Jul 02 2010
Our RSS Feed- Please Avoid Having Characters Repeat Each OtherCharacter 1: “Bob and I are going to Vancouver for the summer.” Character 2: “Vancouver?” Character 2 comes across as sort of mentally slow, right? Unless you’re trying to make characters sound slow (or totally disoriented), I would recommend against having them just repeat each other. Whenever a character says something, it should […]
- This Premise Sounds Brilliant: RedshirtsFrom John Scalzi’s Redshirts: Ensign Andrew Dahl has just been assigned to the Universal Union Capital Ship Intrepid, flagship of the Universal Union since the year 2456. It’s a prestige posting, and Andrew is thrilled all the more to be assigned to the ship’s Xenobiology laboratory. Life couldn’t be better…until Andrew begins to pick […]
- Which Tend to Be Better: Superhero Team Movies or Lone Superhero Movies?Since 2000, movies with 2+ superheroes have averaged 59% on Rotten Tomatoes, whereas movies with a lone superhero have averaged 50%. Lone Superheroes Company Average RT Rating Marvel 54 DC 48 Other 43 Overall 50 Superhero Teams Company Average RT Rating Marvel 64 DC 41 Other 58 Overall 59 Below, I listed […]
- How Would You Have Done The Avengers Differently?Is there anything about The Avengers you would have done differently? If so, what? (I wouldn’t recommend reading the comments here until you’ve seen the movie–there will probably be many spoilers). […]
- Guest Authors WantedIf you’re interested in becoming a guest blogger for SN, I’m looking for writing advice for current and/or prospective authors (for example, on some element of writing craft, marketing/sales, promotions/publicity, agents, the publishing industry, or anything else many novelists and/or comic book writers would find helpful). Please send me a 1-2 sentence quer […]
- The Avengers Was SolidI’d give it 3 stars out of 4. The closest comparison that comes to mind is that it’s the movie that Fantastic Four wanted to be when it was growing up (before it got addicted to cocaine and dropped out of school). Some other thoughts: The writing was very fresh and clever. I liked the way […]
- Canadian Superhero Authors WantedTyche Books is looking for Canadian superhero stories between 1000-10,000 words. “We want to see any and all permutations of the superhero genre, but with a uniquely Canadian perspective. Stories must involve a Canadian element — setting, politics, culture, history, characters, etc. Any genre-mashing goes: alternate history, crime, horror, romance, SF, fanta […]
- Please Avoid Having Characters Repeat Each Other
Hmm. This has a few formatting issues, but nonetheless I found it dangerously amusing.
I’m going to remove phrases like “(he/she) must convince (himself/herself),” because they look horribly awkward. I’ll see if randomly generating a gender is possible, but if not I’ll change it to masculine pronouns across the board. (Feel free to mentally substitute in “she” and “herself,” of course).
I think we can come up with a way that all the (a)s get turned turned into ‘a’s, and that they only come up when grammatically appropriate.
I suspect the ‘a’ vs. ‘an’ errors will remain. Maybe PM can come up with a magical solution that changes the ‘a’ in “a [adjective] accountant” to an ‘an’ whenever the given adjective starts with a vowel, but personally I don’t think mixing up ‘a’ and ‘an’ is a major problem.
“After getting insulted by New Guinea, a British agent with major commitment issues must disprove the Heisenberg Principle, preferably before he explodes next Thursday.”
That works.
After getting cheated on by New Guinea, (a) grade-schooler with a penchant for mischief and grand larceny must kill everybody involved.
XD Wrong…
“Why are they always about Richard Nixon? o_o”
The program is just as likely to pick Richard Nixon as any other protagonist. There’s a lot of repetition, though, because there aren’t all that many choices for each category.
The good news is that P. Mac will update the code to expand each of the categories later this week:
–Incitements: from 19 -> 32
–Antagonists: from 19 -> 35
–Protagonists: from 40 -> 55
–Goals: from 20 -> 44
–Adjectives: from ~40 -> ~80
I won’t belabor the numbers unless you’re interested, but if you generate 5 plots, you only have a 14% chance of getting a unique incitement, antagonist, protagonist, and goal each time.
After getting brained by (a) improbably anti-American businessman, (a) improbably anti-American publisher’s assistant must leave a trail of bodies that makes the beaches of Normandy look like Candyland.
……Lolwut.
After getting magically turned into a man-eating llama by a lone gunman, the new kid at school must convince his new driver that brakes aren’t for wusses.
…okay, yeah, I’m gonna write this. This story NEEDS to be written.
“After getting thrown into a wood-chipper by (a) improbably badass businessman, (a) improbably badass dinosaur must discover that the love interest is the only other racial minority in the book.”
…huh? Sounds weird.
“(a) improbably badass dinosaur must discover that the love interest is the only other racial minority in the book” –> It works if you use “race” like fantasy authors do, as a synonym for “species.” So we’re apparently talking about a businessman throwing a lovelorn dinosaur into a woodchipper… in Middle-Earth!
After getting brutally murdered by rogue elements of the Brazilian government, (a) priest must convince the American people that Lady Gaga is actually Phase 3 of an alien invasion.
“After getting forced to read Twilight by an unusually violent pizza boy, a nefarious but occasionally helpful assistant editor must kill everybody involved.” Uncanny!
After getting humiliated by Jerry Bruckheimer, Dan Brown must save the President from a superpowered assassin, The Jackalope. .