Plot generator
Encyclopedia
A plot generator is either:
A plot generator (sense 1) is found in any set-up which will produce an ongoing series of new cases, issues, etc., as in detective
or police serial
s (incoming criminal cases); medical drama
(incoming medical cases); and so on. Even more broadly, "what if" stories can permit writers to introduce any idea they want, as in The Twilight Zone
; for obvious reasons, this type of plot generator is found generally in the science fiction
and fantasy
genres, especially in episodic series which have a villain of the week
format.
", which has an unpredictable effect on Superman
for 48 hours (conveniently the time period covered by most episodes).
The TARDIS
in Doctor Who
is the epitome of a plot generator, in that it can take the Doctor
anywhere in space and time, where he can encounter anything the writers want him to encounter, from aliens in outer space to famous historical figures.
The Stargate
from the movie Stargate
, and the television series based on it, Stargate SG-1
, is an effective plot generator. By activating and stepping through the gate the characters are taken to any one of a very large unspecified number of alien worlds.
The Holodeck
, introduced in the episode The Practical Joker of Star Trek: The Animated Series
but more prominently seen on Star Trek: The Next Generation
, could also be viewed as a plot generator, as its open ended nature allowed the show's writers to construct a number of stories throughout the series.
Enid Blyton
's three books about The Faraway Tree feature a magical tree with a rotating system of worlds which can be reached by climbing to the top of the tree.
Law & Order
, and to a lesser extent its spinoffs
, has a structure that serves as a plot generator: few episodes are about the characters' interactions with each other; nearly all are about the detectives solving, and the lawyers prosecuting, the mystery at hand.
Quantum Leap features a time traveling protagonist who is lost in time. Due to a botched time travel experiment, the character is perpetually time traveling to different era/place once the storyline is conveniently resolved at the end of each episode.
The television show Sliders
featured a device that could send the main characters to any one of infinite alternate dimensions, each episode featured the group appearing in at least one new dimension, which usually had no particular connection to previous episodes.
The Sunnydale Hellmouth in Buffy the Vampire Slayer and the Cardiff spacetime rift
in Torchwood
act as plot generators, explaining the presence of incredibly evil humans, demons, erratic behaviour, magical anomalies etc. or the presence of alien technology, extraterrestrial life
, psychic powers and time abnormalities respectively.
Plot generators have also been portrayed in fiction, as in Fritz Leiber
's The Silver Egghead.
.” By piecing these three elements together, the user obtains the odd sentence, “A trucker who doesn't play by the rules bareknuckle fights for money, accompanied by a mischievous orangutan.” This plot sounds absurd, and it is — but it is also the plot of a movie starring Clint Eastwood
— Every Which Way but Loose.
In an article originally published in 1935 and reprinted in 2002, Robert J. Hogan described a book-based device called the Plot Genie which consisted of three lists of 180 items each: murder victims in the first list, crime locations in the second list, and important clues in the third list. The item to use from each list was chosen by spinning a dial with 180 numbers on it. Hogan also mentions other similar devices called The 36 Dramatic Situations and Plotto: The Master Book of All Plots.
Plotto by William Wallace Cook is a plot generator, but not a random plot generator. The reader makes all the decisions within the framework set out by the book. "Plotto achieves creative art in fiction by a new method of plot suggestion."
looks annoyed and says 'A wise person cares not for what he cannot have, but for what he can.' Sting guest stars." By refreshing the screen, the plot reads "A dead taxi driver is discovered in an abandoned van by a police sting. Lenny and Curtis initially pin the crime on a local celebrity, but after Curtis uses an internet chat room, they arrest a co-worker. McCoy and Kincaid prosecute, but McCoy must convict of a lesser crime to win. The old DA looks annoyed and says 'A handful of patience is worth more than a bushel of brains.' Michael Dorn guest stars."
