I'm in

[rfreebern]

Let's do this thing.

[dariusk]

Woo!

[rfreebern]

My first attempt generates random word-like strings and assembles them into sentences and paragraphs. A resulting output (formatted by hand) is at http://ryan.freebern.org/nanogenmo/Freebern_Puti_Elughaqu.pdf and the code is at https://github.com/rfreebern/nanogenmo/tree/master/faketext-novel

[rfreebern]

I've decided to use this issue as a sort of ongoing diary of my thoughts around this project.

For what it's worth, the code I used for my first attempt I wrote years ago to generate readable nonsense text to fill out web forms for testing purposes, so making it output a novel-length document wasn't too much work. I just wanted to get one out the door quickly and move on to a more complex idea.

I did that because my next attempt is probably way too ambitious and most likely will end in failure. The plan is to set up some really simple AI designed to narrate goal-seeking behaviors, feed them a plot structure, settings, and obstacles, and just let them run wild.

[rfreebern]

One of the first ideas I had for this project was an exquisite corpse run on mechanical turk: actual people choosing which of a selection of markov-generated sentences made the most sense in a sequence. I'm considering taking another approach, and just doing a crowdsourced exquisite corpse: you see an existing sentence and type what you think should come next. Maybe participation requires sharing on twitter, or something.

[rfreebern]

Starting to realize that in order to simulate a novel from scratch, one must first invent the universe.

[rfreebern]

For a long time, I've thought that a git repo commit history can look an awful lot like an epic fantasy, with a main quest (master branch) being undertaken by an adventuring party (core contributors), and side-quests (feature branches) taken by individual characters in order to find treasure, plus battles (bugfixes) along the way.

[jeffThompson]

@rfreebern, that's a really interesting thought.

[dariusk]

Seconded, that's super cool

[rfreebern]

I'm currently collecting archetypes. There are a lot of lists of character archetypes out on the web, but it's hard to find lists of setting, plot point, artifact, plot structure, etc. archetypes. I figure if I manage to put together some half-decent lists, even if I don't manage to turn them into anything, maybe they'll be useful to someone else at some point.