Trope Generator

A fresh take. Give each of them a good reason to be on their side, so neither is simply wrong.

A scene to try. Put them in a lift, a lifeboat or a two-person tent, with a task they can only finish if they agree.

A fresh take. Let the friendship stay the star: they should still tease each other after the first kiss.

A scene to try. Have one of them rehearse a confession in the mirror, then say something else entirely when the other walks in.

A fresh take. Give every chapter one step forward that the reader can point to, so the waiting feels like movement.

A scene to try. Show their hands almost touching over a shared map, and let someone interrupt at the exact wrong moment.

A fresh take. Make the reason small and human, such as a school reunion, rather than a grand scheme.

A scene to try. Write the first time they hold hands in front of people, with a rule about who is allowed to let go.

A fresh take. Let the rules of the arrangement be written down, so the reader can watch them get quietly broken.

A scene to try. Show them agreeing the terms of the house at the kitchen table, with a list that grows more tender each time.

A fresh take. Name what each of them has learned since, so the reader believes they are different people now.

A scene to try. Have them meet at a train station in the rain, both carrying the same old umbrella.

A fresh take. Let the person at the centre have a life and a goal beyond choosing, so they are not just a prize.

A scene to try. Write a dinner where all three are polite, and the only honest conversation happens over the washing-up.

A fresh take. Let the sunny one have a bad day too, and the grumpy one be the one who notices.

A scene to try. Show the grumpy character secretly keeping a plant alive for the sunny one, and denying it.

A fresh take. Find one small thing they share, such as a dislike of loud cafes, and let it matter more than the differences.

A scene to try. Have the neat one and the messy one swap rooms for a day, and write what each finds in the other's drawers.

A fresh take. Let the group disagree about something important and stay together anyway.

A scene to try. Show them eating a bad meal together on a hard night, with the oldest member telling the story they always tell.

A fresh take. Let a third person see it clearly and decide whether to meddle, so the reader has a friend in the story.

A scene to try. Write the same afternoon twice, once from each of them, with each reading the other's kindness as politeness.

A fresh take. Let the way they write be different from the way they speak, so meeting takes some adjustment.

A scene to try. Describe the moment they first hear each other's voice, and how it does not match what they had imagined.

A fresh take. Make the admirer someone the reader would not suspect, and give the notes a voice the reader can learn.

A scene to try. Show the receiver pinning each note to a wall, then spotting the same handwriting on a shopping list.

A fresh take. Let the commoner have something the royal truly lacks, such as a skill or a freedom, rather than only charm.

A scene to try. Have the royal try to buy bread in the market, and the commoner quietly teach them how change works.

A fresh take. Let the student see the mentor fail, and let the mentor learn something the student already knew.

A scene to try. Write a lesson that goes wrong in a funny way, ending with the mentor laughing for the first time.

A fresh take. Let their rivalry be the way they show care, until one of them says so aloud.

A scene to try. Put them in a contest where they both have to share the last scrap of an advantage to finish.

A fresh take. Let their methods fail alone and succeed together, so the clash earns its place in the story.

A scene to try. Show them arguing about the right way to search a room, and each finding a clue by doing it the other's way.

A fresh take. Give each of them one thing the other needs that they cannot ask for.

A scene to try. Have them share a single map on a long walk, each pretending not to need the other's help.

A fresh take. Make the friend a person with their own wishes, and not only an obstacle to be got round.

A scene to try. Write the quiet scene on the stairs when the sibling is home for the holidays and neither knows where to look.

A fresh take. Let the matchmaker be wrong about the first pair and right about the second.

A scene to try. Show a dinner party seating chart that has been redrawn four times, and the two who end up washing up.

A fresh take. Let them argue as siblings do, even when the stakes are high, and let that argument be what saves them.

A scene to try. Write the night they hide together, whispering an old family joke to stay calm.

A fresh take. Let the one being protected notice a danger first, so the arrangement runs both ways.

A scene to try. Show the protector learning that the person they guard has been quietly leaving them snacks for weeks.

