OK gang, I’ve finished my updates to the Writing Prompt Generator.  Added some new intros, spices up a few basic openings, and added a bit more variance to a common phrase or two.

As for now, I think I definitely need to take a break from it, so I’ll consider it “good enough” for now – to judge by the comments I’ve gotten.  However I should return to it in the future.

This is one that was extremely educational.  What stood out was this:

• You need to really vary the openings.  Openings, even mildly different, really seem to inspire people.
• Slight turns of phrase have big effects.  “always,” “almost always,” and “sometimes” are very different.
• You’ve got to have a kind of opening that makes people want to hear what happens next, wonder what happens next, or tell what happens next.  The ending is important as well.
• Little changes in tone, time, opening, description can have vast effects.  These generators are “multiplicative.”
• The economy of words, the fact it has to be one sentence, really means you have to pack a lot into a single set of words.  I appreciate how hard it is to find good opening lines more now – and I write as well.  Analyzing it was humbling.
• This was the hardest generator I’ve done because of the mix of psychology, literature, and variability.  I figured it would be easier than it was.  On the other hand I learned a lot doing it, especially on how to vary language for inspiration.
• Not all generators have to be “done.”  From the start.  Normally I like to release them complete, but it’s fine to take feedback.  In fact, it’s a lot of fun to be frank and I need to do it more.

Next up I’m taking a break, then have some other generators I want to do that are in various stages of design.  Ironically one builds on some inspiration from the start of the year when I asked people for advice . . .

 
– 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/.

Two updates this time!

First the Seventh Sanctum Tumblr now has a daily random character as well as the random story idea.  This way you get interesting character ideas you can share, discuss, and challenge each other to use.  I plan to add more in the future.

Next up, the Writing Prompt Generator had another update!  I added specific locations as well as metaphorical comparisons to classic stories and legends, plus some tweaks and additions and improvements here and there.

I think one more update and I can consider this “done enough” – good enough for people to use, but something where I’ll return to it to improve it in the future.  Frankly working on it because it not only takes work to do, you have to evaluate combinations, viability, maximizing randomness and diversity, and trying to keep it all “sounding” right.  In a way it’s one of the most challenging generators I’ve made.

So clearly it will be a work in progress for as long as I’m willing to work on it here and there or make some tweaks.

Now let’s try some results:

• And now the the sky is crying – I like this one, it could be a metaphor for raining and suggests a mood.
• His life is almost exactly like the tale of the Genji, only he was a virtual reality programmer. – Perhaps he’s reliving the tale in a game?
• He died in the epoch of war, all because of that book. – A book of advice for warriors leads a person down a fatal path, assuming they know more than they do.
• I was sure he will be sleeping. – What are you sneaking up on him for there.
• Ambition is a lady, and that’s when the murders began. – One woman eggs on people with promises . . .
• I am a mad lady, with my lanterns and my bottles. – And the bottles have candles in them, a woman obsessed with light – to keep the darkness inside at bay.
• That archer will be the love of my life, but that’s a lie. – One archer saves a prince or princess, and they fake being in love with them in gratitude.
• People call him Owen. – I got nothing.
• We survived the poverty by hiding in her library. – A library designed to be an indestructible repository also lets people hide from a horrible bout of starvation, corrupting its intention – so how do you make up for it?
• It was Monday, the day of injustice, and that’s when the murders began. – A court decision results in someone taking justice into their own hands.

Check it out!

– 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/.

As you may guess what is up?  The Writing Prompt Generator!

Took a bit of a change here, not adding new vocabulary or prompt structures, but jazzing up and extending the ones I’d created.  It’s actually made it a lot more interesting and diverse, and made me think about a few things.

Mostly I think of generators as involving a structure and language in the structure when they’re simple, or a kind of “tree of possibilities” when more complex.  Superhero names are of the former variety, a character generator where you have certain things that can or can’t happen (having hair) or that relate to each other (“x item produces y occurrence”).

But the prompt generator feels more like a kind of matryoshka doll, a bunch of nested patterns.  I need to have the place-word-in-slot complexity on one level, but overall complexity isn’t quite linear, but is a series of elements that can relate linearly.

