Dngrsone
Android Expert
If I ever decide to make a profit off the astringent fruits of my imagination and start up Dngrsone.com, there are certain things I would sell:
* Bumper stickers featuring phrases that would make people think; example: "He's dead. Get over it already."
* The Epic Fail Picture-- it is a mirror with "Epic Fail" on the frame. I may sell just the frame, so the buyer can put it around their own epic fail picture.
* A whole line of PCPD products.
PCPD means, very simply, Poorly Contrived Plot Device. What better way to celebrate the medicrity of modern literature by peddling PCPDs to people who are capable of independant thought?
What kind of PCPDs would I offer? How about some bottles, of various interesting shapes and sizes, each carrying a liquid of interesting color and viscosity. I could label them simply, "PCPD", or maybe exercise my innate ability for Aggressive Alliteration: "99.9 Percent Pure Plot Progressing Potion."
I would make some fancy-looking spheres, maybe internally lit, with an obvious (or not so obvious) button. Or get some uranium glass marbles to put into pendants (do not use uranium glass internally-- that would be not healthful). They glow wonderfully under UV light.
And a line of small staffs, sceptres, and slender sticks in several styles (but neither screwdrivers of a sonic sort nor sacred sabre handles oft seen in sagas of stellar warfare-- that would be copyright infringement. But what the customer does once I have sold something...).
Apologies-- apparently that annoying alliteration engine was irresponsibly allowed to remain engaged. Allow me a moment to make it stop...
So, what exactly is a Poorly Contrived Plot Device?
Well, according to the great and powerful (and moderately but acceptably inaccurate) online encyclopaedia easily accessible to the majority of the internet, "A plot device is an object or character in a story whose only purpose is to advance the plot of the story, or alternatively to overcome some difficulty in the plot." Furthermore, "A contrived or arbitrary plot device may annoy or confuse the reader, causing a loss of the suspension of disbelief."
Of course, the quality of a plot device is highly objective-- one person's PCPD is another's subtlety (see what I did there?).
And again, what better way to celebrate one's literary acumen, aspirations or annoyance than to have a PCPD (or three) of one's very own?
SO. This thread is your chance to point out the weakest (or best, I'm not picky) plot devices you have seen in any medium.
*** In the off-chance that I ever do have an online store, I reserve the right to sell anything I think will sell, and any ideas that I may get from reading this thread will still belong to me-- no one can sue me for peddling a product that may seem similar (or identical) to anything posted here.
If you think you can sell your idea, then do so.
* Bumper stickers featuring phrases that would make people think; example: "He's dead. Get over it already."
* The Epic Fail Picture-- it is a mirror with "Epic Fail" on the frame. I may sell just the frame, so the buyer can put it around their own epic fail picture.
* A whole line of PCPD products.
PCPD means, very simply, Poorly Contrived Plot Device. What better way to celebrate the medicrity of modern literature by peddling PCPDs to people who are capable of independant thought?
What kind of PCPDs would I offer? How about some bottles, of various interesting shapes and sizes, each carrying a liquid of interesting color and viscosity. I could label them simply, "PCPD", or maybe exercise my innate ability for Aggressive Alliteration: "99.9 Percent Pure Plot Progressing Potion."
I would make some fancy-looking spheres, maybe internally lit, with an obvious (or not so obvious) button. Or get some uranium glass marbles to put into pendants (do not use uranium glass internally-- that would be not healthful). They glow wonderfully under UV light.
And a line of small staffs, sceptres, and slender sticks in several styles (but neither screwdrivers of a sonic sort nor sacred sabre handles oft seen in sagas of stellar warfare-- that would be copyright infringement. But what the customer does once I have sold something...).
Apologies-- apparently that annoying alliteration engine was irresponsibly allowed to remain engaged. Allow me a moment to make it stop...
So, what exactly is a Poorly Contrived Plot Device?
Well, according to the great and powerful (and moderately but acceptably inaccurate) online encyclopaedia easily accessible to the majority of the internet, "A plot device is an object or character in a story whose only purpose is to advance the plot of the story, or alternatively to overcome some difficulty in the plot." Furthermore, "A contrived or arbitrary plot device may annoy or confuse the reader, causing a loss of the suspension of disbelief."
Of course, the quality of a plot device is highly objective-- one person's PCPD is another's subtlety (see what I did there?).
And again, what better way to celebrate one's literary acumen, aspirations or annoyance than to have a PCPD (or three) of one's very own?
SO. This thread is your chance to point out the weakest (or best, I'm not picky) plot devices you have seen in any medium.
*** In the off-chance that I ever do have an online store, I reserve the right to sell anything I think will sell, and any ideas that I may get from reading this thread will still belong to me-- no one can sue me for peddling a product that may seem similar (or identical) to anything posted here.
If you think you can sell your idea, then do so.