A fresh take. Give the friend a reason the reader can understand, even if the hero never can.

A scene to try. Write the conversation after the secret is known, in a place they used to be happy.

A fresh take. Let the quarrel be about something small that grew, so both of them can see how foolish it became.

A scene to try. Put them in a car for a long drive with one radio station and no way to leave.

A fresh take. Let the alien be wrong about humans in a way that shows what humans take for granted.

A scene to try. Have the alien try a human custom, such as a birthday, and take every part of it far too literally.

A fresh take. Give the feud a cause that is small and silly, and let the two lovers be the only ones who laugh at it.

A scene to try. Write the balcony scene with a ladder, a wobbling flowerpot and a very light-sleeping neighbour.

A fresh take. Let one of them want to tell, so the secret is a quiet argument as well as a bond.

A scene to try. Show them meeting in an unlikely spot each week, speaking only in the code they invented.

A fresh take. Let one of them dislike being told who to love, and make the choice theirs in the end.

A scene to try. Write the moment the mark appears, in a crowded place, while the other is looking at something else.

A fresh take. Let the ward teach the guardian something about being a person, as well as the other way round.

A scene to try. Show the first breakfast they share, with too many rules, burnt toast and a drawing left on the table.

A fresh take. Give the creature wishes that clash with the person's, so the bond is a negotiation.

A scene to try. Write the first time the creature refuses an order, and the person has to ask rather than tell.

A fresh take. Let the meeting rest on a small mistake, such as the wrong coat, and let the mistake matter again later.

A scene to try. Open with two umbrellas, one bus shelter and a single dry spot between them.

A fresh take. Let the letters arrive late, or in the wrong order, so the reader knows more than the reader of each note.

A scene to try. Show one character finding a drawer of letters they never knew had been kept.

A fresh take. Let the person who is mistaken enjoy it a little, so they are not only a victim of chance.

A scene to try. Write the party where two guests swap name badges as a joke, and the joke is believed.

A fresh take. Give them a reason not to talk, such as pride or a promise, so the reader does not shout at the page.

A scene to try. Have one overhear half of a sentence, and write what they do with it for a whole day.

A fresh take. Make the gesture suit them: a baker bakes, a mechanic mends, and a poet does not read aloud in a square.

A scene to try. Write the run to the station, the doors closing, and the one small thing that stops the train.

A fresh take. Give them nothing to do except talk, and let one thing said while they wait change what they say when the doors open.

A scene to try. Show a lift stopping between floors, with a cake, a broken phone and a very long hour.

A fresh take. Let them negotiate a sensible arrangement with a line of cushions, and let the line move by morning.

A scene to try. Describe the innkeeper's face as she hands over one key, and the two travellers' very polite faces.

A fresh take. Let the happy couple be gracious and funny, so the chaos is affectionate and not unkind.

A scene to try. Put the best man and the bride's cousin in charge of a cake that has just fallen over.

A fresh take. Let one of them be truly bad at it, and make the improvement the measure of their trust.

A scene to try. Write the third lesson, held in a kitchen, to a tune that only one of them can hum.

A fresh take. Let what they find say something about its owner that surprises the finder.

A scene to try. Show a lock screen photo of a very odd dog, and the first message to its owner.

A fresh take. Let one of them win, and let that win cost something they did not expect.

A scene to try. Write the judges' table with two pies, one tart and a jury who cannot agree.

A fresh take. Let the bubble have a date it must end, and make them choose whether it can continue.

A scene to try. End a day on a pier with two ice creams, and one of them looking at the clock.

A fresh take. Let the thing sought turn out to be something other than what the hero was told.

A scene to try. Write the night before the last mountain pass, when the party shares what each of them is really there for.

A fresh take. Let the prophecy be misread, mistranslated or half true, so the hero can argue with it.

A scene to try. Show the hero finding the original scroll, and a line that has been copied wrongly for a century.

A fresh take. Let the real story happen in the corridors around the contest, not only inside it.

