Writer’s Toolbox: The Plot Scenario Generator

If you’re a writer of fiction in any form and you’ve hit a creative dry-spell, are having difficulty starting a story, or already have some idea for a character, setting, theme, etc. but find yourself coming up short in actually producing a plot, check out The Plot Scenario Generator on the Archetype writing blog.  “This generator provides you with the event that gets the story rolling and a secondary conflict to keep you going!” And, of course, if you don’t like the generated plot, simply refresh the page and there’s a new one.  This site is a scaled-down, more general version of The Brainstormer.

As with any formula, this won’t work for every writer in every context.  What this site does, however, is creates a starting point for a story in medias res; and that might be the initial charge that your story needs.  If you could do with the structure of a formula, there are other tools that buttress nicely with The Plot Scenario Generator.  Anne Lamott talks about the ABDCE formula in her excellent book on writing, Bird by Bird:

“Action, Background, Development, Climax, Ending.  You begin with action that is compelling enough to draw us in, make us want to know more.  Background is where you let us see and know who these people are, how they’ve come together, what was going on before the opening of the story.  Then you develop these people, so that we learn what they care most about.  The plot—the drama, the actions, the tension—will grow out of that.  You move them along until everything comes together in the climax, after which things are different for the main characters, different in some real way.”

The Plot Scenario Generator can start you off with some action if you’re a sufficiently modern writer thoroughly encumbered by the tendency toward interiors.  However, this generator probably won’t dictate plot in a short story, but if you have already developed some characters and want to see how they tackle certain problems (i.e., plot as deepening the reader’s/writer’s understanding of character), this would be a great way to test/convey your characters in meaningful ways.  You could treat these discoveries as exercises, but I would take John Gardner’s advice and treat every text you write as a potential story rather than an exercise.

And who knows?  Maybe someday you’ll write something of worth that’s revered by critics and loved by the masses.  Something like Firecracker (1981) in which “Femme fatale martial arts expert teaches the mafia a lesson”.

Dream big, fellow traveler.

Completed Work

And thus concludes my maiden attempt at animation.

(an expansion on this previous post)

Incomplete Work

For the past month, I have begun working on an illustration project, that will include several comics. I drew these panels individually with the intention of fitting them into comic frames, but quickly realized that it may have more potential as an animation. This is only the first half of the “comic” and was an opportunity to finally teach myself how to make an animated .gif

If you’re interested, I used this as a resource:

http://creativetechs.com/tipsblog/build-animated-gifs-in-photoshop/

EDIT: After thinking about this a little bit more, I realized it was not a stroke of genius that led me to consider animating this but the suggestion of my ladyfriend to create a flip book of sorts. So here’s to our loved ones who take our ideas and make them better.

Baby Metal

“What is going on in Japan!?”

Baby Metal is a new idol group that fuzes traditional J-pop music and aesthetics with Metal. Considering that this musical group originated as a sub-unit of another Japanese pop idol group (Sakura Gakuin) and that the members are 3 young girls whose ages range from 12 to 14, the “metal” influence in their music is was clearly a marketing gimmick. These three girls, “SU-METAL” (14), “MOA-METAL” (12), and “YUI-METAL” (12), are to metal music as Avril Lavigne was to punk music. Their overall look is a mixture between sanitized mall goth and the slightly disturbing school girl lolita fantasy that dominates most young idol groups. Much like Menudo, these girls will probably be tossed to the side as soon as they hit a certain level of “maturity”.

Despite my usual distaste for both j-pop, idols, and metal music… somehow this song works for me. It has the perfect balance of “ridiculous” and catchy chorus to get me to listen to the whole song. Interestingly enough the band is being marketed to an english audience as well. Their first single “Doki Doki☆Morning” (seen above) is available to purchase in the US itunes store and the record label also produced an english language promotional video that can be seen after the jump. I guess Japan has finally realized that the western perception that Japan is “bizarre” can be profitable.

Rad Sitez: The Brainstormer

In a creative slump?

Feeling bloated and simpleminded in the midst of the darkest winter of your life?

Do you wake up every day thinking that you’re a radish?

Are you considering eyelid rejuvenation surgery?

There’s very little hope for you to solve most of these issues (, you freak); your best course of action is to bury these aspects of your life deep down.  Listen closely, you sick strange person:  these problems are insoluble–you will probably never be normal and if people knew what you thought, they wouldn’t talk to you.

However, if you’re simply in a creative slump, there’s hope in the form of a rad site (on the internet!). The Brainstormer is an ideas wheel for visual artists that uses three random elements: a description, a style, and a subject to generate specific subjects to draw (created by Andrew Bosley).  But I’ve found that it translates nicely into writing/comics or even just sittin’ and thinkin’.

Here are some of mine:  Fish out of water Tim Burton-esque superhero,  Odd couple road warrior supermarket, Conflict with a god safari dwarf (that one’s open to interpretation).

Rad Sitez: Monster Brains

For whatever reason, I’ve always been drawn to old monster movies, sci-fi movies, and the makeup/visual effects choices that the creators of these bizarre movies make.

Monsterbrains, is an image board featuring all things monster; from old VHS covers, to the twisted paintings of Fabrizio Riccardi, to sci-fi poster art, and on and on.

If any of this tickles your fancy, head on over and enjoy this “never ending celebration of monsters.”

Ira Glass’ Advice to Young Artists