The Madness of Solving everything

[towforce]

I am not poet, neither philosopher, just a writer. To be one means NOT to be scientist, NOT to be enthralled with a math approach to life..{snip}

A few months ago, I saw Verdi's Aida (an opera - click here). I thought he was a brilliant writer - the plot convolutions were perfect (the head of the Egyptian army, which is conquering Ethiopia, falls in love with an Ethiopian princess. Meanwhile, an Egyptian princess falls in love with him!). I couldn't wait for the final act to see how it would be resolved (this part was disappointing - Verdi wrote a deus ex machina ending).

It gave me an idea to write a program with a mathematical basis to create story lines. I see it as a constraint problem - the elements of which would be things like characters (can be young, old, stupid, gay, rich, desperate. stunningly attractive etc) and circumstances (love, envy, greed, corruption, lust for power, used, passed over for promotion, theft, violent intimidation, HIV+ etc).

Having input the elements, the program then tries to optimise the reader's/viewer's engagement using the right number of elements with the right number of interactions with each other to keep the reader's brain working hard (but not completely overwhelmed), and to then resolve everything with a sharp, clean ending, as late in the story as possible.

Who says maths cannot be applied to story telling?

[Alessandro Scotti]

A few months ago, I saw Verdi's Aida (an opera - click here). I thought he was a brilliant writer - the plot convolutions were perfect (the head of the Egyptian army, which is conquering Ethiopia, falls in love with an Ethiopian princess. Meanwhile, an Egyptian princess falls in love with him!). I couldn't wait for the final act to see how it would be resolved (this part was disappointing - Verdi wrote a deus ex machina ending).

Verdi wrote the music, not the plot. The libretto is by Antonio Ghislanzoni.

[fern]

Man, with that kind of a program you perhaps can create a script, but not a literary work. Literature is about style, nuances, meaning, no about a witty plot. Plot is simple in most of great works of literature.
Perhaps your program could be useful for writers of shit as the one of Lord of The Rings and things like that. Or TV weather scripts.
Keep the good work

Fernando

[Dann Corbit]

Well, Dann, there are areas of life where in fact it is good to have solutions, I agree. Nevertheless, do not understand literary what I said.
My bst and happy new year...in mystery and concealment..
Fernando

I think we will always have mysteries:
(Proverbs 30:18-19) 18 There are three things that have proved too wonderful for me, and four that I have not come to know: 19 the way of an eagle in the heavens, the way of a serpent on a rock, the way of a ship in the heart of the sea and the way of an able-bodied man with a maiden.

[YL84]

Perhaps your program could be useful for writers of shit as the one of Lord of The Rings and things like that.
Fernando

Tolkien was a professor of literature at Oxford, having studied at Oxford, inventor of a literature style, a great writer http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/J._R._R._Tolkien. You should read his books, but maybe you don't like fantasy literature?
Yves

[fern]

sorry, my mistake. I hit the wrong title.- I tried to refer to the books of some ladies about witchcraft and all that.
Tolkien is of course a great writer.
Fernando