How to write an action-packed novel: instruction from Stanislav Lem

2024 Author: Malcolm Clapton | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-17 03:44

Kirill Bykov, a screenwriter and author of the blog "Tips for a screenwriter," published Stanislav Lem's algorithm for writing science fiction on his Twitter account.

In 1973, Lem proposed "The Pocket PC of Action Science Fiction." In it, he gave a comic algorithm that describes the plot of most of the novels of the genre.

If you follow the instructions, you can get the following development of events: The Earth collides with a huge comet and does not collapse, but almost everyone perishes. End.

There are longer options. Earth. Scientists create huge robots that do not understand us, are radioactive and cannot be destroyed by an atomic bomb. But the priest tells them about God, and they die. End.

A playful science fiction plot generator built from full-fledged research. In 1970 Stanislav Lem published a two-volume monograph Science Fiction and Futurology. To prepare it, the author studied more than 600 works by 400 English-language writers. The Pocket Computer became a humorous summary of the books studied.

This scheme was published on the endpapers of the second and third Polish editions of Science Fiction and Futurology. In 2005, on its basis, a game was developed to search for the longest plot.