- a fictional plot devicePlot deviceA plot device is an object or character in a story whose sole purpose is to advance the plot of the story, or alternatively to overcome some difficulty in the plot....
which permits the generation of plots for an extended serial without requiring a great deal of logical connection between the episodes, or - a literal device (such as a computer program) used by writers to generate plot ideas.
A plot generator (sense 1) is found in any set-up which will produce an ongoing series of new cases, issues, etc., as in detective
Detective
A detective is an investigator, either a member of a police agency or a private person. The latter may be known as private investigators or "private eyes"...
or police serial
Police procedural
The police procedural is a subgenre of detective fiction which attempts to convincingly depict the activities of a police force as they investigate crimes. While traditional detective novels usually concentrate on a single crime, police procedurals frequently depict investigations into several...
s (incoming criminal cases); medical drama
Medical drama
A medical drama is a television program, in which events center upon a hospital, an ambulance staff, or any medical environment.In the United States, most medical episodes are one hour long and, more often than not, are set in a hospital. Most current medical Dramatic programming go beyond the...
(incoming medical cases); and so on. Even more broadly, "what if" stories can permit writers to introduce any idea they want, as in The Twilight Zone
The Twilight Zone (1959 TV series)
The Twilight Zone is an American anthology television series created by Rod Serling, which ran for five seasons on CBS from 1959 to 1964. The series consisted of unrelated episodes depicting paranormal, futuristic, dystopian, or simply disturbing events; each show typically featured a surprising...
; for obvious reasons, this type of plot generator is found generally in the science fiction
Science fiction
Science fiction is a genre of fiction dealing with imaginary but more or less plausible content such as future settings, futuristic science and technology, space travel, aliens, and paranormal abilities...
and fantasy
Fantasy
Fantasy is a genre of fiction that commonly uses magic and other supernatural phenomena as a primary element of plot, theme, or setting. Many works within the genre take place in imaginary worlds where magic is common...
genres, especially in episodic series which have a villain of the week
Villain of the week
"Villain of the week" is a term that describes the nature of one-use antagonists in episodic fiction, especially ongoing American genre-based television series...
format.
Examples of plot generators (fictional devices)
The idea of plot generators is explored by Nick Lowe in his article The Well Tempered Plot Device. Examples he gives include "red kryptoniteKryptonite
Kryptonite is a fictional material from the Superman mythos —the ore form of a radioactive element from Superman's home planet of Krypton. It is famous for being the ultimate physical weakness of Superman, and the word kryptonite has since become synonymous with an Achilles' heel —the one weakness...
", which has an unpredictable effect on Superman
Superman
Superman is a fictional comic book superhero appearing in publications by DC Comics, widely considered to be an American cultural icon. Created by American writer Jerry Siegel and Canadian-born American artist Joe Shuster in 1932 while both were living in Cleveland, Ohio, and sold to Detective...
for 48 hours (conveniently the time period covered by most episodes).
The TARDIS
TARDIS
The TARDISGenerally, TARDIS is written in all upper case letters—this convention was popularised by the Target novelisations of the 1970s...
in Doctor Who
Doctor Who
Doctor Who is a British science fiction television programme produced by the BBC. The programme depicts the adventures of a time-travelling humanoid alien known as the Doctor who explores the universe in a sentient time machine called the TARDIS that flies through time and space, whose exterior...
is the epitome of a plot generator, in that it can take the Doctor
Doctor (Doctor Who)
The Doctor is the central character in the long-running BBC television science-fiction series Doctor Who, and has also featured in two cinema feature films, a vast range of spin-off novels, audio dramas and comic strips connected to the series....
anywhere in space and time, where he can encounter anything the writers want him to encounter, from aliens in outer space to famous historical figures.
The Stargate
Stargate (device)
A Stargate is a portal device within the Stargate fictional universe that allows practical, rapid travel between two distant locations. The devices first appear in the 1994 Roland Emmerich film Stargate, and thereafter in the television series Stargate SG-1 and its spin-offs...
from the movie Stargate
Stargate
Stargate is a adventure military science fiction franchise, initially conceived by Roland Emmerich and Dean Devlin. The first film in the franchise was simply titled Stargate. It was originally released on October 28, 1994, by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer and Carolco, and became a hit, grossing nearly...
