Sources: King (2004), Greenwald, (1999)

There are many tools on the market for writers who are looking to develop brand new ideas…but few to help writers branch off of their existing material to generate possibilities. This matrix will help writers take existing material and come up with new options for plots, characters and other story possibilities.

The pattern for this is fairly simple. In both the top row and the first column, write down interesting features of possibilities already generated, regardless of chronological sequence. Then, write down new possibilities based upon each combination in the matrix.

For example:



This is a very effective tool for discovering additional subplots or interesting characteristics of the relationships within your writing.


(Original page by Mary Frangie)