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January 28, 2021

A #NetNarr Story Seed Randomizer

NetNarr.LauraGibbs.net

Pondering the pandemic/post-pandemic world of education:






Reload the page for another one. Keep on going until you find something that inspires you, either directly or indirectly. Use a prompt, use something like it, or just follow some impulse that comes to mind while you're randomizing: all impulses are worth exploring for a microstory.

For a totally different story prompt approach, see the randomizer below which gives you a 100-word story to expand... every 100-word story is basically asking you to write MORE. The microfiction can be a seed for a bigger story with more dialogue, detail, your own plot twists and turns, etc.

Finally, I put a tarot randomizer at the very bottom. Because everything is better with tarot art by Pamela Colman Smith (more about that widget).

Also, I didn't know if you had a story space for sharing already; we can use this padlet if you don't have a sharing space already: NetNarr Padlet.

And.... some resource links over at Equity Unbound. :-)



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If you're curious how to make a randomizer like this, it's not hard! You just need some webspace to host the script; RotateContent.com will generate the script for you! Lots of details here: Domains.LauraGibbs.net. You might want to make your own randomizer either for writing prompts or some other purpose. I am a fan of random. Once you get the hang of how to use this tool, it just takes a couple of minutes to make a new randomizer.


Here's how I made this script:

1. I created a spreadsheet (see it here), and I put the HTML bits in two columns, with the story seed in the middle column.

2. I copied the contents of that spreadsheet into a plain-text file that I named storyseed.html (see it here).

3. I used RotateContent.com to turn that html file into a javascript (see it here).

4. Then I upload that javascript to my webspace:

5. Then I add the script to the blog post using this bit of HTML:
<script type="text/javascript"> var display = " " </script><script type="text/javascript" src="https://www.lauragibbs.net/storyseed.js"></script>

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This is a randomizer for all of the Tiny Tales books, so that means it contains one thousand stories now. You can see the widget in action below; reload for a new story at random. You can get the widget code below.




Tarot Art for inspiration