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Steven Savage has the turn of mind that plays with permutations, and has come up with an entire page of generators. Mostly they’re just for fun, or as an aid to imagination for gamers; but a couple of them generated material that would catch my eye in a slush ms. One is the Academic SF Generator (inexplicably filed under character-related generators), which generates fields of study:
Alien Pharmacology Business Artificial IntelligenceEven better is the Action Film Trailer Generator. It’s meant to generate parodic action-movie trailer voiceovers. I looked at the first one it generated:
Ethical Industrial Computing
Theoretical Communications
Inter-System Statistics
Modern Interdimensional Zoology
Remedial Terraforming
Nanotechnological Economics
Common Computing
Relativistic Computing
Clinical Robotics
Virtual Science
In a city of fear, four actors and a bounty hunter oppose crime.Sounded interesting.
In a galaxy of computerization, an astronomer tries to participate in the greatest fighting tournament of history.Cool. (Later on, I also got In a dark universe, two supercomputers hope to participate in the greatest fighting tournament of history. I liked that one, too.)
In a corrupt world, in a time of conspiracy and illusions, a grave robber and a conjurer seek vengance.That had possibilities.
In a forgotten world of magic, in a time of confusion and prophecy, three computer programmers search for a mystic artifact.So did that one.
In a hellish empire, two colonists and a prospector battle crime.There’ve been days when I’ve killed slush for hours without running into anything that interesting.On a planet of enchantment, a gigolo searches for a mysterious treasure and battles evil.
In a terrifying city of monsters, four botanists search for fame.
In an empire of blood and warfare, in an era of lies, three queens battle an evil corporation.
In a land of barbarism, a swordsman and an artificial intelligence fight evil.
In a city of demons and wonder, a nun and a gambler attempt to solve the ultimate crime and prevent the apocalypse.
In an empire of dreams and illusion, four psychologists and an exorcist fight a syndicate of aliens.
In a mysterious land of technology, an assassin searches for the ultimate weapon and fights evil.
In a universe of fear and sorcery, seven priests search for love and battle crime.
You can configure the generator to give you a bunch of results at once, so I set it for 25 per click and kept reading. Within half a dozen clicks it came up with summaries of the plots of John Brunner’s The Traveller in Black and Roger Zelazny’s Jack of Shadows, and did a near-miss on Jim Macdonald’s The Apocalypse Door. You could be in worse company.
A summary isn’t a plot, a plot isn’t a novel, and having the ingredients isn’t the same thing as knowing how to write fiction; but if that’s what you’re trying to do, you might want to have a look at that generator and see if it shakes anything loose inside your head.
Okay, I ran the synopses through LEADLINE 0.2 (an early alpha, don't ask) and got the following titles. Watch for these at your multiplex.
In a city of fear, four actors and a bounty hunter oppose crime.
MONEY SHOTS
In a galaxy of computerization, an astronomer tries to participate in the greatest fighting tournament of history.
THE TYCHO ALGORITHM
In a dark universe, two supercomputers hope to participate in the greatest fighting tournament of history.
ROCK 91EM SOCK 91EM ROBOTS: THE NEXT GENERATION
In a corrupt world, in a time of conspiracy and illusions, a grave robber and a conjurer seek vengance.
SPADE AND ARCHER: THE BEGINNING
In a forgotten world of magic, in a time of confusion and prophecy, three computer programmers search for a mystic artifact.
THE WAY OF THE CODE MONKEY
In a hellish empire, two colonists and a prospector battle crime.
CLAIM JUMPERS
On a planet of enchantment, a gigolo searches for a mysterious treasure and battles evil.
SAM ENCHANTED92S EVENINGS
In a terrifying city of monsters, four botanists search for fame.
BURBANK92S ANGELS
In an empire of blood and warfare, in an era of lies, three queens battle an evil corporation.
RICHARD III, LLC
In a land of barbarism, a swordsman and an artificial intelligence fight evil.
ELIZA AND THE DESTROYER
In a city of demons and wonder, a nun and a gambler attempt to solve the ultimate crime and prevent the apocalypse.
