After finishing the exercise, these are the loglines I ended up with. I was just curious whether any of them seemed like clearly superior or inferior ideas to you all.
1 A shapeshifter ex-prince spies on the king who has taken his place, trying to decide whether to assassinate or aid the new king, and ends up giving the king his heart.
2 A man tries harder and harder to force a woman to submit until the previously pacifistic woman decides the man must die, and kills him.
3 Woman meets all-male gang: the woman struggles to be respected as an equal, and succeeds at transforming the barren feral world of the gang into the fertile domesticated beginning of a new clan. (This in only enough for a short story on its own, would need an external/background conflict to be novel-length.)
4 A man emotionally scarred by failing at life gets a second chance in a new world; he must heal and find the courage to climb the social ladder from animal to gentleman in order to obtain and protect the three things he has always longed for: brotherhood, true love, and fatherhood.
5 Two labyrinths symbolize the paths to the hearts of two magical creatures; one man has refused his invitation, one is forbidden to enter by human law, and the third forces his way in uninvited, sparking a scramble to keep the wrong man contained while getting the right ones to enter and make it through.
6 A man who has felt guilty about being the target of unrequited love suddenly finds himself experiencing the opposite side of the problem, and this new perspective prompts a one night stand with his long time admirer. Spurred by that night, the admirer resolves to become the kind of person who caught his beloved's heart.
7 Two people with secrets want to love each other but fear to trust each other; they take turns deciding each other is bad news and using sneaky means to try to get closer to each other without revealing their own vulnerabilities.
8 A man stuck in a rut of proper behavior finds revitalization and love by deciding that forbidden things can be good for you and truly living requires being able to joyfully take risks.
9 A woman [bearer] who feels that she lost her two children by not being involved in raising them, regains them in an unorthodox way as well as a new baby she will this time be able to keep and raise.
10 Two people with complementary unusual fantasies get together and find the courage to make their fantasy a reality. (This is totally generic and not really a plot; no conflict at all. But this basic format actually describes several of my ideas.)
11 A woman brings together two men who are rivals/enemies and unites them into a powerful team. (Also not a complete plot, the team needs to do something.)
My basic problem is that none of these are obsessing me, leaving me unable to stop thinking about them, or making me feel eager to write them. I like them fine as ideas, but they almost seem complete that way, like there would be no point actually writing them out.
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