Tonight I was “surfing the net while sitting on the couch” again and I stumbled upon a terrific site for generating random ideas for writing short stories.

“Tropes are storytelling devices and conventions that a writer can reasonably rely on as being present in the audience members’ minds and expectations.”

Here’s one

And another …

The real value is when you click the Setting, Plot, Narrative Device, Hero, Villain, Character As Device, and Characterization Device. A wiki opens explaining the pattern, theme, cliché, or archetype with connections to examples from literature, film, comics, and video games. Very rich. Happy digging.

Have you ever googled “Applied Phlebotinum“?