The Story Bunny

“Plot Bunny” is a deceptively innocent term for a barrage of images and words that hits without warning and leaves a writer’s head in a flurry of activity and, in my case, stressing over decisions. Recently, I was attacked by a Plot Bunny, though, again, I must speak against the accuracy of the term. For me it was more of a Character/Image/World/Theme Bunny, without much of a plot to speak of. Time and time again, I’ve had inklings of Story Bunnies that don’t end up amounting to much, but this recent one was remarkably cohesive for me.

But as exciting and wonderful as it was to have a rapidly growing Story Bunny I really wanted to write, I already had a novel I was working on, with themes and story concepts I adored. Choosing what you want to write is obviously a big decision for a writer — especially one like me who prefers to only have one major project to focus on.
And there’s a lot of thinking (and in my case, overthinking) that goes into the decision of whether to commit your time to developing a Story Bunny, but I want to talk about what happens after that decision, with my own Story Bunny as a case study. How do you take a jumble of images and words and characters and half-finished quotes and develop them into a novel? To be honest a lot of it just happens, and the things that just happen seem to be the most important parts, but occasionally you need to go searching for things to feed the bunny.

To begin with, it helps to pin down what exactly it is that’s the basis for your story idea. It might be an image, or a quote or a question, or anything else really. For me, it was a different way of looking at a classic story. Specifically, after the children come back from being kings and queens in the magical land, what is their life back in this world like? Whatever it is that first inspires your Story Bunny, explore it to no end. Follow every rabbit trail and question that springs from it, follow every rainboooooww till you find your dreeeam.

Ahem. Anyway.

Now some people might prefer to stay focused in on the inspiration for their story and fully develop that before moving on to anything else, but personally I like embracing the room for creativity and going wild. I’ve had my sketch pad nearby me nearly all the time, sketching my characters and the places and jotting down images and connecting dots. My disorganized approach certainly won’t work for everyone (I’m looking at you, Js of the MBTI-verse), but I love the freedom and excitement of it.

Something I’d recommend is after your Story Bunny first attacks keep a notebook nearby. I know some writers recommend always keeping a notepad or a wad of index cards on you to jot down notes and ideas for writing, but I’ve never been able to manage this. After the onset of a Story Bunny, though, it’s very helpful to be ready for any new ideas, as they often strike when you aren’t prepared for them.

Everyone has their own way of encouraging the ideas to come. For me, it’s usually listening to soundtracks I’ve picked to fit the mood of the Story Bunny and browsing Pinterest boards for images that seem right for my story. Or at least a version of that. Rainy days with mugs of tea are particularly inspiring as well.

For my Story Bunny, I knew who most of the characters were right away. There was one wide-eyed girl with wispy brown hair who was enamored of the magic who would struggle with depression when she was plunged back into a world without magic. There was a soft-spoken girl who was wary of any commitment, having been torn away from foster home after foster home. I knew that she would fall in love with someone in the magical world, and then when she came back into this world, she’d struggle with ever finding motivation to love anyone again. Then there would be a boy with wild hair who thrived on adventure and was always getting in fights after coming back from the glorious battles. Then there was the more hazy image of the boy with the deep-set eyes who felt empty without his crown.

You’ll notice none of these characters have names, and that’s completely fine if at first the ideas and colors of the story are a little blurry. In fact, blurry lines leave room for growth and creativity. But you do need to try to establish some foundation stones to build on. And if the stones are a little vague and seem a little random, then that’s okay — the fun will be in figuring out how to connect the stones together into something strong to build something off of.

I’d encourage you to try to ask yourself what it is about the Story Bunny that captured your attention and imagination, and try to make that the core of your story. Whether or not it ends up being very obvious to others when your story’s grown into something more cohesive, don’t lose sight of what it was that you first thought was beautiful about your story, at least not at first. It’s okay if it ends up buried at the foundation while other things take center stage in the story, but make sure that it stays grounded in the foundation.

So this disjointed ramble just to give you an idea of how I tackle bringing up my own Story Bunny and hopefully it’ll give you some care tips for the next bunny that you adopt barges its way into your writing world.

Katherine