There's this thing called common courtesy, which is part of a code of etiquette and this other thing called not being a dick (wikipedia). When someone says, "yeah, I know some people might think this is a dumb idea, but I'm here to talk about how to do it, not whether it's a good idea," that typically means there's no need for you to rant about how dumb it is.

I'm a moderator, and I'm smiling politely at you in that dangerous "do you want a time out?" sort of way right now.

Don't be a dick.

id like to help with some sort of list of traits, m&m. I'll even sneak in my character from the USC application haha. I'm rather proud of him. let me know.

Awesome, thanks Palm. Just start writing lists under the three segments, and we'll talk.

maybe this'll give you ideas.
www.lackey.com

???

My crew and I came up with a system (more as a joke for us) to produce ideas for films. We each wrote down a list of 20 genres, concepts or plot structures, then we each closed our eyes and selected an item from another's list. We only did this once, and it resulted in this as a plot:

Retired boxer Jorge Mata accidentally captures Bigfoot, fights (in the ring) for his right to own him, then discovers that Bigfoot is the best boxer he's ever seen and again fights (again in the ring) for Bigfoot's right to box professionally. Mata wins, so Bigfoot fights and kills his first opponent. Then Mata must fight (in the courtroom, but later also in the ring) for Bigfoot's freedom as he stands trial for manslaughter.

We have yet to make that movie, but we are looking for Bigfoot and Jorge Mata, both of whom are more elusive than you'd think.

My point is, any generator will produce something. It likely will not produce something you want to film. I mean, what are the odds of striking gold like Bigfoot Conquers His Fears again? Like a trillion to one or something...

It certainly would be great if all our characters were dropped from the upper statisphere of our creative brillance and then floated down to beutify the world with our breathtaking examination of the human condition. But it dosn't always ***ing work out that way.

I get why folks would think it's hacky, and yes its a bit hacky, but damn it's hardly worth bashing! Theres certainly no harm in a character generator that gets the ball rolling, you can make changes and further develop the traits and such. Anything that could help battle writers block I'm all for, and if you've never had writers block then you're not a writer.

Plus most hack screenwriters have these characters that are just glorified versions of themselves and while that works out sometimes there's something to be said for detachment in the planning stages!
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My favorite quote from my screenwriting teacher during a workshop as we all gave input to a fellow writer went like this:

"I understand that this is an autobigraophy but your main character simply isn't likable."

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This message has been edited. Last edited by: REDking,

Check this out http://www.seventhsanctum.com/

I'm not hatin'. I guess I'm just put off by the idea of a factory churning out ideas. And if you have the motivation to input all the characteristics to be randomly generated, why bother with the generator at all? You obviously have the potential to imagine characteristics. Seems counterproductive to me.

I get that 100% as i said it is a bit hacky, but completely harmless and at the end of the day honorable! I was responding more to the earlier over the top bashing post!

And I also agree with it being couterproductive as I find myself often preoccuping myself with nonsense to avoid doing what I really want and need to do! In fact if i wrote a scriptpage for every time I made a useless post i might actually be a screenwriter right now.

Damn I did it again.

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Sighhh.

Once again, I put forth that if this generator doesn't seem like a good idea to you, notice that you have the freedom to not use it.

Red puts it best. I see it as a way of jumpstarting ideas during writer's block. It's not like I expect anyone to take these randomly generated characteristics and hope that a well-rounded character falls out.

It's a prompt.

But it's like putting a gumball machine in your own house! You've got the gumballs! Why put them in the machine? Just eat them!

I'm not saying it's hacky or anything, only that it defies logic. I guess there are people who just really really like stickin' a quarter in the gumball machine, but JESUS, just save your money and do laundry. Right?

I know you said you didn't want criticism here, mm, but I can't help it. You can call me bald if you want.

You all can call me bald too now:

I'm not sure it's a useful idea - i just think it's cool to make it. Now, I'm not sure if I have the time I said I would though...

How long do you estimate it taking?

Mmm... about four hours of work, probably...