Hierarchical Neural Story Generation
Paper • 1805.04833 • Published
prompt stringlengths 5 331 | story stringlengths 404 40.3k |
|---|---|
[ WP ] Leonardo DiCaprio in a fit of rage begins to torpedo his own career by deliberately acting poorly and taking on bad films . He finally wins an oscar for starring in Paul Blart : Mall Cop 3 .
| The wet marble floor pressed on his cheek like a thousand hands slapping his face frozen in time. Smattering piss of rain ignored his indignant mumblings. His eyes fluttered. Pins and needs ran from finger to shoulder as he pushed back against the floor, contorting his aching body into a cross legged position. Last nig... |
[ CW ] Kill the writer in first-person narrative .
| It's been three days since my boyfriend pissed off the neighbors.
They had to be pissed, he called the police on them. The neighbors had been harboring a runaway criminal. We did n't live in a bad neighborhood, there were families and good people living here with solid steady jobs. They cared about their yards and ... |
[ EU ] Sean Bean has a hard time leaving his role as Eddard Stark . He vows to get revenge against those that assisted in his execution , starting with George R. R. Martin
| George fled. Not terrifically fast, not at his age nor in his shape. The voice echoed throughout the house after him.
`` I'm coming, you fat fuck! You've done me in and you'll pay for it!''
George wheezed into his office, closed the door and got to work tipping the file cabinet next to it. Over it went, blockin... |
[ WP ] A kid doodling in a math class accidentally creates the world 's first functional magic circle in centuries .
| It was dark and Levi was pretty sure he was lying on his back. There was firelight flickering off of what was left of a ceiling. He could hear something but it was muffled. He was almost positive it was screaming. When he tried to move he felt an excruciating pain in his left side that caused him to cry out. His hand m... |
[ WP ] As a Space marine you have an allowance of one call home a day . Today 's battle was especially bad and your best friend died I 'm the heat of it all . Time to call home .
| `` Hi dad!''
The words snap me from my thoughts. I focus on the screen to see my son staring at me. He had a gap where a tooth had fallen out.
I forcefully pull a fake smile back. `` Hey bud, how's it going! Is mom home?''
`` Isaac, finish your homework first!''
My wife's voice makes my smile less force... |
[ TT ] `` Shut the dog up . ''
| “ Shut the dog up, ” shouted my head officer from the jeep. The dog was running circles around our vehicle, barking at the people inside. The officer tapped my shoulder and pointed to the yellow, skinny animal circling our jeep.
“ But sir.., ” I managed to spit out before he took both his hands and pushed me out of... |
[ WP ] A man finally discovers his superpower ... well into his 80 's .
| `` It's just that half of all them gals down there are just bitches, ripe bitches,'' some young white punk with greasy cornrows said as he lifted up his glass of vodka. `` This one be for the bitches.''
The crew of young high school dropouts lifted their glasses and banged them together. The smell of cigarettes and... |
[ WP ] Reddit buys the moon
| Dickbutt... That was the first thing reddit was to do with their recent purchase of the moon.
`` We're going to etch dickbutt with freakin' lasers across the surface of the moon!'' cried one post with over 100,000 upvotes.
There was n't much else they could do with the moon. I mean, reddit just spent all our mo... |
[ WP ] You have a very shitty type of precognition .
| Just looking at the guy I already knew it. He was in for a seven on the Bristol scale and it was only hours away.
Looking at his carefree face from below as he was slowly transported towards me on the escalator, I wondered, not for the first time, if I should warn him. But as always I asked myself: How could I tell... |
[ WP ] `` Before we allow humankind to live among us in the stars , tell us the faults of your kind . ''
| Tell us your faults? Really? This was the question - the shibboleth - that unlocked the cosmos?
The Masters could have picked a scientist to answer but they feared she might mask ignorance. They could have picked from our global leaders bit they feared that they would mask deceit. They could have picked a holy man ... |
[ WP ] A magical mirror shows your reflection and your future soulmate . You only see your reflection .
| Carnival music seemed to dance in the background. A cacophony of color and knick knacks decorated the fairgrounds. It was just another day at the carnival. I sit at my stand reading another old junky sci-fi novel.
