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The Scratch Pad is the space where your
ideas accumulate. It functions as a basic word processor. In the Scratch
Pad, you can: This is what the Scratch Pad looks like:
In ComedyWriter the "idea" is the basic unit.
It consists of a phrase or sentence with the title of one or more lists in
brackets (e.g., [Place]). Generally speaking, the program will process these
ideas by inserting random selections from these lists in place of the bracketed
titles. Consider this example: What if [Famous Person] had been a(n)
[Occupation]? The program came up with, "What if Cinderella had
been a(n) TV weather forecaster?" (Pumpkin front moving in around midnight
tonight; 10% chance of glass shoe in the morning.) In searching the Famous
Person list, ComedyWriter selected an entry which read, "[Character]."
Since this is obviously another bracketed list, ComedyWriter in turn opened
the Character list and randomly chose "Cinderella." By embedding
lists within lists, where appropriate, the power of substitution is multiplied
many times over. Clicking on Open will take you to the proper Idea
Form where you can substitute list entries for the bracketed list: You can see that the bracketed list titles in the original
idea are replaced with boxes on the Idea Form. The titles now appear
above the boxes. Clicking on the Random button will cause the list
box or boxes to fill with new random entries from the appropriate list(s).
Directly under each list box is a check box labeled "Locked." You
can alternately check and un-check this box using the mouse, or space bar
if it is in focus. When the box is checked, the current entry is "locked"
and an entry will not be substituted in the box when Random is selected. Each Idea Form contains an empty text box in the
bottom left corner titled, "Your Response." This is a space to type
your reaction to the idea in its fleshed out state, or any notes you wish
to make. Whenever the Copy button is clicked on an Idea Form,
the entire idea will be copied to the Scratch Pad, followed by your
response. In this way you can continually build up material for later refinement.
On forms with list boxes, the list boxes will fill with a background color
after a successfull Copy. On other forms a message box will momentarily
pop up. Where a Help button would normally appear, each
Idea Form contains a button labeled Advice. This calls up a
page which repeats the idea in generic form and offers specific suggestions
to fulfill its comic potential. You can access the Help Index form
from the Advice page.
The Idea Build form allows you to create your
own ideas for manipulation on a special Idea Form. Build is
perhaps the most powerful form in ComedyWriter, for it gives you free rein
to experiment with ideas unforeseen by the author. One suggestion for using
this form is to generalize a title or expression. That is, take an existing
phrase and turn one or more words into list titles instead of the specific
words. For example, think of a movie title -- how about "Beverly Hills
Cop?" Build this as "Beverly Hills [Occupation]" and see what
you come up with (Beverly Hills Anthropologist). You can see that the possibilities
are nearly inexhaustible. Here is an example:
One of the most important features of ComedyWriter is
the database of lists. These extensively researched lists contain the
raw material for comic embellishment--excerpts from daily life, history, popular
culture, etc. Listen to any comedy routine and you'll hear frequent references
to our shared knowledge. These references set a baseline which we can then
twist or rearrange to create humor. Here is the screen which allows
you to browse through the "lists:"
If you have a word or phrase already in mind, you
can quickly search the lists for instances of your target phrase:
The Scene form provides an easy method to build
a setting using three elements which make up a scene: character, location,
and environment. This is accomplished using a preset sentence to be filled
in: These are just a few of the many screens within ComedyWriter to help you
be funny. Others include:
© 2003 All Rights Reserved. e-mail:
vince@ideascapes.com ideascapes * 800.445.4332 * 212.208.4404 (voice/fax)
What you'll see on your computer screen with ComedyWriter...
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