Caprice and Chance

This month's challenge is a Matryoshka challenge based on the sultry, swoony tropes of that perennial favorite for beach reading, the bodice-ripper romance. Your fanwork does not have to be a romance story, but prompts will be loosely inspired by the plot arcs and tropes of these novels. (Please note that prompts are not romance-specific. Any genre of fanwork can be created based on these prompts.)

Never tried a Matryoshka challenge before? See our FAQ: What is a Matryoshka challenge and how does it work? Prompts are below, and there are Easy (three prompts), Medium (five prompts), or Difficult (seven prompts) sets. You may use more than one set.

Credit goes to TVTropes for much of the inspiration and many of the names of the prompts!

This challenge opened in May 2019 .

Prompts

Choose your prompt from the collection below.

View Prompts: Easy
Prompt 1
Ingénue: A character begins the story unaware of something important. Open your next prompt whenever you feel the stage is set for your story.
Prompt 2
Cannot Spit It Out: Your character is left speechless. You decide why. When you do, you can open your final prompt.
Prompt 3
Happily Ever After: Someone in your story gets good news. It can be your protagonist, another character in the story, or news of a character who doesn't even appear in the story.
Medium
Prompt 1
Anti-Hero: Choose a trait you value. One of your characters must have the opposite trait. Open the next prompt when you decide on your trait.
Prompt 2
I Betcha: There is a dare, bet, or challenge involved in your story. Open your next prompt when you begin working on this scene.
Prompt 3
Wish Fulfillment: Let your character glimpse the fulfillment of something they really want … then take it away. Open the next prompt as soon as you begin writing about the "something they really want."
Prompt 4
Slap-Slap-Kiss: A character changes his or her mind suddenly. Open the final prompt after the mind change.
Prompt 5
The Grovel: A character in the story is forced to go to extraordinary lengths to solve a conflict.
Difficult
Prompt 1
Four Loves: Choose one of the four loves (https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/TheFourLoves) to play an important role in your story. When you've made your choice, you can open the next prompt.
Prompt 2
The Chase: Your character must travel to three or more locations to solve a problem. When the character arrives at the first location, you can open the next prompt.
Prompt 3
Will They or Won't They? … Of Course They Will: Change the relationship between two of your characters in a significant way. Open the next prompt when the relationship changes OR you write 500 more words--whichever comes first.
Prompt 4
Secret Baby: Reveal something big. Open the next prompt when you do.
Prompt 5
Adorkable: There is an awkward moment or tension between characters. Open the next prompt after you complete this scene OR after you write 500 more words--whichever comes first.
Prompt 6
Old Flame: Something--or someone--from your character's past comes back to haunt her or him. Open the final prompt when you begin this scene.
Prompt 7
With This Ring: Bring in a special or magical object, whether from the canon or not.

Fanworks Tagged with Caprice and Chance

Lord by Lferion

Fingon, Returned, still holds the fealty of many, unlooked-for. He's not sure what to do with it.

Fanwork Information and Table of Contents

Hewers of wood and drawers of water. by hennethgalad

an unwitting eyewitness struggles with the consequence.

Fanwork Information and Table of Contents

Through a Mirror Darkly by HannaGoldworthy

Year 2510 of the Third Age: Celebrian arrives in Valinor during Sovalle, a new (for her) feast of repentance and reconciliation. And, much to her suprise and discomfort, she's not the only new face hanging around...

Fanwork Information and Table of Contents

Boundaries by Dawn Felagund

Fingon is constantly pushing Maedhros's boundaries, but this time, he has gone too far. Put on mandatory sick leave after an injury, Maedhros decides to spend his three weeks recuperating alone, setting Fingon on a chase across Aman to find and make amends to his lover ... and yes, transgress one more boundary, one more time. Maedhros/Fingon. Written for Oshun, for the occasion of her 100th character biography.

Fanwork Information and Table of Contents

The land of Beeches and Snowdrops by Raiyana

After the sacking of Doriath, the lands once girdled by Melian were abandoned.

Faerbraichon, Lord of House Brethil, went east in search of a new land for his Sindar Elves, a land far removed from the grief caused by the Silmaril Thingol had coveted. With him came his family - those who were left - and those for whom he was Lord.

Running into a Dragon was an unexpected complication.

But for one of his sons, it might turn out to be the source of new love, and for the rest of House Brethil, the meeting between their youngest Prince and a Woodland elleth will eventually lead to the formation of the largest Elven Kingdom in Arda and the establishment of a new home.

The Great Green-Wood.

Fanwork Information and Table of Contents