“ So how much to see it? ”
Some pre-teen girl interrupted my book with her piercing voice. I sigh ... |
[ WP ] A person with a high school education gets sent back into the 1600s and tries to explain science and technology to the people .
| `` So everyone is a Witch in the future?''
`` No, like, you know thunderstorms? The jagged beams of light that come from the sky?''
`` Lightning, but I d-''
`` Ok, that is the electricity. Okay, a couple hundred years from now this guy, Ben Franklin, has this... Well I'm not going to tell you exactly what, ... |
[ WP ] Everyone has a reaper . The further away it is , the longer you have left to live . Every day it inches a little bit closer , but it is always there . Except yours , which disappeared three weeks ago
| So this is where it had all led him. The sun rose beautifully over the cityscape, painting the clouds with its rays in pastel hues, colors changing as particles of light refracted and reflected, bouncing around the skies aimless and endless, purposeless, never to rest, and most of all unknowing of their own vain labors... |
[ WP ] A person with a high school education gets sent back into the 1600s and tries to explain science and technology to the people .
| `` So basically, magic,'' said the bartender. The rest of the villagers murmured in agreement.
I had stopped concealing my sighs hours ago. `` No. Elec-tri-city.''
The hardest part about suddenly appearing in the year 1612 is thinking you're going to change the world and then realizing you have no idea how thin... |
[ WP ] After brushing your teeth in the morning you go downstairs to fry an egg , but when you try the frying pan buzzes at you and text appears reading , `` level 18 cooking required to use object '' .
| I lifted the box of cereal, tilted it down a bit, and sent a shower of Lucky Charms cascading into the bowl. Then I lifted the jug of milk over it and tilted until it glugged out on top of the cereal. I picked up the bowl, carried it to the sink, and threw it down the drain. Then I returned to my seat at the counter.
... |
[ WP ] While searching the site of a disaster , you find your own corpse .
| `` How is this possible?,'' I wonder staring at myself. Around me is a dusty rubble that was n't there seconds before. A seemingly little steam of blood that runs down my head drenched my hair partly in a sticky red mess where it had seeped in. She... I...? am here for more than a few seconds.
I reach out, `` is this... |
[ WP ] While walking home from work one day , someone who looks exactly like you jumps out of a bush and attacks you saying `` YOU THINK YOU CAN JUST REPLACE ME ? ! ''
| The gravel crunches under my feet as I walk, steps in time with the music that echoes in my ears. Bach. A genius, to be sure. I've always liked his music. Partially for the way it makes me seem more wise, perhaps, and partially just out of a genuine enjoyment of his work.
*'' You think you can just replace me?! `` ... |
[ WP ] Fabricate an inspiring encounter with a stranger that changed your life .
| I've always had trouble deciding whether to help someone or not. I'm always worried that I'll be cumbersome while I help someone, so I tend to ignore the needs of others. It's something that I'm actively working on, and one of my main inspirations for improving my speed of assistance comes from this story that happened... |
[ EU ] In your favourite fictional universe , the villain won . It 's one year later .
| *'' The Alliance... Will die. As will your friends. Good. I can* **feel** *your anger. I am defenseless. Strike me down with all of your hatred and your journey to the dark side will be complete! `` * ~ The Last Words of Emperor Sheev Palpatine
_______________________
Luke could feel his father calling to him... |
[ WP ] Write the same scene at least twice , making only miniscule changes , to drastically alter the scene
| It just did n't make sense. The scenes of a bombing run creating fantastic flashes of light against the green night vision display used in the recorded video the media kept on repeat, to show the campaign which they cease to talk about. The flashing of the television lighting and darkening the room with each bomb explo... |
Constrained Writing [ WP ] Write a story sentence by sentence that takes on a different meaning if you read it backwards .
| Might as well put something in. I tried this prompt a while ago, and got one response from /u/smootilicious. Here was their response:
He had always suspected that it might get ugly, but he never thought it could go this far. He took a look at the knife lying on the floor. There was blood on the carpet, blood on the... |
[ WP ] You live in a world were a drug exists that allows you to have an out of body experience converse with a dead family member . After months of speculation you decide to take the drug to have on final conversation with your son who committed suicide
| His eyes were as green as they ’ d been the day he was born. Jade. Shamrock. Emerald. Moss. Olive. Teal. I ’ d lived with him for almost 17 years, and I still couldn ’ t define them. They didn ’ t come from me or his father. They were simply green.
