This slim volume is intended to be a bit of fun, with a serious purpose, for those people who find it harder than I do to start plot ideas, or to design their characters. This little book gives the option of using random plotlines, characters, secondary characters, walk-on parts, side-plots and incidents, drawn from popular tropes of the genre. So if you get stuck why not try tossing dice and giving your story a slightly different finish. An example story written using dice is included as an appendix, 'The Unexpected Librarian', in which our heroine applies for a job and finds romance. Also included is the People Portfolio, two hundred character outlines of people high and low, good, bad and indifferent. Some of them have interlinked lives which may be used, or ignored, as seems appropriate. They are designed to slot in as walk-on parts, people met in passing, but they all hold the potential to be expanded into major characters if so desired.