Creative Writing With The Cut'n'Mix Word Machine

Creative Writing With The Cut'n'Mix Word Machine

Cut'n'Mix is a unique word processing application which helps creative writers generate new ideas through the use of different methods of text randomization and manipulation. Cut'n'Mix expands the pallete of tools available to writers with functions not available in standard word processors:

Quickly rearrange the positions of words in text using a simulated paper-and-scissors cut-up interface called the "Cut-up Laboratory". (Also commonly referred to as "Fridge Magnet Poetry")
Generate pools of random words from Cut'n'Mix's embedded English dictionary database to inspire creativity
Blend (mashup) words or phrases from up to 4 different text files or "tracks"
Generate random poetry using the "ROBOPOEM" algorithm which automatically calculates rhythm and rhyme
Create new words and names using "word shredding" and "word gluing"

Read from sections of the Cut'n'Mix user guide:

Download Cut 'n' Mix 5.3
(6.1 MB, Windows XP or Vista required. Note: Functionality MAY be limited on some editions of Windows 7). This installer contains a fully-functional 7-day trial. For continued use beyond the trial period, a license key can be purchased for $14.99. Purchase instructions are contained in the application, or check the licensing page.)

Find out about how the Cut'n'Mix application came to be: from the initial inspiration through the variety of different versions, all is documented in the Cut-up Application Museum.

Experimental Writing
To establish an independent voice, the writer needs to prevent the programmed structures of language from limiting the range of creative expression.

How to be a Post-Modern Writer
In each reading of a novel, the story is born anew in the mind of the reader.

What is Cut-up?
Transform yourself into a centipede-loving character from a William S. Burroughs novel! Explore the inner alchemy of the Word!

Online Poetry Generator
Preview one of the random poetry-generating algorithms from Cut'n'Mix's ROBOPOEM functions.

December 2011 News: A scaled-down version of Robopoem has now been squeezed into Android 2.2. While this Beta version is not yet available in the Google Market, you can download and install the app .apk file from here. Slightly more information on this topic is also available from the Robopoem Homepage.

Mac OS X Version

Many of the word processing functions found in Cut'n'Mix for Windows are now available in a version for Mac computers. Basic functions like text shuffle and mutlitrack text file mixing are included, plus more unique features like "smart replace" (word morpher), shredding, gluing and random fill. The Mac version also introduces better handling of large text files by allowing the user to page through large texts 200 words at a time. To find out more about the Mac version functions or download a copy that will run on Mac OS X, go to:

Mac Version of Cut'n'Mix.

Tutorials, Demos, Creative Writing Resources

Cut'n'Mix User Guide Videos
Watch video clips demonstrating Cut'n'Mix functions.

For an online example of the Cut'n'Mix answer to "magnetic poetry", try the virtual paper and scissors style Cut-up Laboratory. To find out how Cut'nMix helps you astound, confuse and impress the groundlings, try Shakespeare's Brain . To read texts submitted by Cut 'n' Mix users and other visitors to this site, go to the texts page. A new online tutorial provides step-by-step instructions on how to turn output text from Cut'n'Mix into Ransom Note Art. What's on the Idiot Box? Experimental Interactive Web Page Word Art. Read a review of a recent film about Brion Gysin, the Canadian artist who is often credited as being the inventor of the "cut-up" method of creative writing. The film is centered around another of his creative inventions used to help expand consciousness and open the doors of perception: The Dream Machine. CutNMix.com revists a classic text by Edward de Bono: The Use of Lateral Thinking explains how logical, "vertical" thinking constrains the creative process. Creative writers need to throw a wrench in the works to get over writer's block (and other impediments to the imagination). As de Bono himself explains: "It is not possible to look in a different direction by looking harder in the same direction."

Bucket of Random Thoughts: Further proof that cut-up is as English as Fish'n'Chips (although a case could be made that random strategies in classic literature are also as French as French Fries): I give to you the case of Mrs. F.'s Aunt from Little Dorrit by Charles Dickens. She is a veritable random text generating machine, as Dicken's here describes:

The major characteristics discoverable by the stranger in Mr F.'s Aunt, were extreme severity and grim taciturnity; sometimes interrupted by a propensity to offer remarks in a deep warning voice, which, being totally uncalled for by anything said by anybody, and traceable to no association of ideas, confounded and terrified the Mind. Mr F.'s Aunt may have thrown in these observations on some system of her own, and it may have been ingenious, or even subtle: but the key to it was wanted.

Check out some other software tools for creative writers:
Icon Poet, Wordle: a toy for generating "word clouds", Cut-Up Machine, Random Writing & New Media , For a break from the automated and cybernetic methods, get some advice and inspiration from real human writers with: Creative Writing Tips From 18 Online Authors, Legal and Royalty Free Production Music Downloads. Another recommendation for an easy-to-use brainstorming software tool: Paramind Idea Creation Creative Writing Technology ... For further recommendations of tools and information related to the creative writing process, open the links page. Address all comments and enquiries about Cut'n'Mix to info@cutnmix.com.

Site design and electronic media production by Digimatica Digital Media