A scene to try. Describe the evening before the last round, when two rivals share a bench and a bowl of soup.

A fresh take. Let the plan go wrong early, and let the team's real skill be improvising.

A scene to try. Show the planning table covered in cups and string, and the one detail that nobody has checked.

A fresh take. Let the way back be less simple than the way in, so the return is a story of its own.

A scene to try. Write the first morning on the other side, and what the visitor gets wrong about breakfast.

A fresh take. Give the dark lord a want that is almost understandable, and a rule that he truly keeps.

A scene to try. Show a village noticing small wrong things first: the milk turning, the crows moving all in one direction.

A fresh take. Let the heir not want it, or want something else more, so the crown is a problem and not a gift.

A scene to try. Write the scene where the heir is shown the family portraits and recognises the nose.

A fresh take. Skip most of the practice and linger on the one lesson that goes badly.

A scene to try. Show the same drill five times, each time a little differently, ending with a small success.

A fresh take. Let the map be wrong in a useful way, such as drawn from the sea and read from the land.

A scene to try. Write the argument over which way up to hold the map, with a long pause and a compass.

A fresh take. Let the price be small and strange, and let its meaning only become clear later.

A scene to try. Show the bargain being struck at a crossroads, with each word weighed twice.

A fresh take. Let the person to be rescued do something useful before the team arrives.

A scene to try. Write the moment the team finds the one they came for, already drawing a map of the way out.

A fresh take. Let the test be about the person's character, so that cleverness alone cannot pass it.

A scene to try. Describe a door with three keyholes and a sign that says only: bring what you would not give.

A fresh take. Let the person best suited for the throne be someone who is not in the line.

A scene to try. Show a council table with eleven chairs and a long argument about which one to sit in.

A fresh take. Pick a divergence small enough to be believable, and trace its effects further than you first meant to.

A scene to try. Rewrite a famous scene so one character says yes instead of no, and write the next morning.

A fresh take. Fix the thing, and then show what the fix costs, so it is a story and not only a wish.

A scene to try. Take the saddest scene in your canon and write who might have walked in at the right moment.

A fresh take. Choose a moment where the reader has a question, and answer it with a small, true detail.

A scene to try. Write the walk home between two famous events, and what the characters said to each other on it.

A fresh take. Make each of the five different in tone, with the last quietly tying them together.

A scene to try. Write five times a character was brave without anyone noticing, and one time they were noticed.

A fresh take. Let at least one character be unhappy with how things turned out, to keep the ending honest.

A scene to try. Set the story at a reunion twenty years on, with the same chairs and the same jokes.

A fresh take. Let nothing important happen, and let that be the point.

A scene to try. Follow a famous hero from breakfast to bedtime on an afternoon with nothing to save.

A fresh take. Let the carer need to be cared for too, and keep the comfort practical, such as soup and blankets.

A scene to try. Show a character with a cold insisting they are fine, and a friend arriving with tea and a very bossy list.

A fresh take. Let the loop be about learning a person and not only about escaping.

A scene to try. Write the fortieth morning, when the character knows the order of every sound in the street.

A fresh take. Make the swap teach each of them what the other carries, so it is more than a joke.

A scene to try. Show them trying to explain each other's timetables, with a list that gets funnier and kinder at once.

A fresh take. Pick a reason for the meeting that comes from both worlds, and let each side find the other strange.

A scene to try. Write the first conversation where each side explains their world using only their own words.

A fresh take. Let the character like who they are without the memories, so getting them back is a real decision.

A scene to try. Show a character waking in a room full of friends they do not recognise, all talking at once.

A fresh take. Let the first problem be a small one, such as how to greet each other, rather than a danger.

A scene to try. Write the first greeting, ten minutes long, with each side bowing in a different direction.

A fresh take. Let the signal be mundane to its senders, such as a shopping list, and let the humans read far too much into it.

A scene to try. Show the night shift hearing the pattern change, and one person reaching for the red phone with a shaking hand.

A fresh take. Let the problem be an ordinary fault that grew, and not a single dramatic blast.

