Story generator

This article is about tools that generate narrative ideas. For fictional plot devices, see Plot generator.

A story generator or plot generator is a tool that generates basic narratives or plot ideas. The generator could be in the form of a computer program, a chart with multiple columns, a book composed of panels that flip independently of one another, or a set of several adjacent reels that spin independently of one another, allowing a user to select elements of a narrative plot. The tool may allow the user to select elements for the narrative, or it may combine them randomly, a specific variation known as a random plot generator. Such tools can be created for virtually any genre, although they tend to produce formulaic and hackneyed situations.

Examples

Plot generators were described as early as the 1930s.[1] In an article originally published in 1935 and reprinted in 2002, Robert J. Hogan described a book-based device called the Plot Genie which consisted of three lists of 180 items each: murder victims in the first list, crime locations in the second list, and important clues in the third list. The item to use from each list was chosen by spinning a dial with 180 numbers on it. Hogan also mentions other similar devices called The 36 Dramatic Situations and Plotto: The Master Book of All Plots.[2][3] Plotto by William Wallace Cook is a non-random plot generator. The reader makes all the decisions within the framework set out by the book.[4]

The earliest computerized story generator was TALE-SPIN, an artificial intelligence program developed in the 1970s.[5][6] More recently in the 1990s, the computer program MEXICA was developed for academic research into automated plot generation. It produces plots related to the Mexica people.[7] Using an approach similar to that of MEXICA, the program ProtoPropp generates stories related to Russian folklore.[8] There are a large number of "random plot generators" available on the internet—generic and relating to specific fandoms, with a certain amount of academic research into the subject.

Plot generators have also been portrayed in fiction, as in Fritz Leiber's The Silver Egghead.

References

  1. ↑ Rowntree, Derek (1985). Do You Really Need a Home Computer?. Scribner. p. 45. ISBN 0-684-18182-7.
  2. ↑ Hogan, Robert J. (October 1935). "Inside an Author's Brain: The Birth of a Book Length Mystery Novelette". Writer's Digest.
  3. ↑ van Hise, James (2002). Pulp Masters. pp. 120–125.
  4. ↑ Cook, William Wallace (2011). Plotto. Norton Creek Press. p. 1.
  5. ↑ Bringsjord, Selmer; Ferrucci, David A. (2000). Artificial Intelligence and Literary Creativity: Inside the Mind of BRUTUS, a Storytelling Machine. Mahwah, New Jersey: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates. pp. 122, 150. ISBN 0-8058-1986-X.
  6. ↑ Meehan, James (1981). "TALE-SPIN". In Schank, Roger C.; Riesbeck, Christopher K. (eds.). Inside Computer Understanding: Five Programs Plus Miniatures. New Haven, Connecticut: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates. p. 197. ISBN 0-89859-071-X.
  7. ↑ Pérez y Pérez, Rafael (2015). "From MEXICA to MEXICA-Impro: The Evolution of a Computer Model for Plot Generation". In Besold, Tarek Richard; Schorlemmer, Marco; Smaill, Alan. Computational Creativity Research: Towards Creative Machines. Atlantis Press. ISBN 978-94-6239-084-3.
  8. ↑ Lönneker, Birte; Meister, Jan Christoph; Gervás, Pablo; Peinado, Federico; Mateas, Michael (June 2005). Story Generators: Models and Approaches for the Generation of Literary Artefacts. Joint Conference of the Association for Computers and the Humanities/Association for Literary and Linguistic Computing. University of Victoria.
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