, and the television series based on it, Stargate SG-1
Stargate SG-1
Stargate SG-1 is a Canadian-American adventure and military science fiction television series and part of Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer's Stargate franchise. The show, created by Brad Wright and Jonathan Glassner, is based on the 1994 feature film Stargate by Dean Devlin and Roland Emmerich...
, is an effective plot generator. By activating and stepping through the gate the characters are taken to any one of a very large unspecified number of alien worlds.
The Holodeck
Holodeck
A holodeck, in the fictional Star Trek universe, is a simulated reality facility located on starships and starbases. The first use of a "holodeck" by that name in the Star Trek universe was in the pilot episode of Star Trek: The Next Generation, "Encounter at Farpoint", although a conceptually...
, introduced in the episode The Practical Joker of Star Trek: The Animated Series
Star Trek: The Animated Series
Star Trek: The Animated Series is an animated science fiction television series set in the Star Trek universe following the events of Star Trek: The Original Series of the 1960s...
but more prominently seen on Star Trek: The Next Generation
Star Trek: The Next Generation
Star Trek: The Next Generation is an American science fiction television series created by Gene Roddenberry as part of the Star Trek franchise. Roddenberry, Rick Berman, and Michael Piller served as executive producers at different times throughout the production...
, could also be viewed as a plot generator, as its open ended nature allowed the show's writers to construct a number of stories throughout the series.
Enid Blyton
Enid Blyton
Enid Blyton was an English children's writer also known as Mary Pollock.Noted for numerous series of books based on recurring characters and designed for different age groups,her books have enjoyed huge success in many parts of the world, and have sold over 600 million copies.One of Blyton's most...
's three books about The Faraway Tree feature a magical tree with a rotating system of worlds which can be reached by climbing to the top of the tree.
Law & Order
Law & Order
Law & Order is an American police procedural and legal drama television series, created by Dick Wolf and part of the Law & Order franchise. It aired on NBC, and in syndication on various cable networks. Law & Order premiered on September 13, 1990, and completed its 20th and final season on May 24,...
, and to a lesser extent its spinoffs
Law & Order (franchise)
The Law & Order franchise is a number of related American television series created by Dick Wolf and originally broadcast on NBC, all of which deal with some aspect of the criminal justice system...
, has a structure that serves as a plot generator: few episodes are about the characters' interactions with each other; nearly all are about the detectives solving, and the lawyers prosecuting, the mystery at hand.
Quantum Leap features a time traveling protagonist who is lost in time. Due to a botched time travel experiment, the character is perpetually time traveling to different era/place once the storyline is conveniently resolved at the end of each episode.
The television show Sliders
Sliders
Sliders is an American science fiction television series. It was broadcast for five seasons, beginning in 1995 and ending in 2000. The series follows a group of travelers as they use a wormhole to "slide" between different parallel universes. The show was created by Robert K. Weiss and Tracy Tormé...
featured a device that could send the main characters to any one of infinite alternate dimensions, each episode featured the group appearing in at least one new dimension, which usually had no particular connection to previous episodes.
The Sunnydale Hellmouth in Buffy the Vampire Slayer and the Cardiff spacetime rift
Cardiff Rift
The Cardiff Rift is a fictional wormhole in the science fiction television series Doctor Who and Torchwood, one end of which is located in Cardiff Bay, Wales. The other end is apparently floating freely through spacetime, and matter and radiation can pass through the Rift, allowing extraterrestrial...
in Torchwood
Torchwood
Torchwood is a British science fiction television programme created by Russell T Davies. The series is a spin-off from Davies's 2005 revival of the long-running science fiction programme Doctor Who. The show has shifted its broadcast channel each series to reflect its growing audience, moving from...
act as plot generators, explaining the presence of incredibly evil humans, demons, erratic behaviour, magical anomalies etc. or the presence of alien technology, extraterrestrial life
Extraterrestrial life
Extraterrestrial life is defined as life that does not originate from Earth...