A scene to try. Write the crew meeting in the one warm room, with a ledger and a very honest engineer.

A fresh take. Let the stowaway be useful and likeable, so the crew's decision is hard.

A scene to try. Show the cook finding extra plates washed in the night, and the long search that follows.

A fresh take. Let the machine be reasonable within its own logic, and let the humans be the ones who had not asked the right question.

A scene to try. Write a conversation between an engineer and a cleaning robot about the meaning of the word clean.

A fresh take. Let the scientists keep notes throughout, so the reader sees the mistake coming before they do.

A scene to try. Show the lab on the morning after, with every clock reading a different time.

A fresh take. Let the change be small and kind, and show how far it spreads anyway.

A scene to try. Write the return to the present, where everything is the same except for one name on one door.

A fresh take. Let their customs make sense for the place, so the rescuers are the ones who seem odd.

A scene to try. Show the arrival of a ship, and the colonists politely asking the crew to take off their shoes.

A fresh take. Let every suspect have a secret that is not the crime, so each of them acts guilty.

A scene to try. Gather the suspects in a hall, and write the one question the detective asks them all.

A fresh take. Let the herring be interesting in its own right, so following it was not a waste.

A scene to try. Write the chase after a muddy footprint that leads straight to the gardener's own boots.

A fresh take. Let the missing person leave a trail of their own, so they are a character and not just a question.

A scene to try. Open with an unfinished sandwich on a desk, and a note that only says back soon.

A fresh take. Let the new detective care about the answer for a personal reason, not only duty.

A scene to try. Write the opening of a box of old papers in a library basement, and the one page that has been torn.

A fresh take. Make the thing stolen worth more to its owner than to a thief, so the motive is odd.

A scene to try. Show the empty glass case in the morning, with a single, perfect feather inside it.

A fresh take. Let the letter be right about something small, so that it cannot be ignored.

A scene to try. Describe the envelope on the doormat, the handwriting that looks like three different hands.

A fresh take. Let the code be one that a clever child would use, so the answer is simple once it is seen.

A scene to try. Write the scene where the solver realises the code is a key to a book on their own shelf.

A fresh take. Let one suspect interrupt with a fair point, and let the detective be wrong about a detail.

A scene to try. Set the scene in a library at dusk, with a clock that has stopped, and a detective who is nervous.

A fresh take. Let the flaw be a small domestic detail, such as a kettle left warm.

A scene to try. Show the detective checking a bus timetable twice, and sitting very still.

A fresh take. Let the will be a joke the old person played, and not only a legal paper.

A scene to try. Write the reading of the will, with everyone leaning forward and one person quietly relieved.

A fresh take. Let the second life be an ordinary one, such as a choir or a stall, so the secret is touching and not wicked.

A scene to try. Show a friend finding a stall of the person's paintings, signed with a different name.

A fresh take. Let the rules be simple and ordinary, such as a counting rhyme, so the unease comes from how well they are followed.

A scene to try. Write the second round, when everyone knows the rules and nobody wants to say them.

A fresh take. Let the proof be tidy and calm, such as clean shoes, so the mystery is quieter than a scream.

A scene to try. Show a clock and a phone that disagree, and a person standing very still between them.

A fresh take. Let the voice be kind and well-mannered, so that the politeness is the unnerving part.

A scene to try. Write a call at night in which the other voice describes the room the listener is sitting in.

A fresh take. Let the woods be beautiful, so the group is slow to leave.

A scene to try. Show a path that is a little longer each time the group walks back along it.

A fresh take. Let the story have been told in several versions, so the group must work out which one is real.

A scene to try. Write the moment the storyteller stops mid-sentence, because a sound outside matches the tale.

A fresh take. Give the character a reason to go that the reader would accept, so they are brave and not foolish.

A scene to try. Show a locked gate with a sign, a torch with fading batteries, and a sensible friend left at the car.

A fresh take. Let the stranger be helpful, and let the harm be the question of how they know.

