The Detective Story Machine

The Detective Story Machine (by Alan Peat Ltd)

The Detective Story Machine helps both pupils and busy classroom teachers to plan Detective stories (over a million combinations are possible...and that's no exaggeration!).

The machine has eight parts:

1 Opening
2 Main character/s
3 Other character/s
4 Setting
5 Dilemma
6 Random Language Feature
7 Objects
8 Ending

Pupils 'spin' each of the eight parts of the machine (up to three times) to reveal a HUGE range of genre-appropriate ideas.

When ALL eight parts have been 'spun' the story machine collates all of the ideas into one printable sheet which can be used as a stimulus for a detective story.

It's NOT prescriptive - pupils can include as many of the ideas as they wish but they don't have to include all of them. Whether they include a few or every one they certainly will be learning a great deal about the genre.

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