Diverse AI Prompt Prefixes for Scriptwriting: From Star Wars to Ancient Drama

Table of Links

Abstract and Intro

Storytelling, The Shape of Stories, and Log Lines

The Use of Large Language Models for Creative Text Generation

Evaluating Text Generated by Large Language Models

Participant Interviews

Participant Surveys

Discussion and Future Work

Conclusions, Acknowledgements, and References

A. RELATED WORK ON AUTOMATED STORY GENERATION AND CONTROLLABLE STORY GENERATION

B. ADDITIONAL DISCUSSION FROM PLAYS BY BOTS CREATIVE TEAM

C. DETAILS OF QUANTITATIVE OBSERVATIONS

D. SUPPLEMENTARY FIGURES

E. FULL PROMPT PREFIXES FOR DRAMATRON

F. RAW OUTPUT GENERATED BY DRAMATRON

G. CO-WRITTEN SCRIPTS

E FULL PROMPT PREFIXES FOR DRAMATRON

E.1 About the Prompt Sets

In our study we relied on two sets of prompts: Medea and Sci-Fi.

Medea prompts are based on Ancient Greek tragedy Medea, by Euripides (431 BC). The dialogue prompts were taken verbatim from the translation of the play by E. P. Coleridge (1863 - 1936), available in the public domain[13]. We replaced CHORUS by WOMEN OF CORINTH. The plot and character prompts were written from a summary taken from Spark Notes[14] and Wikipedia[15]. To encourage the generation of different locations, Aristotle’s Unity of Place is not respected, and location “Outside the Royal Palace” is renamed as “Medea’s modest home” as well as “On a winged chariot” (even though these are the same locations in the original tragedy). Prompts for Antigone[16] (Sophocles), The Bacchae[17] (Euripides), and The Frogs[18] (Aristophanes) were adapted from Wikipedia and ancient-literature.com

The Star Wars log line was adapted from chapter “Creating the killer log line” by Bill Lundy[19]. Sci-Fi character prompts were adapted from Star Wars: Episode IV - A New Hope (1977), written and directed by George Lucas, produced by Lucasfilm and distributed by 20th Century Fox. We also adapted the breakdown of Star Wars into a Hero Journey[20]. The script[21], plot[22] and log line[23] of Plan 9 from Outer Space, which is in public domain.

E.2 Title Prompt Prefixes

In the following sets of prompt prefixes, the <LOG_LINE> is provided by the writer.

E.3 Character Description Prompt Prefixes

In the following sets of prompt prefixes, the <LOG_LINE> is provided by the writer.

E.4 Plot Outline Prompt Prefixes

In the following sets of prompt prefixes, the <LOG_LINE>is provided by the writer and each <CHARACTER_DESCRIPTION> is generated in the previous step.

E.5 Location Description Prompt Prefixes

In the following sets of prompt prefixes, the <LOG_LINE> is provided by the writer and each <LOCATION_NAME> is generated in the previous step.

E.6 Scene Dialogue Prompt Prefixes

In the following sets of prompt prefixes, the <LOG_LINE> is provided by the writer, <PLOT_ELEMENT>, <BEAT>, <PREVIOUS_BEAT> and <LOCATION_NAME> are generated during the plot outline generation step, <LOCATION_DESCRIPTION> is generated during the location generation step, <CHARACTER_DESCRIPTION>and each is generated in the character generation step. <PREVIOUS_BEAT> corresponds to <BEAT>from the previous scene (it is left empty for the first scene). Only characters whose name appears in the beat are used in this prompt prefix (we use string matching to select these character names).

[13] http://classics.mit.edu/Euripides/medea.pl.txt

[14] https://www.sparknotes.com/lit/medea/

[15] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Medea_(play)

[16] https://www.ancient-literature.com/greece_sophocles_antigone.html

[17] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Bacchae

[18] https://www.ancient-literature.com/greece_aristophanes_frogs.html

[19] In Ellis, Sherry, and Laurie Lamson. “Now Write! Mysteries: Suspense, Crime, Thriller, and Other Mystery Fiction Exercises from Today’s Best Writers and Teachers.”, Penguin, 2011

[20] https://thescriptlab.com/features/screenwriting-101/12309-the-heros-journey-breakdown-star-wars/

[21] http://www.horrorlair.com/scripts/criswell.txt

[22] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Plan_9_from_Outer_Space

[23] https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/plan-9-from-outer-space