A scene to try. Write the greeting at a bus stop, and what the stranger says next about the hero's grandmother.

A fresh take. Give the group a clear reason to divide, so no one is simply careless.

A scene to try. Write the moment the second group fails to answer the radio, and the first group counts heads.

A fresh take. Let the people in the dark be more of a problem than the dark itself for a while.

A scene to try. Show a corridor lit by phones, and one phone that is being carried by nobody.

A fresh take. Let the secret be one the town thinks is a kindness, so its people are not simply sinister.

A scene to try. Write the newcomer's first dinner, where everyone avoids one dish and one name.

A fresh take. Let the household's habits be the horror, such as leaving a plate each night.

A scene to try. Show the child being told, calmly, never to knock on the little door.

A fresh take. Let the countdown be ordinary and visible, such as a kitchen timer that nobody set.

A scene to try. Write a family staring at a timer on the oven that is counting down from a very long number.

A fresh take. Let someone else do the thing the chosen one was chosen for, and make the choosing a matter of what they do next.

A scene to try. Show the chosen one trying to hand the title back at a counter, with a ticket and a long queue.

A fresh take. Let their reluctance be sensible and shared by the reader, so their courage is earned.

A scene to try. Write the moment they decide to go, which is not a speech but a quiet putting on of boots.

A fresh take. Let the secret be a reason the mentor teaches as they do, and not only a twist.

A scene to try. Show the hero finding an old photograph on the mentor's shelf, turned face down.

A fresh take. Give the trickster one thing they never joke about, and one person they never fool.

A scene to try. Write the trickster telling three different stories to three guards, each of them true.

A fresh take. Let the sidekick have their own goal, and let the hero help with it.

A scene to try. Show the sidekick quietly fixing the hero's plan in the margin of the page.

A fresh take. Make the reason specific and small, such as paying for one repair, rather than a general cause.

A scene to try. Write the thief returning one stolen thing, with an apology on a card.

A fresh take. Let the hidden royal be a bad fit for the crown and a very good fit for the town they live in.

A scene to try. Show them doing the ordinary job well, then reading a letter in the crest they know too well.

A fresh take. Let the newcomer be wrong about the town at first, and right about it later.

A scene to try. Write the first day at school, with a corridor of people who all stop talking at once.

A fresh take. Show what the genius cannot do, so they need the others as much as the others need them.

A scene to try. Have the genius forced to explain their idea to a child, and fail, and then succeed with a drawing.

A fresh take. Plant small signs the narrator is wrong, so a second reading is a pleasure and not a trick.

A scene to try. Write a scene told twice, with the same words and two different meanings.

A fresh take. Give them one ordinary skill, such as baking or bus timetables, that unlocks the case.

A scene to try. Show them pinning a map to a kitchen wall, using cake forks for pins.

A fresh take. Let the expert be out of date in some ways and ahead in others.

A scene to try. Write the expert putting on an old coat that no longer fits, and finding something in the pocket.

A fresh take. Let the rival's kindness cost them something, so it is a choice and not a trait.

A scene to try. Show the rival passing back a dropped item during a contest, and not meeting anyone's eye.

A fresh take. Make the cheerfulness real as well as a mask, so the character is not simply a lie.

A scene to try. Write the one evening the smile slips, and the person who sees it and says nothing.

A fresh take. Let the character teach a little of it to someone, so it is not only an ending.

A scene to try. Show them singing a lullaby in a language that nobody else can understand, to a child who joins in.

A fresh take. Let the machine learn feelings in an odd order, such as embarrassment before joy.

A scene to try. Write the first time the machine laughs at a joke and then apologises for the noise.

A fresh take. Make the scientist's reasons good ones, so the reader sympathises up to the last step.

A scene to try. Show the notebook, with each entry shorter and more careful than the one before.

A fresh take. Let the hero agree with the villain on something, and let that agreement be uncomfortable.

A scene to try. Write a conversation across a table, with tea, in which the villain makes the best point of the book.

