So the Writing Prompt Generator got another upgrade!  Inspired by the famous Dr. Who line ‘I am definitely a mad man with a box,’ I realized there should be more lines qualifying people and dealing with objects, and put in a lot of new vocabulary and sentence structures, as well as fleshing out some old structures with the new data.  The result feels far more inspiring and satisfying than the last version – I think this is coming together.

By my estimates it’s probably around 2/3 done.  I’ve also had to realize, sadly “done” is really in the eye of the beholder – I could go on for ages with this thing (and well may).  So at some point I’ll have to say “good enough” and stop or take a break.

(Also I want to get back to some other generators and projects, darn it!)

I am also thinking as this is one of the most complicated generators sentence-structure wise, maybe at some point I have to just rewrite it and apply my lessons, as I’m literally learning as I make this.

Here’s some of the latest results!

• People call her Isabelle. – Have her meet Ishmael!
• It was Tuesday, and you know what that means. – It’s that last line that gets you as you don’t know.
• Hyperspace distortions, plague, good and getting old. – I imagine someone marooned on a plague-infested world, trying to make it better as he/she comes to grips with mortality.
• Call me William. – Meet Isabelle.
• He was eternally an odd boy. – There’s an intriguing line, I imagine a strange child in a little neighborhood who doesn’t age . .
• She was resting, and that’s when the murders began. – Subconcious monsters of the id go on a rampage – or is she the guard against them?
• All the robot rebellions were her fault. – I imagine there’s going to be displacement of blame here.
• He never wanted to be a supervillain. – Parental or peer pressure perhaps?
• This is a story that concerns a good girl. – I’m pretty sure she’s going to turn out not to be good by the end.
• Getting old is my friend, ambition is my partner. – Your protagonist uses his sense of impending death to drive himself.
• That man, that thing of pure science, with his red statue and his bottle. – I imagine a guy who’s rather religious about his profession and has a statue of a famous scientist – and a drinking problem.
• That boy, that being of flawed good, with his book. – A religious young man who doesn’t quite get the deeper moral issues.
• That lady, that being of total peace, with her statue and her book. – A woman becomes famous and writes one book – and though she doesn’t ask for it, it comes to her.
• I have a story about Thursday. – It’s the next line that would make it.
• The sun was howling, and that’s when the murders began. – Sounds disturbing, as if some person believes he has to kill people to shut the sun up.
• Violet was my greatest betrayer and my worst enemy. – . . . I can’t say much except Violet is a jerk.
• I have a story about Saturday. – I’m sure you do.
• The immoral woman was bleeding all day, which was really awesome. – Disturbing. Sounds like some kind of religious fanatic torturer with teen lingo, which could lead to many stories.
• He was just a boy with a dangerous weapon. – There’s an opening line that could go many directions, and it has a lot of resonance – I imagine the weapon is some magical or technical artifact that isn’t obviously a weapon . . .
• This is a story about political collapse. – A bit generic, sadly.

– Steven Savage

Steven Savage is a Geek 2.0 writer, speaker, blogger, and job coach.  He blogs on careers at http://www.musehack.com/, publishes books on career and culture at http://www.informotron.com/, and does a site of creative tools at http://www.seventhsanctum.com/. He can be reached at http://www.stevensavage.com/.