The rest of him was smoky gray, transparent enough that if I looked... |
[ WP ] You live in a world where light helps you retain and regain memory while darkness makes you forget everything . One day . . .
| Jennifer woke up in a dark room, no light. She rubbed her eyes as if that would help her to see. `` Oh god... what in the hell...?'' She threw herself on bed again, too exhausted to move.
Not that she remembers, but waking up in the dark room with no memory happens to her on regular bases. If she has a bad day, she... |
[ WP ] Killing any creature inflicts an illness or blight upon yourself , for example killing a spider gives you a persistant itch , and killing a dog renders you paralysed for a long time . You 've just had to kill an animal that was attacking your young child , and are now suffering the consequences .
| It is the one sound that can shatter a parent. In the back of their mind, buried behind the mundane everyday worries and clutter hides the fear of hearing the sound of their child's voice, their last earthly sound as it is ripped from their throat as they take their last breath.
My son lay upon the grass, the knees... |
[ WP ] Aliens have arrived , and ask for a single human to plead humanity 's case and save them from extinction . The human is selected through a lottery of the entire human race , and on the day of the drawing , your name is picked .
| I'm not especially smart.
Maybe that's why everyone seems to hate me. My job, of course, was one that required someone especially smart. Someone like Winston Churchill's third nephew or Abraham Lincoln's half ancestor. But they chose me.
Was n't my fault, being chosen. I mean, shit, I did n't even apply for the... |
[ WP ] `` And that was the first of the three lies ... ''
| “ I thought you knew what you were doing! ”
The panic in my voice was clear despite the blaring of alarms that sought to drown it out. Trying to keep my composure, I held the bag now filled to the brim with money with one hand, and tightened my grip on my rifle with the other.
“ Of course I do! Just keep moving... |
[ WP ] You just started a new job in a large office building and what you do n't know is that at twelve o'clock every day , there is a office wide Purge style battle to the death , those who survive an hour get a significant pay raise and can come back tomorrow . A bell just went off , it 's twelve o'clock .
| As I finished up my research on Alligator breeding habits for a story I was tasked with writing, a bell began to ring loudly throughout the office. I could feel the sound vibrating off the cubicle walls. I looked over my cubicle wall to ask a co-worker what the bell was for.
I watched as he calmly opened his desk d... |
[ WP ] A cell in your body is just your average middle class working `` Joe '' . One fateful day there a massive onset of disease . Give his first hand experience of event .
| Joe was your average working nerve cell. Every day ( and night, his shifts were rather long actually ) Joe sat down at the sensor panel and sent out the readings he saw. He never much cared for what they were, that was what the brains in the brain were for, he just passed them up and on. Course, Joe never really got ti... |
[ WP ] You are hiking in the woods when you hear a deafening shriek from close by . Your guide 's eyes grow big and he whispers , terrified , `` One must have survived ... . ''
| Something in the way he said it made you shiver. You knew when you first met him that something was off, and with the way he reacted to that scream you knew. `` What have you done?'' I asked, afraid I already knew the answer. `` The same thing that will happen to you.'' His eyes were glistening with tears. `` The same ... |
[ WP ] The Fourth Wall has been breached and our world has come into physical contact with previously fictitious realities . What happens next ?
| My name is Dr. Tel'Vara Troperras, and I will recount the tale of the Breach that changed our world.
