Idea Generators

By Kat (last name withheld)

I have spent an inordinate amount of time playing at the website serendipity, by Manon http://nine.frenchboys.net/index.php

Name Generators, Place Generators, even an Online Handle Generator! Many, many generators, all in one handy place. Cat Waxing* Site Extraordinaire! You have been warned!

Yes, it will name French boys: Joseph Leclerc, Bernard Marais, Roland Lefevre. And French girls, too: Anne-Elisabeth Feuillette, Coralie Danis, Jeanne Jacqueme. Also Japanese names, Trendy names, Gnome names, and more.

Need a new online handle? SunsetGurl, EbbingMuffin, MeanGothChicken. Maybe you need to name that town your main character is from (or going to): Forest Chase, Belmont Grange, Peach Towers. Need a fantasy place? Highfay, Oldwood, Lightmeadow Forest.

The Chinese Restaurant Generator is one of my favorites, for that little takeout place around the corner: Beijing Pearl, China Pine, Golden Mandarin Garden, and The Happy Pagoda Tea House!

This isn’t just a play around kind site. Many of the names are usable, and there are generators that result in useful information. For example:

A Character: This man is a honest carpenter who is usually businesslike. He has long, straight dark brown hair, grey eyes, and tawny skin. He is fragile with a thin, high-cheekboned face.

A City: This large city stands astride a river and is mainly constructed of red brick. It is defended by arcane spells and its most noteworthy feature is the colorful elven quarter.

A Room: It's an ample room, but quite dreary. The walls are obscured entirely by floor to ceiling bookshelves, broken up by sheer, hospitalish green-beige curtains on the windows.

Those last three could easily be jumping off points for stories. That elven quarter, for example, sounds fascinating or scary as all get-out, depending on the type of elves that live there. This site generates writing seeds. A few things it 'built' for me are now incubating. Hopefully a story or two will result.

Try it out and let us in the Vernon Library group know if it works for you. If you have favorite generator sites, please share them in the comments.

* Cat waxing: any behavior an author undertakes to avoid working on the WIP. No live cats are actually waxed, at least not twice!