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Story Discovery

You may already have the beginning of a book.

Perhaps you've written a paragraph.

Perhaps you have a character, a memory, an unusual experience or an idea that's been sitting in your head for years.

You think there might be something in it.

But where does it go from here?

Give Story Discovery what you've got — from a few sentences up to about 500 words.

We'll look for the possibilities hiding inside it.

You don't need to know what happens next, or understand story structure, or learn how to prompt AI.

That's our job.

Here's what happened with one short paragraph.

WHAT WE WERE GIVEN
The town of 1770 on the qld coast is rather beautiful. The is a place wher you can look out over the sea from high up, as the cliffs are near the shore. You feel like a wet dish cloth in the humidity, but the walk is worth it. On the way back you are still sweating like a forgotten load of washing.
WHAT OUR SYSTEM SAW

Setting: Beautiful Queensland coast, cliffs, sea, heat and humidity.

Voice: Conversational Australian humour. The "wet dish cloth" and "forgotten load of washing" comparisons already tell us something about the person telling the story.

Situation: An ordinary walk back from a lookout.

Missing ingredient: Something needs to happen.

So rather than asking the writer to invent a plot, we looked for possibilities.

WHAT WE SUGGESTED
1. Something on the cliff

On the way back, the narrator notices something below the track.

He nearly ignores it because he's hot and wants to get back.

He climbs down.

What he finds has clearly been deliberately hidden.

It could be recent — or it could have been there for decades.

The important thing is that somebody else knows it is there.

Potential: Mystery/thriller.

2. Someone doesn't come back

The narrator didn't make the walk alone.

He and another person become separated on the return journey. There's nothing alarming about it at first. The narrator assumes the other person has gone ahead.

When he gets back, they're not there.

A search begins.

Something belonging to the missing person is eventually found near the cliff, and almost everyone accepts the obvious explanation.

The narrator doesn't.

Potential: Mystery with a stronger emotional element.

3. He just wants a cold drink

This is the direction we'd recommend.

The narrator isn't an action hero. He's an ordinary bloke who's hot, tired and beginning to wonder whether the view was really worth turning himself into a wet dish cloth for.

He gets back from the walk thinking about a cold drink and a shower.

Someone is standing beside his car.

A man he's never seen before.

The stranger knows his name.

More troublingly, he asks:

"Did you find it?"

The narrator has absolutely no idea what he's talking about.

At least, not yet.

Potential: Mystery/thriller/adventure with humour.

WHY WE CHOSE NUMBER 3

Because it doesn't throw away what was already good in the original paragraph.

The narrator already has the beginnings of a personality.

Instead of replacing him with a generic thriller hero, we can keep the ordinary bloke who complains about the humidity, notices slightly ridiculous things and would much rather be having a cold drink than getting involved in a mystery.

That contrast could become part of what makes the novel different.

And we've created a question the reader wants answered:

What was he supposed to find?

Four rough sentences have started to become a novel.

What could be hiding in something you've already written?

Maybe you've got one paragraph.

Maybe it's an idea you've never written down.

Maybe something happened to you years ago and you've always thought there was a story in it.

Maybe you've started something and simply don't know where to take it.

You don't have to work that out before you come to us.

That's the point.

For this early test, Story Discovery is free.

Give us anything from a few sentences up to about 500 words. It doesn't need to be polished. Spelling doesn't matter. And you don't have to know what should happen next.

Give us what you've got. We'll look for what it could become.

No prompting required.

Where should we send your Story Discovery?

What have you got?

Paste your idea, paragraph, memory, beginning or rough notes here. Don't worry about spelling or polishing it first. A few sentences is enough, or you can give us up to about 500 words.

Which best describes what you've given us?

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B
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Your writing remains yours. Your submission will be processed using AI to prepare your Story Discovery. During this early test, it may also be reviewed by us to improve the service. Please don't submit confidential or highly sensitive information.