Please note that none of my Android apps is any longer maintained – and they’re not even available on Google Play anymore – for reasons you can read about here. If you still have any of the Home for Fiction Android apps installed on your phone, you’re advised to uninstall them. The post below should be seen purely as a snapshot of history.
Besides GhostWriter and Narrative Nods, I’ve also published a third Android app about which I haven’t talked in this blog. The app is called What If – Random Quote Generator Widget.
As the name probably reveals, it’s a simple widget that lives on your screen and shows random what if quotes. It’s an entirely random quote generator, which means it can produce some inadvertently hilarious phrases.
Note: for an updated, much improved, and platform-independent version, check Narrative Nods v2!
Please note that none of my Android apps is any longer maintained – and they’re not even available on Google Play anymore – for reasons you can read about here. If you still have any of the Home for Fiction Android apps installed on your phone, you’re advised to uninstall them. The post below should be seen purely as a snapshot of history.
After GhostWriter, I’ve come back with another app. Narrative Nods is a free writing app for Android, which helps authors with narrative development. It works so that the writer supplies the app with information about characters, structure, narrative decisions, etc. and then it calculates the possible divergence points (“nods”) and offers a report with problem areas and other tips.
Narrative Nods: a Plot Development Tool for Fiction Authors
Much of what you have read about in my fiction writing tips has found its way into Narrative Nods. In other words, all my writing experience and academic background has helped me formulate a narrative theory that should, hopefully, be of use to you. Narrative Nods assesses character dynamics, story goal and narrative journeys, and calculates whether the narrative has led to a logical conclusion. In more detail, it calculates which of the four main narrative endings your novel belongs to.
Each tab contains a very detailed Help page, with instructions as well as information on theory. Even if you don’t know anything about narrative theory, you can still use the app without problems.
Please note that none of my Android apps is any longer maintained – and they’re not even available on Google Play anymore – for reasons you can read about here. If you still have any of the Home for Fiction Android apps installed on your phone, you’re advised to uninstall them. The post below should be seen purely as a snapshot of history.
I recently talked about the importance of learning how to learn. I spoke of how knowledge should be holistic, with each learned discipline or area of knowledge supporting the rest. Well, let me ask you: Can a guy with a PhD in English literature design Android apps? The answer is GhostWriter, a random text generator Android app I developed.
Long-term readers of this blog probably know that I enjoy programming, particularly when it’s related to writing and literature. Besides my genre-marking JavaScript program, I’ve also experimented with an iambic pentameter generator. Ghostwriter is an app of a similar kind, that is, one concerned with writing and texts.
How Does a Random Text Generator Work?
The GhostWriter app deploys the RiTa library (probably well known to developers). It can generate text based on Markov chain creation. In very simple terms, the program scans some pre-installed texts (mostly older, out-of-copyright novels) and detects how words follow one another.
For example, if there are two phrases like “The black cat went into the market” and “the white dog went into the store”, the app can mix them so that a new, randomly generated phrase emerges: “The black dog went into the market”.
Of course these are only two very simplistic examples. With literally thousands and thousands of combinations, a random text generator can produce some wild results. Here’s just one funny example from A Christmas Carol, by Charles Dickens:
Charles Dickens must be rolling over in his grave. Or, who knows, perhaps he’d find it hilarious and entertaining.
