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Tips for making your own templates

Examine the sample templates included in Gone Mad! for examples on how to write your own.

Use a dictionary to make sure you are using the right part of speech in the description of your keyword. If you're not sure of the part of speech, think of a word that would make sense as the keyword. Look that word up in a dictionary to see which part of speech it is.

Test your story template out several times yourself and fix any mistakes. Watch for places where the grammar doesn't make sense.

Here's some ideas for your own story templates:

• How to do something
• Movie review
• Biography
• Use a section of your science book
• A recipe
• Friendly letter
• Conversation between two people
• A dictionary definition

Avoid using a or an before a keyword because you don't know if the keyword will begin with a vowel or consonant. Instead of using a or an, use different words like some, all, or one. Or, you can try inserting a word between the a or an and the keyword. For example, instead of writing, "A [noun] ran away," you write, "A lonely [noun] ran away."

This can be fun! Try taking a story you have already written and turn it into a Gone Mad! template. Simply choose which words to make keywords! It might be helpful to have the story on paper and use a highlighter to mark the words you think would make great keywords.

If a keyword needs to be capitalized in the story, like a first word of a sentence, be sure to include capitalization in the description of the keyword. For example: [noun - capitalized].

Don't overdo it! You probably shouldn't have more than two keywords per sentence. Otherwise, the story might become too confusing.

Writer's block? Maybe this page will help you start your story.

You can type your story on a desktop computer using a word processor like Microsoft Word. That way you can perform a spellcheck. Then copy the text into a new Memo in Palm Desktop. Synchronize your handheld. Launch Gone Mad! and tap the Import button at the bottom of the Templates List screen. Tap the title of your story. Now your text has become a story template!