I remember when the Fourth Wall came down. I was in my living room, browsing people's artistic creations on my 55'' HDTV, when my screen became an infintitely long hallway, much like when you face two mirrors toward... |
[ WP ] Share your thoughts
| I said something stupid. I said something stupid six months ago. That person was mean. I might have been wrong. I did n't express myself clearly. Get in shower. Get in shower. Get in shower. That's it. Check phone. Get dressed. Check phone. Coffee. Work. Go to work. Come to your shift on time. Prompts. Prompts. Prompts... |
[ WP ] A story about a modern-day Roman Empire .
| Summer. I had fond memories of summer- it was my halcyon days where I would sit next to the banks of the Euphrates and watch the river. Ebbing and flowing, the generators on the newly minted Fortunae dam pounded away like a dull hammer-
“ Lowering angle- in range of active scanners. Prepare for descent. ” the pilot... |
[ WP ] On the day of their death , every human gets to have a vision of meeting the man they could have become .
| Motor sport vehicles were the first to be outlawed. When you tell a man he has a day to live, and remind him he could have been a monster car driver if he had n't knocked that slut up in high school, more often then not, you end up with a wrecked truck and a dead man. Which is fine, insurance pays and you garnish the w... |
[ WP ] The root password for the universe is discovered .
| The password was n't so simple. It required a sequence of well-timed thoughts, followed a series of moods, and then a frequency inaudible to the human ear.
And yet, I cracked it. The possibilities opened up before me, vast and terrifying in all their permutations. The longer I stared into the truth, the reasons, th... |
[ WP ] Magic exists , but the nature of it is unique to the user , like a fingerprint .
| 'can we stop for food?' moaned Ghon from the backseat.'Ghon, i swear to god, i will reach back there and kill the fucking shit out of you' snarled Jerris, riding shotgun. Ghon laughed'I'd like to see you try, Jerry'. The nickname Ghon called him always got Jerris' nerves, but Jerris refrained,'I actually can not even b... |
[ WP ] You are a Tank in an MMORPG dealing with the psychological trauma of being constantly revived from horrifically fatal wounds .
| Blackness, nothing but endless blackness. It feels as if I'm falling, yet rising at the same time, yet neither. Something feels familiar, but what does familiar mean? I ca n't hold on to thoughts. They float through my mind like fog and then blink away, just to float back in from another direction. Yet amongst the empt... |
[ WP ] Suicidal person realizes he can not die
| Well, it's not the most usual line of work, and it does n't pay much, but I am definitely a whole lot happier than I was. It started at the absolute lowest point of my life. Actually, I think the day before the lowest, because the lowest was the next morning. On the day I tried to die, I was really depressed. Clinicall... |
[ WP ] You are a supervillain named The Keymaster . Instead of creating grand plans to conquer the world , all you do is run around and free other captured supervillains from prison , after the superheroes defeat them .
| `` Here's you lunch, Commander!''
Said the security guard, tossing a tray full of grey paste into the nearby cell. The prisoner that resided lay upright on his bed, staring at the ceiling. Yet another Super Villain caught by a Super Hero.
`` You'll be wanting some sauce with that, am I right!?''
Yelled the ... |
[ WP ] You have just died and are now face to face with God . You ask him if what we know about him and the Bible is true . He says no not at all . Document the conversation .
| `` No, not at all.''
`` Not at all? What do you mean?''
`` I mean the whole Bible, totally wrong. Old Testament, New Testament, Pseudepigrapha, Apocrypha,'' God ranted, his aggravation clearly expressed in wild gesticulations, `` And all the more modern interpretations that have come out of spiritual syntheses.... |
[ WP ] You died . You were reborn . You remembered your previous life . But that 's actually pretty useless - because you were n't reborn human .
| You've got to be kidding me. A cat? Of all things to be reborn as, I'm a black freakin' cat. The very ( creepy ) creature I feared the most when I was alive. When I was human. Before the bastard killed me.
I race past a mirror before I can catch a glance and freak myself out. Do cats have heart attacks? I hope so. ... |
[ WP ] You are a god that hunts other gods
| I knelt behind the gooseberry bushes and listened.
The river was loud, but despite the cacophony of waters slamming on rocks, I could hear their chit-chat and laughs. I crept closer, always as silent as possible. I pushed some branches aside, and then I saw them.
