story generator
{{Short description|Tool to generate story ideas}}
{{About|tools that generate narrative ideas|fictional plot devices|Plot generator}}
A story generator or plot generator is a tool that generates basic narratives or plot ideas. The generator could be in the form of a computer program, a chart with multiple columns, a book composed of panels that flip independently of one another, or a set of several adjacent reels that spin independently of one another, allowing a user to select elements of a narrative plot. The tool may allow the user to select elements for the narrative, or it may combine them randomly, a specific variation known as a random plot generator. Such tools can be created for virtually any genre, although they tend to produce formulaic and hackneyed situations.
Overview
Plot generators were described as early as the late 1920s, with Plotto; a new method of plot suggestion for writers of creative fiction, by William Wallace Cook, appearing in 1928.{{cite book|url=https://archive.org/details/plottonewmethodo00cook|title=Plotto|last=Cook|first=William Wallace|date=1928|publisher=Ellis Publishing Company|location=Battle Creek, MI|page=314}} Plotto is a non-random plot generator; the reader makes all the decisions within the framework set out by the book.Eger, Markus, Colin M. Potts, Camille Barot, and R. Michael Young. 2015. “[http://www.aaai.org/ocs/index.php/AIIDE/AIIDE15/paper/download/11602/11402 Plotter: Operationalizing the Master Book of All Plots].” In Eleventh Artificial Intelligence and Interactive Digital Entertainment Conference, 30–33. Association for the Advancement of Artificial Intelligence.
In an article originally published in 1935 and reprinted in 2002, Robert J. Hogan described a book-based device called the Plot Genie which consisted of three lists of 180 items each: murder victims in the first list, crime locations in the second list, and important clues in the third list. The item to use from each list was chosen by spinning a dial with 180 numbers on it. Plot Genie (formally Plot Robot) was developed over the course of sixteen years by Wycliffe A. Hill and published around 1931. Hogan also mentions other similar devices such as The 36 Dramatic Situations (described by Polti in 1895, who claims to have improved on the work of Carlo Gozzi, 1720–1806) and Plotto (see above).{{cite journal |title=Inside an Author's Brain: The Birth of a Book Length Mystery Novelette |first=Robert J.|last=Hogan |journal=Writer's Digest |date=October 1935}}{{cite book |title=Pulp Masters |first=James |last=van Hise |year=2002| pages=120–125}}
The earliest computerized story generator was TALE-SPIN, an artificial intelligence program developed in the 1970s.{{cite book |first1=Selmer |last1=Bringsjord |first2=David A. |last2=Ferrucci |title=Artificial Intelligence and Literary Creativity: Inside the Mind of BRUTUS, a Storytelling Machine |location=Mahwah, New Jersey |publisher=Lawrence Erlbaum Associates |year=2000 |isbn=0-8058-1986-X |pages=122, 150}}{{cite book |chapter=TALE-SPIN |first=James |last=Meehan |editor1-first=Roger C. |editor1-last=Schank |editor2-first=Christopher K. |editor2-last=Riesbeck |title=Inside Computer Understanding: Five Programs Plus Miniatures |location=New Haven, Connecticut |publisher=Lawrence Erlbaum Associates |year=1981 |isbn=0-89859-071-X |page=[https://archive.org/details/insidecomputerun00scha/page/197 197] |chapter-url-access=registration |chapter-url=https://archive.org/details/insidecomputerun00scha/page/197 }} More recently in the 1990s, the computer program MEXICA was developed for academic research into automated plot generation. It produces plots related to the Mexica people.{{cite book |first=Rafael |last=Pérez y Pérez |title=Computational Creativity Research: Towards Creative Machines |chapter=From MEXICA to MEXICA-Impro: The Evolution of a Computer Model for Plot Generation |editor1-first=Tarek Richard |editor1-last=Besold |editor2-first=Marco |editor2-last=Schorlemmer |editor3-first=Alan |editor3-last=Smaill |publisher=Atlantis Press |year=2015 |isbn=978-94-6239-084-3}} Using an approach similar to that of MEXICA, the program ProtoPropp generates stories related to Russian folklore.{{cite conference |url=http://tomcat-stable.hcmc.uvic.ca:8080/ach/site/xhtml.xq?id=105 |title=Story Generators: Models and Approaches for the Generation of Literary Artefacts |first1=Birte |last1=Lönneker |first2=Jan Christoph |last2=Meister |first3=Pablo |last3=Gervás |first4=Federico |last4=Peinado |first5=Michael |last5=Mateas |conference=Joint Conference of the Association for Computers and the Humanities/Association for Literary and Linguistic Computing |conference-url=http://tomcat-stable.hcmc.uvic.ca:8080/ach/site/index.htm |date=June 2005 |location=University of Victoria}} There are a large number of "random plot generators" available on the internet—generic and relating to specific fandoms, with a certain amount of academic research into the subject.{{Citation needed|date=March 2016}}
The term story generator algorithms (SGAs) refers to computational procedures resulting in an artifact that can be considered a story. In the field of Artificial Intelligence (AI), the automated generation of stories has been a subject of research for over fifty years. An algorithm is understood as a set of instructions that, when applied to a given input, produces an output. In the present context, the desired output is a story. The underlying concept of “story” in SGAs is functional and does not imply any aesthetic notion. This is important because it sets the context for evaluation of generated stories, for which having a surface realization as a readable and appealing text is not necessarily a core issue.{{cite web|last1=Gervás|first1=Pablo|title=Story Generator Algorithms|url=http://wikis.sub.uni-hamburg.de/lhn/index.php/Story_Generator_Algorithms|website=The living book of narratology|access-date=12 October 2017}}
GPT-2 (2019) could be used to generate stories, if given appropriate prompts.{{cite news |last1=Vincent |first1=James |title=OpenAI's new multitalented AI writes, translates, and slanders |url=https://www.theverge.com/2019/2/14/18224704/ai-machine-learning-language-models-read-write-openai-gpt2 |access-date=23 February 2021 |work=The Verge |date=14 February 2019 |language=en}} "TalkToTransformer.com", released later that year, offered an accessible front-end to the public to use GPT-2's technology to generate stories.{{cite news |last1=Vincent |first1=James |title=Use this cutting-edge AI text generator to write stories, poems, news articles, and more |url=https://www.theverge.com/tldr/2019/5/13/18617449/ai-text-generator-openai-gpt-2-small-model-talktotransformer |access-date=23 February 2021 |work=The Verge |date=13 May 2019 |language=en}} AI Dungeon, also layered on GPT-2, debuted in December 2019, and by August 2020 reportedly claimed over a million active monthly users.{{cite news |title=AI Storytelling Game May Expand Publishing's Horizons |url=https://www.publishersweekly.com/pw/by-topic/industry-news/publisher-news/article/84224-ai-storytelling-game-may-expand-publishing-s-horizons.html |access-date=23 February 2021 |work=www.publishersweekly.com |date=28 August 2020}}
References
{{Reflist}}
External links
- [https://archive.org/details/plottonewmethodo00cook Plotto: a new method of plot suggestion for writers of creative fiction] (scan of the original book at the Internet Archive)
- [https://garykac.github.io/plotto/plotto-mf.html Plotto: a new method of plot suggestion for writers of creative fiction] (a transcribed and hyperlinked version compiled by Gary Kac)