HARD 666 {from an idea by Anthony Boucher}
In an empire of dreams and illusion, four psychologists and an exorcist fight a syndicate of aliens.
EIGHTY MINUTES TO ZERO
In a mysterious land of technology, an assassin searches for the ultimate weapon and fights evil.
KILLER APP
In a universe of fear and sorcery, seven priests search for love and battle crime.
THE ORDER OF ST. ABELARD
Re: >>In a land of barbarism, a swordsman and an artificial intelligence fight evil.
I've read this one! It was by S.M. Stirling!
As someone who has produced trailers (see my web site, he said modestly), I was disappointed the Action Film Trailer Generator didn't lead with In a World Where... which seems to me the more common opening.
Still, it's pretty cool.
:)
John: for the ultimate expression of the 'in a world phenomenon,' check out the trailer for Comedian (if you haven't already):
http://www.apple.com/trailers/miramax/comedian.html
All you pros out there should print the URL for Savage's generator page on a business card, and sell it to folks who ask you where you get your ideas from.
(Give half the take to the Neilson Haydens, in compensation for the horrors that would soon start appearing in their slush pile.)
"In a mysterious galaxy of sin, a terraformer and a **novelist** try to find revenge and battle evil."
Mary Sue in space!
Stephanie,
What a gem! I can't believe I missed that one, because I visit the Apple trailer site regularly (I'll have to be more regular, I guess).
It's interesting Teresa came up with a Brunner plot; somewhere in the thin space between her plot summaries and Mike's titles for same I remembered Brunner's contention (from The Shockwave Rider) that Chinese villagers were called on to shuffle and deal word cards so as to come up with unfiltered concepts they could discuss and report on. (I certainly don't believe the discussion was "free and unfettered" as Brunner suggests -- looking back on this, I'm reminded of a local disbeliever-in-everything's apologia for the Khmer Rouge -- but I'm amused that he claimed this depended on unique characteristics of Chinese (he didn't say whether he meant Mandarin, Cantonese, ..., or all) when a few decades of Moore's Law puts it in the hands of any fule kno.)
Should we take up a collection to buy Patrick and Teresa a huge rubber stamp with the Tor book-proposal requirements (synopsis and two chapters, IIRC) for self-defense?
I generated a page of plotlines, and three of them had the same goal: "save the last living fertile woman."
The protagonists were: three heros and a duchess, two peasants and an acrobat, and a virtual reality engineer.
Which just goes to show: If you're the last living fertile woman, you'll be VERY popular.
>I generated a page of plotlines, and three of them
>had the same goal: "save the last living fertile
>woman."
>The protagonists were: three heros and a duchess, >two peasants and an acrobat, and a virtual reality
>engineer.
Titled, respectively, FULL HOUSE, PYRAMID SCHEME, and A SCANNER DARKLY.
How did it give you jack of shadows?
In a world half-night, half-day the only man capable of moving between its divisions makes out like a bandit?
As academic SF generators go, I'm still working on the setting that can plausibly contain a Department of Applied Eschatology.
"... to save the world's last fertile woman."
That's real close to the plot of Hell Comes to Frogtown. A ex-soldier (the world's last fertile male) and a dancer-turned-FBI-agent infiltrate a pool of alien frogs to save (among other things) the world's last fertile women. Yee-hah!
Watching Mike Ford makes me realize that we've got a consuite game here -- print out fifty or so of these buggers, read 'em aloud, and throw chocolate at whoever shouts out the best title.
And I'm laying 50 on Mike Ford.
Regarding esoteric academic titles, the rollcall of Blog U over at AKMA's takes some beating.
In fact the faculty are planning a convocation.
> In a terrifying city of monsters, four botanists search for fame.
Wasn't this the plot for the beautiful but ridiculously plotted Final Fantasy film?
http://britishspin.blogspot.com: "In a time of despondancy, mayhem and tension, a lone blogger seeks distraction and finds the action film trailer generator."