The river made a small pool around a small slope... |
[ WP ] You are recognized as the villain who is successfully stopped by the superhero each time . Tell the story of how the superhero is actually evil , and each time he stops you he gets closer to accomplishing his evil plan .
| `` OMG, you guys,'' The Prick crossed his legs and arms, leaning back in his chair and slouched. `` How many times do I have to say iiiiiit?'' His lisp-laden voice pitched so high that several officers stuck a finger ( or two ) in their sensitive ear holes. `` I'm not a bad guy, Super Geist is.''
Commissioner L. La... |
[ WP ] Laws of nature become sentient beings . You can be freed even from death , however the process of being released is like a really bad breakup .
| Gravity lives next door. He is a quiet, practical guy, and he gets along with pretty much everyone although he is n't that much of a social butterfly. That's why it's his house that always gets picked out for throwing parties when the Laws of Nature-LoNs, as we call them now. Pronounced as something between lawn and lo... |
[ WP ] Rewrite your favorite song as a story .
| Leave Out All The Rest - Linkin Park
I had a dream last night. A dream I went missing. *She* was so scared... so freaking scared. She thought I killed myself. She thought I was dead. But no one would listen to her. Why? Cause no one cared. But that was just a dream.
I woke up this morning feeling depressed, as ... |
[ WP ] Everyone in the world has been transformed into a mythical creature ( gargoyles , nymphs , centaurs , etc ) and no one notices except the one remaining human .
| Doctor Malachi Bint took his little pen light and shined it in my left eye. Then my right eye. Then the left again.
`` Hmm?'' was all he said.
`` Anything, Doc?'' I said as he continued his efforts to blind me one eye at a time.
`` Follow the light with your eyes.'' He took the little light, started at the ... |
[ WP ] An exploration of the butterfly effect : write a dramatic scene . Then , choose one tiny detail to change in the initial set-up , and play the scene out again . How drastically have things changed ?
| He sat at the tiny dinner table across from her, both of them smiling in the light chill of September, a plate of pasta a day old between them. It was just a bit cold as he forked it down, but her smile filled him with the missing warmth. She laughed at how stupid he looked with doughy tentacles hanging out of his mout... |
[ EU ] Shortly before Order 66 a Jedi knight achieves true balance between the light and the dark side . He become a grey Jedi .
| Something kept poking at Palpatine's mind; something was calling to him. It had kept him up for days at a time, and was slowly starting to interfere with his grand plans concerning Order 66. Something had altered the balance of the Force, something that ascended the matters of Sith and Jedi.
`` Master, the Kaminoan... |
[ WP ] You receive a job offer online . You are given directions that will lead you to someone with more information about the job . You follow the directions to an elevetor . The elevator opens to reveal a man holding a large envelope .
| Needless to say this was the strangest job interview I'd ever had, and it had n't even started yet. I almost considered not showing up, but as a broke kid with just a bachelor's degree, I could n't look a gift horse in the mouth. I walked into the lobby of the hotel, feeling awkward as hell, my cheap suit making me fee... |
[ WP ] You are a lawyer in God 's Court who and you must a find a way to get your newest client , Adolf Hitler , into Heaven via a loophole in the Lord 's legal system
| `` My client pleads solipsism'', I said to the jury ( whom I had bribed liberally with baby-souls before the trial ).
`` Adolf Hitler was just another idiot who thought reality was just a dream and that killing millions of people in a dream would n't matter.'' I wiped my forehead with my kitten skin handkerchief - ... |
[ WP ] A portal to a fantasy-like land opens in the middle of New York City and exiles start coming through .
| *Ok, I'll have a go at this. This is my first time and English is not my main language so... be gentle: ) *
It was a day like any other. People were going on about their business, each with their own thoughts, each one indifferent to one another. Then they all stopped to look at the globe of light. Some of them loo... |
[ WP ] Taylor Swift and Kanye West are running for US President . Jaden Smith is the debate moderator asking the questions .
| `` How can mirrors be real, if our eyes are n't real?'' Jaden speaks slowly, his tone serious, as his eyes make contact first with Taylor, and then with Kanye. He sets the card printed with his tweet upon the podium. `` Taylor, you have five minutes to answer.''
