes with a fight to preserve alien culture. (Note that: someone in the story has recently lost someone dear.) And there’s a twist! There is an accidental bodyswap at one point in the plot.

And here’s the romance version:

A model, who grows carnivorous plants. A prince, who tends to brood. It’s a paranormal romance story about hoping again. It kicks off at a botanical garden with a botched order for a mail-order bride. (Note that: someone in the story has been struggling to live up to societal expectations.) And there’s a twist! The protagonists don’t speak each other’s native languages.

Anyway, I know a lot of book bloggers are doing NaNo this year, so I just wanted to give everyone a useful tip in case you’re scrambling to figure out your story for tomorrow. 🙂 Check it out here, and good luck with NaNo!