At this point, the computer analyzes the story for coherence and "interestingness." The program views a story as interesting when tension levels increase and fall throughout the piece. If the program finds that the story is boring or incoherent in places, it will replace or insert atoms until a version is deemed satisfactory.
Mike Sharples, director of the Learning Sciences Research Institute at the University of Nottingham in England, is the author of the book, "How We Write: Writing as Creative Design." In it he describes a scientific model for creative writing.
Sharples told Discovery News, "Rafael drew on key elements of that model of human creative writing — particularly the movement between engagement and reflection — to produce a computer program that simulates essential parts of the story writing process to produce interesting and engaging story outlines."
Sharples described the program as "innovative."
Pérez y Pérez hopes that MEXICA and any future related programs will be viewed as tools and not replacements for human writers. He believes the programs may even lead to better quality stories and books.
"Programs like MEXICA are computer models that help us to conceive, and therefore to understand, how we write stories," Pérez y Pérez said. "Thus, we can improve our capacities. In my opinion, that is the goal."