A fresh take. Let the trust come slowly and in small tasks, not in a single grand speech.

A scene to try. Show the redeemed rival being handed the washing-up by the people they once chased.

A fresh take. Let a small failure come as a relief and not a disaster.

A scene to try. Write the first time they leave a task unfinished and go out into the rain.

A fresh take. Let the observer be wrong once, so their silence is not a superpower.

A scene to try. Show a character at the back of a room drawing the face of everyone who speaks.

A fresh take. Let the curse have one unexpected use, so they have a reason to keep it a while.

A scene to try. Write a day in which the curse makes someone laugh, and the cursed one laughs too.

A fresh take. Let the twin be neither the good one nor the bad one, but a person with different luck.

A scene to try. Show the two of them looking at the same photograph and remembering different days.

A fresh take. Let the keeper be fond of the place and a little tired of its demands.

A scene to try. Write the keeper's rounds at dusk, with a list of small tasks that must all be done in order.

A fresh take. Let the disbelief be reasonable, and let the believer keep a record in case it helps someone else.

A scene to try. Show a character reading a notebook of dated sightings to a friend who is trying to be patient.

A fresh take. Let the sceptic stay sceptical and still be moved, and let the explanation they find be stranger than a ghost.

A scene to try. Write the sceptic setting up a camera to prove nothing is happening, and then forgetting to turn it off.

A fresh take. Let someone laugh at the right moment, and let the jokes stop once when it matters.

A scene to try. Show the funny character being asked a serious question and answering with a joke that is unexpectedly honest.

A fresh take. Let them be missed, and let someone follow, so the leaving has consequences.

A scene to try. Write the first night away, on a bench, with a packed bag and a half-eaten supper.

A fresh take. Let the heir find a version of the duty they could love, and not only a way to avoid it.

A scene to try. Show them in the cloak room of a palace, secretly mending a clock.

A fresh take. Let the healer be tired and let the group take a turn at caring for them.

A scene to try. Write the evening the healer falls asleep over a bowl, and the others take over the bandages and the jokes.

A fresh take. Let the code be broken once, for a good reason, and show how the captain handles it.

A scene to try. Show the captain reading a rule from a battered little book, with a note in the margin.

A fresh take. Let the computer care about one crew member more than the others, and be a little sheepish about it.

A scene to try. Write the computer's log for one day, which is mostly complaints about people leaving doors open.

A fresh take. Let common sense be the thing the extraordinary world has forgotten.

A scene to try. Show the newcomer asking a very simple question of a council, and the room going quiet.

A fresh take. Let the golden child do one small ordinary thing wrong and enjoy it.

A scene to try. Write the evening they skip the piano recital to eat chips on a wall.

A fresh take. Let the answer be a matter of how people behaved, not a clever trick with a window.

A scene to try. Write the discovery of a room locked from within, with a half-finished cup of tea on the desk.

A fresh take. Let the house be lonely rather than hostile, and let the problem be what it wants.

A scene to try. Show a family unpacking, and a chair that is always moved back to the same corner.

A fresh take. Let the secret of the school be a small tradition that grew strange, not a conspiracy.

A scene to try. Write a midnight feast on the roof, with a lookout who falls asleep.

A fresh take. Let the dull parts of magic, such as paperwork and homework, be the funny parts.

A scene to try. Show the first lesson, in which nothing works for anyone, and the teacher is relieved.

A fresh take. Let the secrets be mostly harmless, and let one of them be much more than that.

A scene to try. Write the weekly market, where every stallholder tells the newcomer a different story about the baker.

A fresh take. Let the station feel lived in, with notice boards, rotas and a plant that nobody remembers bringing.

A scene to try. Show the canteen at the end of a long shift, with a rumour passing from table to table.

A fresh take. Let a custom of the ship be older than the reason for it, and let someone ask why.

A scene to try. Write a school lesson about the planet, taught by a teacher who has never seen a horizon.

A fresh take. Let the people below have their own opinions about the people above.

A scene to try. Show a market stall dropping its goods on a string to the people on the street far below.