There’s the overall structure (“It was the best of times, it was the worst of times”), lower-level components (“The X of times”) and then the words itself (“best”, “worst”).   In turn you could also complicated it (By randomly adding “She was sure it was . . .” to the start), or randomly adding something to the end, (“, so said my father”).  But in turn I could make those complicated as well, by adding multiple beginnings or endings.  You could have “I was sure it was the most disgusting time, and the most glorious age, but who listens to me?” emerge from slotting words and groups of words into a similar structure.

Yet the relation of the parts is a tad tenuous, because I need them to be unpredictable and not connected to inspire the imagination and create diversity.  It’s nested randomness.

I’m quite sure the generator will never be perfect, yet at the same time it’s already far better than my worst-case scenarios – enough I can declare it to be out of Alpha and into Beta.  I certainly learned a lot!

I’ll probably take a few more stabs at it, get it to at least decently release-worthy, then take a break and maybe get to some other generators.  This is one I may have to revisit.

But some results for you with my thoughts . . .

• Then came the mutants, or that’s what he thought. – Not mutants, but aliens, good job lousy space adventurer, now your sidekick has to sort it out.
• Such a common time, this time of science and space wars. – Space combat is automated so people are used to it.
• Terrorist attacks, political collapse, sanity and wanderlust. – Sometimes you have to get away from the chaos to stay sane.
• The crazy girl was weeping all night. – . . . this doesn’t end well.
• I will be a linguist, with my lamps. – A linguist-interrogator, checking others for unlawful language.
• I’ve found that all supervillains lack any understanding of religion – he was the exception as well as my friend. – Your best friend is a religious fanatic supervillain, teenage years just got complicated.
• I have a tale about war, alchoholism, and a king – your story. – The king drank himself into oblivion and amnesia – and now he has to remember who he is as his advisor tries to help – and the story is written as if someone is talking to YOU.
• Like a person, a political collapse is always sleeping. – And always ready to wake and turn over and crush things.
• Everyone predicted there will be a mass murder, and that’s when everything when wrong. – What happens when a group of criminologists make an embarrassing prediction that doesn’t come true?
• It will be the month of scheming. – A very organized supervillain is preparing . . .

– 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/.

(This came from an acquaintance who runs a website for sf writers, SciFiIdeas – and its about creating new aliens, I figure it’s right up the alley of folks here! – Steve)

Like sci-fi? Like aliens? Like creative ideas? This is an open invitation for writers, artists, and all creative types to take part in the Alien August special event at scifiideas.com.

For those of you who don’t already know about SciFi Ideas and what we do, we’re a blog specializing in providing ideas and inspiration to science fiction writers. We want people to create great science fiction, and we believe that sharing ideas is the best way to promote creativity in the genre.

Throughout the month of August, we’ll be focusing on one specific aspect of science fiction: Aliens!

We’ll be posting lots of new “alien profiles” detailing unique alien cultures, sharing artwork by various concept artists, discussing the many alien species that already populate the world of science fiction, and hopefully bringing you some original short stories too. Even our weekly “story starting point” feature will be taking on a distinct alien flavour, encouraging you all to write short stories about aliens.

Most importantly, we’ll be encouraging our readers share some of their own alien ideas. And there’s even a prize for the most creative, original, and interesting idea!

The event will take place on the SciFi Ideas website (scifiideas.com) throughout August.

Full details of the alien profile writing competition can be found here. http://www.scifiideas.com/news/alien-august-competition-2014/

There are also lots more details about the event on the SciFi Ideas website. http://www.scifiideas.com/news/alien-august-back/

Also, we’re always looking for fresh content, so if you’d like to write a guest article for us during Alien August, perhaps as a way of promoting your own blog, book, or creative project, please feel free to get in touch! http://www.scifiideas.com/contact/

Even if you don’t plan to share any of your own alien ideas, it’s still worthwhile checking out the SciFi Ideas website during the event and exploring all the new content we’ll be posting. Who knows, you might just be inspired. See you there!

Mark Ball
Mark Ball is a professional writer, semi-professional geek, and amateur podcaster. He is the founder and editor in chief of scifiideas.com.

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/.

And the latest updates to the Writing Prompt Generator are here!

I haven’t incorporated every suggestion – and there are ones  I will use because this isn’t done yet.  Most of my focus was on:

• Recombining various abstract “strings” to mix up a few results.
• Adding some Dickens-inspired lines about the times one lives in.
• Adding a bit more crazy-sounding or odd lines.

