Characters’ Emotion Design Support System for Writing Novels Based on Story Arcs of Target Readers

抄録

In order to write successful novels, authors should consider the preferences of their target readers. However, some authors find it difficult to identify their target readership. One important characteristic of readers is that they expect to experience certain emotions through reading a novel. For example, some readers enjoy thrillers, whereas others prefer sad stories. Our study focuses on this characteristic of readers to propose a method of writing novels that evokes target emotional impressions in readers, and develop a system that supports this method. The process of reading a novel evokes myriad emotions in readers, who then draw an overall emotional impression of the book based on the felt sequence of emotions. From this viewpoint, the current study introduces a story arc that expresses the expected transition of reader emotions along with narratives and helps authors select them as the first step in producing a novel. Additionally, readers often experience emotions through empathizing with characters whose actions or emotional aspects are described. The emotions of such characters should reflect in story arcs. Our study allows authors to derive the emotions of characters by referring to story arcs. In order to support those who are interested in this process, our system provides an environment within which a story arc is selected from typical ones, and characters’ emotions are established by referring to it. Our system also provides feedback if differences are identified between the characters’ emotional changes and the selected story arc. Experimental results suggest that the proposed system can support authors who intend to create discourse structures that follow a story arc and can convey emotions.