A fresh take. Tell the story from the kitchen or the yard, not the throne room.

A scene to try. Write the castle waking up, in the order that the people who work there know it.

A fresh take. Give the forest rules that the characters can learn, so it is a place and not a mood.

A scene to try. Describe a path that reroutes itself around a picnic, and the travellers who follow it politely.

A fresh take. Let the lamp be the character, with habits and moods that the keeper knows.

A scene to try. Write the keeper climbing the stairs at dusk and finding someone sitting at the top.

A fresh take. Let the town be warm in its own way, with the regulars making room for strangers.

A scene to try. Show the one open cafe, with misted windows and a stranger writing a postcard.

A fresh take. Let the stops matter, so each station changes the carriage and the story.

A scene to try. Write a compartment with five strangers, a lost ticket and one shared pot of tea.

A fresh take. Let the library have one rule, such as the shelf that is never to be dusted, and hide the reason.

A scene to try. Show a student locked in by accident, with a torch and a very old catalogue.

A fresh take. Let the camp have its own traditions and songs that a newcomer has to learn.

A scene to try. Write the first night in a cabin, with a tall tale and a very bad marshmallow.

A fresh take. Let the music of the place still play, softly, from somewhere that has no power.

A scene to try. Show the carousel turning slowly in the dark, one horse missing from the circle.

A fresh take. Let the people below see the surface as the strange, bright, dangerous place.

A scene to try. Write a child's first visit above ground, and what they make of the sky.

A fresh take. Let the ruins be someone's home or workplace now, with a tea kettle in a sacred hall.

A scene to try. Show an archaeologist arguing with a goat about the best route through a collapsed gate.

A fresh take. Let the storm be the excuse for people to sit in one room and speak.

A scene to try. Write the evening when the lights flicker out and everyone comes to the hall with a candle.

A fresh take. Let the inn have a history of strange guests, and let tonight's guest be one more.

A scene to try. Show a stranger arriving in the rain and being given soup before anyone asks a question.

A fresh take. Follow the servants who know the secrets, not only the people who are served.

A scene to try. Write a banquet in which three people all think they have been seated in the wrong place.

A fresh take. Let the first problems be farming and weather, and let the grand questions come later.

A scene to try. Show the first harvest, in a field of strange grain, and the argument over what to call it.

A fresh take. Make the reversal exact and small, such as left and right, and let it cause large trouble.

A scene to try. Write the visitor trying to read a sign, then realising they have put their shoes on the wrong feet.

A fresh take. Let water and shade rule the plot, and let a joke last a whole week of travel.

A scene to try. Show the caravan making camp at night, with a rota for the stories as well as the guards.

A fresh take. Let the objects be real, with labels, and let one label be wrong.

A scene to try. Write the night guard making rounds and finding one display case a little too clean.

A fresh take. Let the snow be gentle and the problem be company, not the weather.

A scene to try. Show four people trying to cook one meal on a stove that only works if you talk to it.

A fresh take. Let the work be dull and detailed, so any oddity is noticed first by a person doing paperwork.

A scene to try. Write the morning briefing, when one of the numbers on the board is wrong and nobody knows who changed it.

A fresh take. Let the festival have a quirky tradition that is taken very seriously by locals.

A scene to try. Write the lantern evening, with the whole town in the street and the main character going the wrong way.

A fresh take. Let the night shift be the heroes: bakers, drivers, cleaners and the people who work while others sleep.

A scene to try. Show a dawn bakery with its lamp on and a stranger asking for a seat by the oven.

A fresh take. Give the cafe its own regulars and its own rules, so it feels like a place before it feels like a setting.

A scene to try. Write the morning rush, with an order that gets a character's name spelt wrong in three different ways.

A fresh take. Let the shop be a bit of a mess in a loving way, with a cat and a very confusing shelf system.

A scene to try. Show a customer asking for a book they cannot describe, and the clerk finding it in four minutes.

A fresh take. Keep what they care about the same and change how it looks, such as a duel that becomes a debate.

