Sure Thing

[decker-hou]

My tentative idea is to generate a zebra puzzle/Einstein's puzzle of enormous proportions and turn it into a novel.

[ikarth]

I really, really like this as the basis for a generated plot.

[decker-hou]

Ended up going in a completely different direction. The problem was that I was basically coding a puzzle generator, and then writing most of the story to plug the puzzle into, which I felt was not in the spirit of nanogenmo.

This new idea is inspired by the play Sure Thing by David Ives. The text I'm currently modifying is The Importance of Being Earnest, but I'm trying to get it to work with a novel format.

Every time a character asks a question, the answerer diverges from the script before being reprimanded by a bell. Right now it's just randomly selecting a new answer from the entire play, working on giving it more variation and avoiding characters addressing the wrong person, repeating the same answer, etc.

Snippet of output:

Gwendolen: [Slowly and seriously.] You will call me sister, will you not?

Cecily: Of course it was. On the 22nd of last March. You can see the entry if you like. [Shows diary.] 'To-day I broke off my engagement with Ernest. I feel it is better to do so. The weather still continues charming.'

(Bell)

Gwendolen: [Slowly and seriously.] You will call me sister, will you not? [They embrace. Jack and Algernon groan and walk up and down.]

Cecily: [Rather brightly.] There is just one question I would like to be allowed to ask my guardian.

Gwendolen: An admirable idea! Mr. Worthing, there is just one question I would like to be permitted to put to you. Where is your brother Ernest?

Jack: [Embracing her.] Yes . . . mother!

(Bell)

Gwendolen: An admirable idea! Mr. Worthing, there is just one question I would like to be permitted to put to you. Where is your brother Ernest? We are both engaged to be married to your brother Ernest, so it is a matter of some importance to us to know where your brother Ernest is at present.

Jack: [Slowly and hesitatingly.] Gwendolen--Cecily--it is very painful for me to be forced to speak the truth. It is the first time in my life that I have ever been reduced to such a painful position, and I am really quite inexperienced in doing anything of the kind. However, I will tell you quite frankly that I have no brother Ernest. I have no brother at all. I never had a brother in my life, and I certainly have not the smallest intention of ever having one in the future.

Cecily: [Surprised.] No brother at all?

Jack: Who?

(Bell)

Cecily: [Surprised.] No brother at all?

Jack: [Airily.] Oh, neighbours, neighbours.

(Bell)

Cecily: [Surprised.] No brother at all?

Jack: [Cheerily.] None!

Gwendolen: [Severely.] Had you never a brother of any kind?

Jack: I have lost both my parents.

(Bell)

Gwendolen: [Severely.] Had you never a brother of any kind?

Jack: [Pleasantly.] Never. Not even of any kind.

[MichaelPaulukonis]

That's different. Trying to wrap my head around it.

[ikarth]

It'd be even more obvious with multiple source texts, of course. A Shakespeare play that keeps getting derailed by an actor who think's he's in an Oscar Wilde play? Salome crossed with Arms and the Man? Though keeping it in the same family, so to speak, has an obvious advantage in your excerpt, where it preserves the tone across the alteration.