The "cut-up" technique of composing prose originated with Burroughs, and it was a spin-off of his unusual method of putting together his most famous novel, Naked Lunch, from snippets of notes he wrote down and then pieced together. His follow- up novels, The Soft Machine, The Ticket That Exploded, and Nova Express, were constructed from chunks of various writings which he had literally cut up and then randomly paired into a new work.