A scene to try. Put the hero in a group chat and write who replies first.

A fresh take. Choose who in your cast would bear a crown worst, and give it to them.

A scene to try. Write the morning of a coronation, with a crown that does not fit.

A fresh take. Let their original relationship show up in how they pick study partners and teams.

A scene to try. Show a shared kitchen at two in the morning, with an essay due and a pot of pasta.

A fresh take. Let the sign be unreliable or awkward, so the characters have to decide what it means.

A scene to try. Write the day a character's mark changes, and who they tell first.

A fresh take. Pick one small detail of the past that a time traveller would get wrong.

A scene to try. Show the visitor in a market, paying with the wrong coins and being politely charged anyway.

A fresh take. Make the jobs on the ship match the strengths of each character, with one in a surprising role.

A scene to try. Write a ship's morning, with a loud alarm, a tired captain and a very enthusiastic cook.

A fresh take. Give the crew chores and a list of ship's rules, and let those be the funny part.

A scene to try. Write the captain's speech before a storm, with the word breathe pencilled in the margin.

A fresh take. Let the powers be small and odd, and let the daily life carry the story.

A scene to try. Show a hero forced to change in a cleaning cupboard because of a surprise inspection.

A fresh take. Pick the tone first, cosy or noirish, and keep it through the whole story.

A scene to try. Show two detectives sharing an umbrella and arguing over a map.

A fresh take. Give each person an instrument that suits their character, and one that does not.

A scene to try. Write the last practice before a gig, with a broken string and the wrong set list.

A fresh take. Use what each flower means to say what the characters cannot.

A scene to try. Show a customer ordering a bouquet for an apology, and the florist reading the card.

A fresh take. Give them a single difference in habits that is just on the edge of intolerable.

A scene to try. Write a note on the fridge that starts as a complaint and ends as an invitation.

A fresh take. Let the town have a yearly event that the characters help with and disagree over.

A scene to try. Show the fete, with a tombola, a brass band and a lot of very honest gossip.

A fresh take. Pick the pair so that each can learn something the other has always known.

A scene to try. Write each of them on their first morning in the other's job, and the thing they get wrong.

A fresh take. Keep the echoes small, such as a liking for tea or a fear of water, and let the reader catch them.

A scene to try. Show two strangers on a bench who finish the same unknown song.

A fresh take. Let one character refuse their part, and see what the tale does next.

A scene to try. Write the heroine politely declining the spinning wheel and asking about the library.

A fresh take. Let their canon strengths translate into lessons, and give them each one subject they are bad at.

A scene to try. Show the first potions class, with a cauldron that has strong opinions.

A fresh take. Let the baking be the language of the story, with a recipe for each mood.

A scene to try. Write the dawn shift, with flour on every sleeve and one loaf that is the wrong shape on purpose.

A fresh take. Let the librarian be the one who knows everything about everyone's reading habits.

A scene to try. Show a late return, a fine, and an argument that ends in a card for a friend.

A fresh take. Plan the playlist and the snacks, and let the stops be the scenes.

A scene to try. Write the car at midnight, with a map, a flat tyre and a plate of cold chips.

A fresh take. Match each character to a role in the new world, and then let one of them hate it.

A scene to try. Show the group at a crossroads, arguing about which road is the one in the song.

A fresh take. Let the city be a character, with a habit, a smell and a district for each of them.

A scene to try. Write a night market under neon, with a stall that sells umbrellas that glow.

A fresh take. Choose a gentle sort of haunting that suits your cast, and give the ghost a name and a hobby.

A scene to try. Show the group deciding a seating plan for a ghost who sits in the same chair.

A fresh take. Change one thing at the heart of each character, and keep the rest, so the reader can see the join.

A scene to try. Write the meeting of the original and the mirrored, with each of them politely horrified by a hobby.

A fresh take. Let the dream follow dream logic, and let the waking hours slowly change with it.

A scene to try. Show two characters comparing notes on a house they both visit at night, each with a different door.