The "Cool Bits Story Generator" randomly comes up with key elements for stories that could actually be written, but probably haven't - although in some cases, you'll experience a strange sense of deja vu, as though you might have read these somewhere. Some have proposed using them as writing prompts, but mostly they're just fun to read:

"It begins with an evil twin in a speakeasy. This person meets a mutant and together they encounter a lost civilization and a misunderstanding. The story winds up in a giant country mansion and features many painful reincarnations. The overall narrative contains themes and imagery of flight."

Or

"The plot starts because of a misunderstanding about teleportation. The protagonist, a librarian who has hair cropped so short it feels like velvet or plush, ends up in Venice with a nice guy who doesn't finish last."

(You gotta watch those misunderstandings about teleportation. They can be fatal ... )

And how about:

"The story narrates a journey between the Barbary Coast and a sleazy motel, during which a scholar and a fallen angel encounter a psychopath with prominent shoulderblades, as well as the fine line between pain and pleasure and rusted but functional machinery."

It's fun - give it a try ...

Cool Bits Story Generator

- Cho

HA!

"It starts in a culture on the verge of collapse, with someone with command presence. The antagonist is a librarian and the plot involves elements like learning about living and being alive together and aerodynamic martial arts fighting."

I like that one

Hey Silky - that's a pretty good WE plot. All it needs is pirates, llamas and cheese, and we're good to go.

ahhh, so that's why I liked it

If you can phrase those so that they sound like elements from genre fiction, you can probably get the creator of the marvellous toy to add them eventually ... I myself am personally responsible for several of the elements (like the really short hair that feels like velvet or plush and the cynical religious practitioner with a secretly soft heart)!

Heh, I keep getting stories that would be a complete hoot to read:

"The story is a sweeping epic with a sublime ending. Romance blossoms between a boy in a shirt with a collar loose enough to show his collarbones and a fighter pilot, while difficulties they encounter include a complicated caper plot and a mortal meeting a god."

I particularly like the idea of a god and a caper plot in the same story ... not to mention the fighter pilot.

- Cho

You know, a bunch of these sound very much like stuff by my boy China Mieville...

"It begins in a sepulchre and ends in other worlds. Plot elements include the line of a man's jaw, a social outcast and a diva hooking up, and getting deep into a subculture guided by someone who knows it. The hero is someone passionate about their work, and the villain is a cynical idealist."

Dark Tower...repeating element of jaw bones, starts in a desert, ends in New York, Kansas, and End-World...Eddie is something of an outcast being a junkie and Susannah is a bit of a diva...Roland is the one who knows about the Tower (subculture)...Roland is also passionate about being a gunslinger. Last but not least, Walter believes in the end of the world while having a "tittering" laugh...he a little like the Joker from Batman I think.


Edit: Also: "The story begins in a shadowy forest, when a man in black and someone who lives in the moment meet because of efficient minions. It is about the uncanny."

Sounds like Green Rider.

I don't know why? But I think Lisey's story.

quote:

Originally posted by Jeremy Cai:
I don't know why? But I think Lisey's story.

I myself couldn't get through that one, and I'm a pretty big King fan.