Probably my next effort will be to put in more locational and object references.

So it’s definitely coming along.  Still don’t feel it’s really “broken out” to get really crazy and wild and unpredictable, the patterns are still obvious, but let’s see what I can do with it.

On other news:

• I do still have some other generator designs – may get to one just to take a break.
• Still getting ideas on social media.  People really love the Disqus stuff and Tumblr is gaining followers regularly.  Not entirely sure about message boards or Facebook or mailing lists since people have their own agendas and goals here.
• As for Way With Worlds, heroes, villains, and main characters will be the next set of issues I tackle!

– 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/.

Let’s talk the Writing Prompt Generator!

Based on the feedback I’ve been getting I’ve been adding new stuff – in this case disasters and antagonists, as well as tweaking things here and there.  It’s definitely spiced things up, so go check it out!

This was definitely one of the less-fun parts as I had to work out various setting-specific things first.  Putting the various words and phrases together is fun, but those moments of sitting down and listing things can be a pain (how many popular disasters are there in science fiction for instance?).  Fortunately the internet helped, and the research was pretty educational – for instance seeing trends in SF disasters – really much apocalyptic fiction really is SF.

Now when it comes together it produces some pretty frothy stuff.  I may need to take time to go through and just add more tweaks, variants, and weirdness

By my estimates I need a certain level of “base” opening lines to make this work – and I’m a bit under halfway there.  So my goal is to work on this thing through August.  It’s extremely educational.

I admit I think this isn’t going to be perfect – not in that it’ll be incoherent, but it’s hard to capture the “lightning in the bottle” opening lines, so I may be making it a tad tame.  There is a very, very fine line to walk here, and I’m learning that there’s a sweet spot in language that both explains and inspires – but you have to hit it.  Err on the side of explaining (“wham here it is”) and it’s dull and uninspiring.  Err too far on the side of looking for the combination that inspires and you risk falling into incoherent weirdness.

But again, always educational.

I also think this is the kind of generator more generator-makers should try.  It’s highly educational

That’s it for this update.  Do have some things brewing for future generators and some writing, always working on Way With Worlds (I plan to finish up my two-parter on skills and move on to the next subject), but let me leave you with a few opening lines . . .

• Political collapse – it was definitely Saturday. – A world so organized political disasters happen only on one day.
• A war is just like getting old. – You can’t reverse it and you’re filled with regrets.
• We called him John, and figured he was a comedian. – Imagine a guy who’s hilariously funny, but wants people to stop focusing on that.
• I’d never dealt with a climate change before. – Sounds like someone is aware of an issue.
• I pretended to be a librarian, that was the problem. – You CANNOT pretend to be a librarian, its a special skillset. Sounds like an odd comedy.
• I am a secretary. – Sounds simple, but I feel this is a more menacing opening.
• On Wednesday I become a chemist, which was really cool. – Childlike wonder at handling dangerous chemicals could go wrong.
• She was my worst enemy and the darkness in my life. – Well your relation is pretty clear – the question is why haven’t you done anything . . .
• Michael knew that knowledge requires injustice. – Oooh, a story on how knowing the truth doesn’t mean fairness?
• It was Monday, the day of giggling, everyone knew that. – This just sounds creepy, like every Monday everyone hears giggling
• One magical experiment gone haywire can change your life, four however . . . – A series of magical disasters make things too normal.
• I never figured a mass murder would be like this. – Sounds very “Breaking Bad” ish.
• The rogue robots were behind the starship crash. – Well, that’s simple.  But why?  Were they willing to sacrifice themselves.
• That scientist was the source of all my pain. – This can’t end well.
• I pretended to be an explorer, which everyone expected. – Getting to live your childhood dream doesn’t mean you’re good at it.
• I have a tale about hope, birth, and being a dungeon delver. – If you spend your time exploring dungeons, what if you miss your child’s birth?  What’s it like when dad goes away so often?
• On Saturday I become a scientist, and that’s where things get complicated. – I’d like to know how, maybe you know something people don’t.
• I never wanted to be a demon. – This sounds like a rather dark supernatural romance.
• It was Thursday, the day of disbelief and drug addiction. – If you have nothing to believe in, drugs are tempting.
• Because of her, the wind is weeping. – One person who fails you makes the whole world seem sad.