`` Well,'' Taylor smiles and pulls a wave of blond ha... |
[ WP ] You live in a world where people 's shadows show who they truly are at their core . Some shadows look like monsters , some look like animals . You are the only person in the world with no shadow .
| The sound of the sea wakes me from my sleep.
I open my eyes and am greeted by darkness. Bewildered, I grope around in a panic until I realise I ’ ve been dreaming. It ’ s the same dream every time- I ’ m walking on a sandy beach. The sun is beating down on me, and I ’ m pleasantly hot. I can taste the salt of the o... |
[ PM ] Let 's play an RPG together . /r/WritingPrompts is the protagonist , and I am the DM . You make the decisions , I create the content . Let 's begin .
| # 6 - COMPLETED || ANSWER SELECTED: 5
You find it best to catch the trespasser off guard by resorting to a proactive action via stealthiness. Shifting into a mouse and climbing up the vine along the wall of your home, you reach the top but do n't commit. Instead, you peek your head over the edge to find your neighb... |
[ WP ] Narrate a game of Civilization as though it were excerpted from a history textbook .
| ( excerpt from Sid Meier's `` Civilization'', Volume 5 - 1850 to 2100 )
It was the period that the pitiful civilization of the French referred to as `` fin de siècle''. Tensions remained high following the Zulu defeat of Pharaoh Ramesses, as India meanwhile swept up the last of the Babylonian resistance, but change... |
[ WP ] It is believed that the cure for cancer has been discovered on Mars , astronauts have only one chance to bring it home where they hope to duplicate its properties for mass distribution
| `` Dr. Edmunds, something interesting came up on the latest screen,'' stated Johannes, the tremor in his voice betraying a cautious optimism.
`` This better be good. My grant proposal is due Friday,'' stated Edmunds, finally tearing her gaze away from the monitor and to Johannes. He quickly glanced at the ground, c... |
[ WP ] You are drawing your final breathes , dying from a disease that has taken you far too young and far too quickly . Just as you are about to pass , an apparition appears before you and offers you five extra years of perfect health to spend as you see fit . But there is a catch ...
| `` So you are telling me I can have five more years, but no one I know will remember me?''
`` That sums it up.''
The fit twenty-seven year-old sat in his hospital bed, staring out the window. The only sound came from the heart monitor. *Beep. * *Beep. *
`` Not even my parents? Or my sister?''
`` No. Everyone wi... |
[ WP ] A young cancer patient is sick and tired of all these damn celebrities popping in for surprise visits .
| When Justin Bieber came into the room, I was shocked and surprised. Nobody from my high school would ever have believed it. My icon, my dream, was singing to me!
That was a year ago.
Since then, I've had a string of celebrities from A to TMZ shuffle into my room to lift my spirits. If they wanted to lift my spi... |
[ WP ] Death is a lie made by the government , you are one of the unsavoury characters they send to gather souls .
| London
Midnight
A raven swoops low over the soot stained tiles of Victorian London, lands on the dark cobbles of Market Street and loses form.
The raven turns first smokey, then grows to the form of a cloaked figure. Standing to his full height, he stumbles down the uneven cobbles as if unsure of his footin... |
[ WP ] You were born with a large birthmark in the shape of a dragon . However , this is just a coincidence ; there is absolutely nothing magical about it , and you 're getting really tired of explaining this .
| I can feel their eyes on the back of my neck. Typical cowards, staring, but looking away whenever I turn my head. Why ca n't they just come out and ask?
Life has n't been easy. My first memories are cursing this dreaded dragon birthmark, which everyone assumed was a sign of power and destiny. Back then I was too me... |
End of preview. Expand in Data Studio
WritingPrompts Merged Dataset
This dataset contains the writing prompts and corresponding stories from euclaise/writingprompts with all original train/validation/test splits merged into a single unified dataset.
This version is based on the dataset used in the paper "Hierarchical Neural Story Generation" by Fan et al. (2018).
- Downloads last month
- 16