The Marshall Plan® Story Idea Machine

In just five easy steps, the Story Idea Machine helps you create the basis of a solid novel—quickly and easily, again and again. Play with ideas...substitute different answers in the blanks and see what appeals to you. Note the examples provided and follow the easy instructions below.

When you click on the button marked "Generate My Story Idea!" at the bottom of the page, the Story Idea Machine will open a new window containing a synopsis of your story idea—a brief, film-style "treatment" for you to work from as you develop your novel. Cut and paste this extended "log-line" into your word-processing program, or press control-P to print it out.

The concepts built into the Story Idea Machine are adapted from Evan Marshall's bestselling book The Marshall Plan for Novel Writing.

1. Depending on the kind of novel you're writing, your protagonist, or "lead," will be a man, a woman, or a child. Your lead's first name is... . 2. Every novel begins with a "crisis" for your lead—an event or discovery that turns your lead's life upside down in a terrible way. Your lead's crisis is that... . 3. In reaction to this crisis, your lead's emotional state is that s/he is... . 4. In order to solve the crisis, your lead sets a "story goal." Your lead decides to... . 5. Your lead believes that only by taking this course of action will it be possible to... .

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