I need a new Web service, and I don’t think it’s other there yet. Nor do I want to set it up myself, I just want to avail myself of its nonexistent services.

I want a plot search engine.

Say I think of a fantastic idea for a story (it could happen). And say I invest time, trouble, and skullsweat into developing that story. How do you think I’ll react when I realize, halfway through, that not only has someone already written that story but probably did it better. Pretty darn despondent, that’s how.

So to head off that despairfest I’m calling for a plot search. If I want to write about time-traveling monkeys I want to know how many brave writers have gone that road before me, never to be heard of again (answer: 6). I want to type in “Barnard’s Star,” “alien warfare,” “Cheeze Whiz,” and “testicle” to see if I’m original or just pulling from the collective unconsciousness.

How tough could it be? All we’d have to do is review every book ever written and enter the plot and publishing info as keywords in a database. There are people online who do that kind of thing for fun.

In the meantime, I’m off to write. Hmm. How would Cheeze Whiz react to microgravity…

Tags: scifi, Writing