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Writer's pictureJen

The N+7 Machine

I’ve been having silly fun with The N+7 Machine today. If you haven’t tried it yet, I highly recommend playing with this tool, as it will not only entertain but it might also throw out some unexpected writing inspiration.


From the site: “The N+7 procedure, invented by Jean Lescure of Oulipo, involves replacing each noun in a text with the seventh one following it in a dictionary.”

You can make fifteen different versions of your text. Here are a select few of mine (#0 being the original paragraph) from my YA sci-fi novel in progress:


N+0: “Course I’m up to it,” Aidan said. “I told you, it’s in progress.” The lie soured his tongue. If only he didn’t feel so brain-tied whenever he tried to come up with a hooky title for the new post, or a decent tagline, or the content itself. But he caught Pendergast’s threat; if Aidan didn’t work something up soon, the boss might pass the story to someone else.


N+8: “Course I’m up to it,” Aidan said. “I told you, it’s in projectionist.” The lifestyle soured his tooth. If only he didn’t feel so brandy-tied whenever he tried to come up with a hooky tobacco for the new postman, or a decent tagline, or the contingent itself. But he caught Pendergast’s throne; if Aidan didn’t work something up soon, the boudoir might pasta the strand to someone else.


N+13: “Course I’m up to it,” Aidan said. “I told you, it’s in promise.” The light soured his tootle. If only he didn’t feel so brat-tied whenever he tried to come up with a hooky toddy for the new postponement, or a decent tagline, or the contour itself. But he caught Pendergast’s thrum; if Aidan didn’t work something up soon, the boulder might pastime the stratagem to someone else.


(Is anyone else trying to figure out what the heck a tootle is?)

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