I know what you’re thinking. ‘Who the heck is this guy and what is he doing? I’ve never seen him around these parts before, and now he’s just popping up spouting out ideas and such. Ridiculous.’
Yes, it might be a bit ridiculous, after all I have never posted anything here in the writing subforum, or the creativity forum at all, but I want to change that. The main reason I’ve been absent here is that when I write, I write scripts, though I did use to do a lot of short story writing. And then I turn those scripts into film. Usually they’re short sketches or (very) short films. (Thus my big motivation behind doing this is to try and start writing short stories again. It's a weird switch between screenplay writing and normal writing; at least it is for me.)
I brought this up a couple weeks ago in the Post How Your Day was thread, and Kitsune mentioned discussing the writing process, which led me to seek out Arlong Park’s writing threads.
That’s how I managed to stumble across the original chain story threads.
The whole thing looked like a lot of fun, even if it got a bit messy at times.
So I talked with Kitsune and we’ve worked out a system (based off of Akumu’s ideas – credit where credit is due) that would simplify the process and make it a lot less of a hassle.
Here is that system:
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First we start with a Prologue. This prologue would be written by one of the participating writers before anything else is done. The this Prologue will be posted in this thread (not the official story thread) and everyone who thinks they could contribute to the story and is comfortable with the subject can sign up. This will help prevent incidents I saw in the last thread with people dropping out because they weren’t comfortable with what the story was.
Determining who writes the prologue is very simple.
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- Everyone interested signs up.
- I write out the names on slips of paper.
- I pick one at random.
- Congratulations you’re writing the prologue!
We figure this is a nice fair system.
After the prologue has been posted, we’ll ask everyone who is interested to sign up, and then we’ll determine the number of chapters and order.
The number of chapters will be the number of volunteers minus 3. This is because three writers will be alternates – a safety net in case someone drops out. The alternates could also step up in another situation, that being if when the story makes it to the final author, if he or she finds that there’s too much to wrap up, we can extend the number of chapters. So once again, the alternates act as a safety net.
Now the way we determine the alternates is the same way we determine the order:
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I write out everyone’s names on slips of paper.
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I draw them at random 1 at a time.
- First name drawn gets chapter one, and so on.
- The last 3 names are the alternates.
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I post the order online.
At this point, you are free to change places with any of the writers just so as long as you notify us.
Also, if anyone flatout wants to be an alternate, say so when you sign up, and you will be automatically assigned to one of those positions.
Now, on to the important part, the writing process itself. You will have 10 days to write your chapter, as we feel this is plenty of time. To aid you in this endeavor, you will be receiving all the chapters before yours as their completed, instead of receiving the whole story at once. This will allow for you to see what the story is and start to try and plan your chapter in advance. By day 5, you should know whether or not if you’re going to get it done, so if something has come up let me know, and I’ll notify the alternates so one can take over. At this time you will become an alternate. Now I understand that things can come up out of nowhere. If that happens, notify me and I’ll give you an extension…if you have already made good progress on your chapter.
Next, I understand that last time there were author notes. That’s a nice idea, and very helpful, but I think it might make things more interesting without them. I don’t quite know what they were used for last time, but I’d imagine they were used plot points, or where you imagine the story going. I think it would make for a better overall experience, and truly allow each author to do what they want with the story. Now, this idea is negotiable, if the majority would rather use author notes, then that’s more than fine.
That’s the gist of it, so let’s recap:
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A prologue is written by a randomly picked author
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The number of chapters is 3 less than the number of authors, allowing for alternates
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Writing order and alternates or decided at random
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Unless someone volunteers as an alternate
- *the rule of 3 alternates is in hope that we have at least 13 people sign up. Anything less than that there will only be 2 alternates.
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You have 10 days to write your chapter.
[/hide] If you have any questions, ask away.
So, is there any interest in trying this one more time?
EDIT: For some reason it keeps adding additional hide tags to my post. I have no idea why.