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Fun idea. I’d love to see a spreadsheet/graph of a complex narrative to see what emerges.

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Thanks, Joel. I applied the idea to Quicksand for a seminar I had to present in a lit crit class. It had a good reception: https://open.substack.com/pub/terryfreedman/p/series-sequence-stagnation-in-quicksand?r=18suih&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web

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That’s great.

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Thanks, Joel

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This could really take off once robots with Artificial Intelligence learn to compile the spreadsheets. They would be much more efficient at creating the graphs and Ingridient values. Then another set of AI robots could be let loose on analyzing the graphs, relieving us humans from either the reading or the criticism. And if these AI robots learned to write books we mere mortals could be out of the book loop entirely.

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LOL. Thanks for your comment, Andrew. I wrote about this in the context of essays. In theory, you could have a computer write the essay, and then another computer mark it. I tried this and got a mark of 94% for doing no work at all, apart from using the computer programs! Here's the link: https://www.ictineducation.org/home-page/artificial-intelligence-and-marking-pitfalls-m5kw5 I think at the moment at least computers don't write very well, so we wordsmiths should be safe for a while. I wrote about that too, here: https://www.writersknowhow.org/articles/automatic-writing-updated

One thing that occurs to me in your scenario: I wonder how many of the 5 star book reviews on Amazon have actually been "written" by bots. I shouldn't have thought it would be that difficult. What a grim prospect!

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At first I gasped in horror! But then I got it, and now I want one on the back of every book!

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Thanks, Renee. A couple of people have told me that it made them look at a novel (Quicksand, by Nella Larsen) in a new way. I think it has some merit, perhaps counterintuitively.

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I don't gravitate to analysis, so when something like this is offered I greatly appreciate it, as it expands my understanding of things. I'm working on a YA novel and it would be interesting (and possibly terrifying) to apply this concept to the manuscript.

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Well, something you might like to try (forgive me if you already know about this) is to copy and paste your MS into a word cloud generator like https://www.jasondavies.com/wordcloud/ You may discover that your novel is not primarily about what you thought it was! I've sometimes used it on articles I've written to see if the predominant message is the one I'd intended! Good luck with you novel. Sounds exciting

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I do not know about this! Thank you so much for sharing. I will enjoy this new tool. I certainly hope the novel generates excitement. This is my third novel and it is said the third begins to possess writing merit. Although, for some the first novel is grand. It might be for me it will be the tenth novel! Let's hope not:)

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