Story Processor
Version 0.1
White Paper
By Jeroen Lapré
15Oct2K7
Copyright 2007 distant-galaxy.com

Background
The word processor is a glorified typewriter. i.e. you string words together by slavishly typing individual letters.

In a Story Processor, single key strokes or mouse clicks should create semantic concepts. The software has an understanding of characters, locations, props, motivation, etc. The author can quickly string together their story outline with these tools. The software takes care of the lower level "house keeping" of such things as timeline consistency, and cause/effect relationship chains, allowing the author to focus on the higher level story plots.
Potential applications: short story and novel authoring, computer game and digital film story development.

Concepts
The Story Processor has a semantic understanding of "real world" concepts, via an owl/java api/web service adaptation of the open source opencyc.org project ontology.

Characters
Gender
Male
Female
Species
Human
Animal
Other
Age
Years
Developmental
Infant
Toddler
Child
Teenage
Adult
Senior
Build
Height
Weight

Locations

Examples
Beach
Ocean
Mountains
Building
House
Yard
Car

Props
    Gun
    Screwdriver
    Chair

Time of Day
    Semantic
       Morning
       Afternoon
       Evening
    Absolute
       9am
       1:30pm
       8pm

Implementations

Java
JXTA

Language Independent Protocols

XML
RDF
OWL

Related Technologies

The Semantic Web
Cyc.com
OpenCyc.org
OpenCyc for the Semantic Web
Opencyc Web Services
The CycFoundation
Protege/OWL

OpenCyc Concepts

Story
Fictional Character
Fictional Context
PredicateDescribingActorSlot
Actor predicate describing the actor's fate
Agent
Agent - Non Artifactual
Intelligent Agent
Able-MindedThing
Sentient Animal
Person
Narrative Role
Location - Underspecified
Location (DenduringThingLocalized)
    Geographical Thing
       Town

Wikipedia Definitions

Elements of Fiction

The elements of fiction are: character, plot, setting, theme, and style. Of these five elements, character is the who, plot is the what, setting is the where and when, and style is the how of a story. [1]

A character is any person, persona, identity, or entity whose existence originates from a fictional work or performance.

A plot, or storyline, is the rendering and ordering of the events and actions of a story, particularly towards the achievement of some particular artistic or emotional effect.

Setting is the time and location in which a story takes place.

Theme is the broad idea, message, or lesson of a story.

Style includes the multitude of choices fiction writers make, consciously or subconsciously, as they create a story. They encompass the big-picture, strategic choices such as point of view and narrator, but they also include the nitty-gritty, tactical choices of grammar, punctuation, word usage, sentence and paragraph length and structure, tone, the use of imagery, chapter selection, titles, and on and on. In the process of writing a story, these choices meld to become the writer's voice, his or her own unique style. [2]


Misc

The Major Elements of Writing Fiction








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