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New Story Idea Generator – Fairy Tales
By Deb Gallardo
Online story idea generators are popular lately. My posts on the topic of story generators are some of the most searched for story ideas topics. As a result, I’m always interested in finding new story generators (new to me at any rate). Today’s discovery gives you elements of a fairy tale. Here’s how it works.
With your mouse, select a “function” (see Wikipedia article reference below) from the 2-column list and then click the “Generate” button. It’s that simple. Now go back and add more functions and see how the results change.
This generator was created to prove or disprove “story theory” as proposed by the late Vladimir Propp. Here is an excellent Wikipedia article on Propp and his theories. As writers, all such story theory helps to give us insight into our own stories. To see if the experiment proved Propp right, go to the link at the end of this article.
The site is mostly self-explanatory. Have fun clicking around.
Tips
- If you like any of the narrative generated from your selections, you must copy and paste it into the text editor of your choice before trying another combination. There’s no other way to save it.
- Try the preset story ideas from the Grimm and Perrault choices at the bottom of the page.
- Don’t be discouraged if you get repetitive answers. The quasi-database they used to create this college project is not extensive.
- To “cheat,” simply click on “Functions” to see the entire contents of the quasi-database. If any strike your fancy, copy and paste those.
- Click “How” for a brief explanation of how their generator works.
Take away
This story idea generator is just as limited as any other. The actual inspiration they provide is always in the eye of the beholder.
Knowing that, use the story generator output as a jumping off point.
You may find ONE NUGGET that will inspire you. And really, that’s what story ideas really are — nuggets of “gold” that cause a resonance somewhere deep within us. What resonates for you might not resonate for me — until you write YOUR story, taking that raw ore, if you will, and refining it until it’s transformed into pure gold. Then I can appreciate the gold, too.
What other story idea generators have you used and what are your favorites? Comment and share with us your top picks.
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1 Comment »
September 28th, 2010 at 8:48 pm
This is really wild! I’ve never used an online story idea generator before, so I tried it, and obviously, it generated something silly enough that I might be able to transform the idea into a passable short story. Something like this would certainly entertain the “younger crowd” in my circle: my nieces, who enjoy writing, but sometimes need something a little different to spark their own healthy imaginations. Thanks for posting!