NEW TEXT FROM OLD

’S+7’

This is a method which originated with a group of French experimental novelists. The ‘S’ may stand for sujet (subject). Sometimes it generates ideas for plots. More often it produces new modes of expression – phrases unlikely to have arisen from logical thought. Many people find it positively addictive.

You will need a small, very basic dictionary. The English section of a foreign language translating dictionary is ideal.

The method

Take any text. Begin to copy it. Each time you come to a noun, find it in the dictionary, count forward seven words and use that word instead.

If the word you arrive at is not a noun, change it to a noun. If this is not possible, move to the next noun appearing in the dictionary.

Alternatives

Change verbs and/or adjectives as well. Count a different number of words. Count backwards instead of forwards. Use nearby words if you prefer them.

Here are some examples generated from the transcript of a lecture on the novel.

Beyond the scope of literature became beyond the scorpion of litigation. This felt ‘right’ – the law can have a sting in its tail, etc. The phrase slotted neatly into a story about an acrimonious divorce. Later I was amazed to learn that astrologically Scorpio rules the eighth house which, among other things is concerned with law.

These narratives have one aspect in common. They are in principle verifiable became These nations have one aspiration in communication. They are in prison vermicidal. This is probably not usable as it stands, but could be developed in some way as a comment on the human condition.

I am dealing with a mistake or a fiction becomes I am deathless with a mistress or a fiddle – which went straight into a short story.

Many others – original sources forgotten, are filed in my writer’s notebook. For example, Fanaticism – a quiet glazed thuggery. A slimy new maggot abroad.

Two simpering canines with a cephalopod curate between them.

A vaudeville of dailies reappearing on the polo marsh.

And one of my favourites, which never fails to make me smile: Some of the oncoming goats were vice versa.

Jenny de Garis’s sentence exercise (see Chapter 6) is another example of creating ‘new text from old’. If you find the approach helpful, try treating several sentences, a whole paragraph or even – if you are very ambitious – a whole story in this way. Karen took the proverbs she had been working on in this exercise and tried S + 7 on them. She felt it didn’t work. What do you think?

Checklist

Discover new plots and new forms of expression by using:

• branching narratives
• an added complication
• the question game
• plot generating computer programmes
• S + 7
• the sentence exercise.