My plot twist generator backfired at the writers' group meetup

Tried a new prompt exercise where everyone draws a random trope card, and I pulled 'amnesia' only to forget my own premise mid-sentence at the whiteboard in front of 8 people. The fix was turning it into a comedy about a character who forgets they're in a story, which got a few laughs, but now I'm curious, has anyone else had a prompt exercise completely derail like that? How did you salvage it?

2 comments

2 Comments

torres.thea1mo ago

At least the comedy salvage got some laughs, that's a win in my book.

parkerbrown1mo ago

The comedy bits landed, sure, but they did salvage work on the whole thing. That joke about the projector breaking during the budget report got a few chuckles, but the rest of that meeting was a train wreck. You can't call that a win when the actual point of the event was to pitch the new rollout and nobody left with a clear takeaway. Laughs don't fix the schedule slip or the fact that the Q&A turned into a roast session. A couple of good jokes just paper over the mess, they don't fix it.