History Main / ChandlersLaw

* [[http://markwaid.boom-studios.net/2009/06/15-minutes-with-waid-my-good-friend-jack-daniels Mark Waid]]
** Take two characters who would otherwise have nothing in common or anything to discuss and [[LockedInARoom put them into the same room]].
** Make a list of all the horrible things that could possibly happen to your character and consider going down the list.
** To see this concept in action, read Waid's ''ComicBook/JusticeLeagueOfAmerica'' arc ''ComicBook/JLATowerOfBabel'', in which the League [[spoiler:especially Batman]] go right on down the list.

* ''ComicBook/{{Superman}}'': In the early Nineties, the writers of ''ComicBook/Superman1987'' were gearing up for Lois and Clark's wedding when they were suddenly told to delay it for several months, so it would match up with their wedding in ''Series/LoisAndClark''. Unable to think of anything to fill the sudden gap, they eventually settled on having a GenericDoomsdayVillain drop from the sky, fight off the entire Justice League, and ([[ComicBookDeath temporarily]]) [[ComicBook/TheDeathOfSuperman kill the Man of Steel]].
** Silver Age ''ComicBook/{{Superman|1939}}'' stories had an unusual variant -- half the time it seemed a [[KryptoniteFactor kryptonite meteor]] or something similar would literally drop in out of nowhere simply to make things more difficult for Supes (if the creators felt the plot was slowing down). KryptoniteIsEverywhere taken a bit too literally.

** To see this concept in action, read Waid's ''Franchise/JusticeLeagueOfAmerica'' arc "Tower of Babel", in which the League [[spoiler:especially Batman]] go right on down the list.

* There was an issue of ''Franchise/TheFlash'' where Wally was involved with an uncomfortable relationship talk with his girlfriend. The captions really sum it up best:

* In the early Nineties, the writers of ''Franchise/{{Superman}}'' were gearing up for Lois and Clark's wedding when they were suddenly told to delay it for several months, so it would match up with their wedding in ''Series/LoisAndClark''. Unable to think of anything to fill the sudden gap, they eventually settled on having a GenericDoomsdayVillain drop from the sky, fight off the entire Justice League, and ([[ComicBookDeath temporarily]]) [[ComicBook/TheDeathOfSuperman kill the Man of Steel]].
** Silver Age ''Superman'' stories had an unusual variant -- half the time it seemed a [[KryptoniteFactor kryptonite meteor]] or something similar would literally drop in out of nowhere simply to make things more difficult for Supes (if the creators felt the plot was slowing down). KryptoniteIsEverywhere taken a bit too literally.

* A similar mechanic exists in ''TabletopGame/{{Fiasco}}'' - at exactly halfway through the game, an event called the Tilt happens where a bunch of extra conflict elements (e.g. "a dangerous animal gets loose", "love rears its ugly head", "someone develops a conscience", "something precious is on fire")are taken from a table and thrown into the game. Played properly, everything should be [[HilarityEnsues going horribly wrong already]], and the Tilt elements are intended to create a HalfwayPlotSwitch.

* Creator/BernardCornwell has said that if he's writing a ''Literature/{{Sharpe}}'' book and things get slow, he can wheel on 8,000 Frenchmen and have Sharpe slaughter a few of them.

* ''Manga/{{Bleach}}''. Creator/TiteKubo has stated that when he gets writer's block, making new characters helps overcome it. The trouble is, he doesn't create one or two characters, he creates entire groups which introduces a new CastHerd leaving the story with LoadsAndLoadsOfCharacters.

* This is something that's acknowledged (and even encouraged) in the ''Franchise/TouhouProject'' fandom. Behold, the existence of [[http://img397.imageshack.us/img397/6487/1227762377713zd9.png templates]] (which are forbidden)!