Plot Kernels

[HoopyFrood]

One of the first things we looked at on my creative writing course was the idea of plot kernels -- those small ideas from which mighty stories grow. They could be memories, thoughts, dreams, brief things that you witnessed on the way to work, etc etc. There doesn't have to be any thought behind them, as to how they might become stories or similar, it's just thoughts, feeling, ideas that are interesting and unusual...

I thought maybe we could write about any that pop into our minds here and build up a store of plot kernels, which might go on to inspire other people to make short stories, poems, novels and so on based on them. Even if people are inspired by the same ones, because they are just small, starting ideas, they'll be sure to branch off into their own unique ways.

And also, even if the kernels don't inspire any piece of writing, they're often quite interesting in their own right. In our class we were all asked to think of three different plot kernels and we went around the entire seminar group, listening to them all and it was very entertaining and enjoyable. So, hopefully this thread will take off...

So, some ancedotes that were said in the seminar:

- One of mine was when I went to the Reading Festival in 2005. I bumped into Jesus (that's who he said he was anyway), who was telling us about the wrath of god and how he smites people. And then as I was doing so, three guys wearing shorts, tinfoil on their heads and very little else ran past singing "Half-naked marathon". Quite strange, indeed.

- Another person in the class told of a story he'd heard in the news,or somewhere similar. An old woman had a routine, which she'd stuck to for many years, of going to swim in the sea every morning. One day there was a warning that a shark had been spotted in that area, but she said she's been swimming every day for years and wouldn't let a shark put her off. I think you can guess what happened...apparently the red swimming cap that she always wore washed up onto the shore a day or so later...

- One guy did something as simple as the reason why he was late for the seminar that day -- because once he started thinking about it, he realised it was because events the night before set off a chain that caused it. He'd gone out to a shop to buy some cereal but got quite lost. By the time he reached the shop, he had to grab the only cereal that was left and it turned out to be muesli. Hence the next day, this different cereal took longer to prepare and because it was a heavier breakfast, longer to eat, too, which meant he was late (His guy likes his comedy, by the way. And this is what I mean by them being entertaining, because the way he told it was great).

Anyway, over to you guys! As I said, any thoughts, ideas, images, brief encounters, anything like that that stuck in your head...