Let me know what ideas you get . . .

– 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/.

 

 

 

Hey gang, what’s up?

Well for me most of the “up” is the Writing Prompt Generator, which I’m tweaking here and there as I get feedback.  To be honest, I suspect this thing is easily going to take a month or two to get right – but on the other hand, I really am enjoying the feedback approach.  I might have to use it elsewhere.

I have notes for a few other generators, but we’ll see where that goes.  Work still has me pretty busy, to be honest, I need to carve out more Sanctum Time.

On that note, I hear from my users now and then and I wanted to explain to folks some of my future plans.

See Seventh Sanctum’s been around fifteen years – and I’m 46.  I’d like to build more of a community around it, but that’s also a tetchy proposition.  I also want to broaden it a bit to include a bit more than the generators and let people connect – thus the Codex and the tumblr.  My ultimate hope is that, before I’m 50, I’m able to organically cultivate an active Sanctum community for ideas, writing, and maybe some people to help me out.  Or heck, even inherit it – at 46 you have enough times you loose relatives, have friends with health problems, etc. that you get a might thoughtful.

I just don’t want to try and force a community.  It rarely works and it’s usually not worth the effort.  So I’m just building tools slowly, connecting things together – and asking people for advice.  The best communities I saw had an organic quality that grew out of another focus.

– 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/.

 

Well one big announcement here is that I’m releasing the very crude Alpha of the Writing Prompt Generator.  How crude? Well I’d consider it at best 15% done, but the framework is there.

So this is where you come in – I want feedback and suggestions!  I could do this all myself (and indeed I’m going over famous opening lines of books for ideas), but as this is quite an effort frankly, and could do in so many directions, I thought it’d be fun to get feedback while I worked on it.

So go check it out and tell me what you think it needs!

And now, some examples:

• A plague is just like marriage – he always said that.
• A war was just what I expected.
• And now the the cloud is speaking.
• And now the the ocean is howling.
• Disbelief requires love, and that’s where things get complicated.
• Evan knew that wisdom requires education.
• Famine, wisdom, and it seems the star is giggling.
• He died for faith, that was the problem
• He lived for evil.
• Isaiah was an astronomer.
• It was Wednesday, the day of birth, and that’s when the murders began.
• Mass murder – it was definitely Saturday.
• On Wednesday I became a linquistics expert.
• She lived for ambition.
• The communications officer was speaking.
• There was a case of sudden poverty, he was a starship salesperson, and he was going to be the problem.
• There was a famine, he was a bard, and he was going to be the problem.
• There was a war, but nobody knew that.
• This is a tale about justice and begin a zookeeper.
• We called her Makayla, but we didn’t know why.

OK gang, let me know what else to add, your favorite opening quotes, and more!

 

– 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/.

Damn, where does the time go?

Well in my case, work.  I have been pretty hammered, and am just recovering.

But that doesn’t mean the Writing Prompt Generator isn’t moving forward!

I’m DEFINITELY releasing this as alpha to get feedback.  It’s easy to put stuff in, but to make it varied . .  is a bit challenging.  So I’ll want feedback.  here’s some examples:

• She lived for fame, but would die for knowledge, which was really annoying.
• This is a story about unemployment and a tactical officer.
• This is a story that concerns evil, drug addiction, and an astronomer.
• It was Monday, the day of hate.
• Around here, everyone has a story about injustice and a manager.
• On Saturday I become a medical officer.
• I have a story about ambition and a time traveller – a story everyone knows.
• I have a tale about getting old and a nanotechnologist – my story.
• Abigail knew that good requires fame.
• It was Wednesday, the day of authority.

Right now I think I need to up the “Seeds” but you can see the basics are forming.  In theory at some point it’ll “go critical” and I’ll have enough data to create some serious cross-pollination of the individual parts.  Right now it’s still a bit standard.

Otherwise kicking around other fun generators, we’ll see if anything comes together in my vacation.  Though I plan to crash pretty hard . . .

Any thoughts?

Otherwise, glad folks are signing on to the Tumblr.  I want to add a character a day as well at some point!

– 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/.