Tuesday, October 20, 2009

Brainstorm with PlotMonkey


I can't remember where I heard about PlotMonkey. I think something about it appeared in my mail box. At any rate, I usually ignore software writing tools like this but there were two things that intrigued me: it was developed by a guy older than I am, and it was darn cheap ($10). So I bit.

To my surprise, this is a fun and even useful program -- if you understand its use. It brainstorms story ideas with you. It goes from the ridiculous to something you can write. It does this by randomly showing you the Who, What, How, Why, When, Where of a story. It's user friendly and has an important feature: you can save any of the elements and randomly select new pairings for it. You also can add anything to its database.

Let's show you an example. I click the banana to "feed the monkey" and get:

Carl Hooker sells wine using an electric saw because it seemed like a good idea at the time after dinner in the phone booth.

Well, this certainly is ridiculous enough. But I like "because it seemed like a good idea at the time after dinner."

So I keep why, when and click the banana again.

Willie Cantrell marries an Indian with a hack saw because it seemed like a good idea at the time after dinner at home.

I keep where ("at home") and feed the monkey.

Todd Nieaber helps police track madman by hiding inside a cake because it seemed like a good idea at the time after dinner at home.

I pass on this one and click the banana again.

Curt Clakley stabs someone by pretending to be asleep because it seemed like a good idea at the time after dinner at home.

I like "stab someone" ... I save what and feed the monkey.

Leslie Goodrick stabs someone by hiding inside a cake because it seemed like a good idea at the time after dinner at home.

Eureka! I have a story idea! Leslie's in love with a guy getting married. He's having a bachelor party. She bribes a girl hired for the party so she, Leslie, can come out of the cake and stab her ex. This could be a short film, a short story, the big scene in a larger work. You get the idea.

The beauty of PlotMonkey is that it is quick and mindless -- you keep getting ideas and combinations thrown at you until something begins to click. This entire process above took about two minutes. This, in fact, is a workable story idea.

The combinations, the ideas, are endless, and I especially like the fact that you can add whatever you want -- any who, what, how, why, when, where -- to the database. This is a tool that is inexpensive, fun and easy to use, and actually gets your mind thinking about a story direction, which is exactly what a brainstorming tool should do.

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

Charles,

Thanks for the lead. I bought it, and downloaded also the free Storymonkey.

If you like the Hero's Journey, I recently uploaded a Word file to 4Shared. As you know, the Hero's Journey is a narrative model introduced by Joseph Campbell in "The Hero with a Thousand Faces" (1949) and simplifyed by Christopher Vogler in "The Writer's Journey" (1998). The British Kal Bashir has created an expanded version of the original model, but his free tips are dispersed on hundreds of pages (indeed, more than 2,500 pages). He also sells commercial products.

I have collected his free tips, respecting all the conditions he established in his posts: no changes made in the tips, a link to his site, and his name. I didn't buy or read any of his (expensive) commercial products.

The free ebook ("The Hero's Journey", 871 pages, but an easy read) has four sections: 1. The Hero's Journey – Macro and Micro Stages; 2. Theory; 3. Writing a Screenplay – The Hero's Journey Way; and 4. Film Deconstructions – The Hero's Journey in Action.

The last section has more than 100 analysis of famous American movies.

http://www.4shared.com/file/140839893/
d7f7b6d5/The_Heros_Journey.html

Or:

http://tinyurl.com/ykz7lv6

Dave Crosby said...

What wonderful words you have to say about PlotMonkey. You are using it the way it was designed.
For "Who" you can also get a character, i.e. A newlywed with a drinking problem.
Also you can hold one element and build the idea.
I'm impressed with your body of work. I've published a few business books and a couple of mysteries that don't sell. Maybe it's my dog.
Thanks again for your kind words.
Dave Crosby - Father of PlotMonkey

MuseForce said...

And I'm going to try it with my high school English Classes!!