, psychic powers and time abnormalities respectively.
Random plot generator
The second type of plot generator is often referred to as a random plot generator, which is represented by a device such as a chart with multiple columns, a book composed of panels that flip independently of one another, or a set of several adjacent reels that spin independently of one another, allowing a writer to randomly select elements of a narrative plot. Such a device can be created for virtually any genre, although it tends to produce formulaic and hackneyed situations.Plot generators have also been portrayed in fiction, as in Fritz Leiber
Fritz Leiber
Fritz Reuter Leiber, Jr. was an American writer of fantasy, horror and science fiction. He was also a poet, actor in theatre and films, playwright, expert chess player and a champion fencer. Possibly his greatest chess accomplishment was winning clear first in the 1958 Santa Monica Open.. With...
's The Silver Egghead.
Examples of random plot generators
An example from the now defunct The Official Movie Plot Generator has three vertical boxes. The top specifies a specific type of protagonist, “A trucker who doesn't play by the rules.” The middle box specifies a specific action on the part of the protagonist--”bareknuckle fights for money .” The bottom box specifies a specific type of antagonist, “accompanied by a mischievous orangutanOrangutan
Orangutans are the only exclusively Asian genus of extant great ape. The largest living arboreal animals, they have proportionally longer arms than the other, more terrestrial, great apes. They are among the most intelligent primates and use a variety of sophisticated tools, also making sleeping...
.” By piecing these three elements together, the user obtains the odd sentence, “A trucker who doesn't play by the rules bareknuckle fights for money, accompanied by a mischievous orangutan.” This plot sounds absurd, and it is — but it is also the plot of a movie starring Clint Eastwood
Clint Eastwood
Clinton "Clint" Eastwood, Jr. is an American film actor, director, producer, composer and politician. Eastwood first came to prominence as a supporting cast member in the TV series Rawhide...
— Every Which Way but Loose.
In an article originally published in 1935 and reprinted in 2002, Robert J. Hogan described a book-based device called the Plot Genie which consisted of three lists of 180 items each: murder victims in the first list, crime locations in the second list, and important clues in the third list. The item to use from each list was chosen by spinning a dial with 180 numbers on it. Hogan also mentions other similar devices called The 36 Dramatic Situations and Plotto: The Master Book of All Plots.
Plotto by William Wallace Cook is a plot generator, but not a random plot generator. The reader makes all the decisions within the framework set out by the book. "Plotto achieves creative art in fiction by a new method of plot suggestion."
TV series-specific random plot generators
Some random plot generators are designed with particular television series in mind. For example, the now defunct The Law and Order Random Plot Generator allowed users to select different narrative elements by refreshing the screen. One plot for an episode might read, "A dead infant is discovered in a seedy basement by the perpetrator. Lenny and Curtis initially pin the crime on a local celebrity, but after a visit to the crime lab, they arrest Lenny himself. McCoy and Kincaid prosecute, but McCoy must not push for the death penalty to win. The old DADistrict attorney
In many jurisdictions in the United States, a District Attorney is an elected or appointed government official who represents the government in the prosecution of criminal offenses. The district attorney is the highest officeholder in the jurisdiction's legal department and supervises a staff of...
looks annoyed and says 'A wise person cares not for what he cannot have, but for what he can.' Sting guest stars." By refreshing the screen, the plot reads "A dead taxi driver is discovered in an abandoned van by a police sting. Lenny and Curtis initially pin the crime on a local celebrity, but after Curtis uses an internet chat room, they arrest a co-worker. McCoy and Kincaid prosecute, but McCoy must convict of a lesser crime to win. The old DA looks annoyed and says 'A handful of patience is worth more than a bushel of brains.' Michael Dorn guest stars."