headshot of andytuba (they or he)
Progzine
What if we wrote a bot to draw a zine on writing bots that draw zines? Learn how to craft a no-code script to randomly generate zine titles, stories, and art—then run it immediately in your browser.     – andytuba (they or he)

Page 6 - Write the bot and run it

My process for writing Tracery bots:

  1. Hand-write a "final draft"
  2. Convert it into a Tracery grammar
  3. Identify "synonyms" and turn them into placeholders
  4. Add more options for the placeholders
  5. Generate a bunch of variations from the Tracery grammar
  6. Pick out my favorite variations

I'll walk through this process, using the "How-To Zine Template" that Marlena shared during the WavelengthConf zine workshop.