Alright, hear me out. Roleplaying is supposed to be a form of collaborative fiction writing, right? At the core, without all the CS's and post orders, that's what it is: A bunch of people writing the same story. What I'm proposing in this interest check is a stripped-bare form of RPing, which is to say, a book. With chapters and shit. The goal here isn't to get published or anything, (That's a whole can of worms and necessary higher quality that would make this not as fun) but just to write a large piece of fiction that has a beginning, middle, end, and is impactful in some way, even if the impact is that we have written it. That's it. That's the idea. That being said, people just love bullet points, so here's a bullet point list of things I'm looking for, points I'd like to make, and other things that would look cool next to a circle.

• The most non-negotiable aspect of this brain trust is that everyone is comfortable, perhaps most comfortable, with Advanced writing. Nothing against you folks in the Free and Casual section, I just don't think it'd be fun to read a book written with Free-level descriptions. I mean, that's fair, right? Anyway, Advanced. Bring your A-Game.

• Another thing that makes this not a RP is that it will not focus on the focus of most RPs; A group of like-minded people comparable to a crew, fellowship, gang, or team, setting out to accomplish something. Even though that's exactly what we are, in a weird sense, I'd prefer that it not be what we write. No stories about 6'2 twenty something attractive characters that may as well be PC's.

• The genre and plot are unimportant right now, as long as we can decide on one for the story we all like. Why not tell us about your preferred genres in your responses to this interest check? Personally, I'm thinking either Urban Fantasy/Sci-Fi or Space Western. Share your thoughts on these, or other genres. Anyway, point is, we agree on a genre, plot, and probably main character.

• One of the things that makes this not an RP is that we all control the characters that exist, though some people will probably have preferences and skills for writing certain characters. The reason for this is plot advancement -- we don't have to wait for anybody to be online to collab or anything, we can just add bits and pieces to the story as we go on.

• This will probably happen on Piratepad. If you are the one person on this site who isn't familar with it, get acquainted with it. It's a site people can edit a piece of text on simultaneously. Learn it. Live it. Love it.

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Anyway, any of you folks interested should make themselves known here. I've been itching to write something long and meaningful and interesting, but the confines placed by forum-based roleplaying only make for certain kinds of stories.

TL;DR: Let's write a book

• This will probably happen on Piratepad. If you are the one person on this site who isn't familar with it, get acquainted with it. It's a site people can edit a piece of text on simultaneously. Learn it. Live it. Love it.

Google Docs is better, especially for a project of this magnitude. It simply has more tools at its disposal and better formatting and data storage.

Exactly what I've been craving. I remember when someone tried to set up something like this a few years ago. We ended up writing a generic fantasy story, and one of the characters was a talking dog. Let's just say that it didn't go well.

I'm definitely interested, though my writing skills are probably around high-casual at best. I'm confident that I can write at an appropriate level despite that.

I second the use of google docs.

As for genres, I'm quite fond of dystopian science fiction and most forms of fantasy. I'm okay with urban fantasy, but not really a fan of space westerns. Actually, I'm not really that big of a fan of most space-focused science fiction. Though, I guess I could be convinced.

@VarionusNW Ooh ooh! I'm interested! Me! Me! Me!

@VarionusNW Ooh ooh! I'm interested! Me! Me! Me!

not sure why you mentioned me, but ok.

this sounds super cool!!!!

i would be willing to participate as long as the genre was something I'm familiar with-i'm not big into writing super far-in-the-future/space themed sci fi just because I'm not very good at writing the tech aspect of it, haha

also i third the google docs idea :D

I've attempted something like this before. It was actually pretty fun, although slow going and a bit of a tough sell.

Pirate pad breaks too easily, may want to look into a different solution that can handle a good amount of concurrent users that won't error 500 for weeks on end. Also, this sounds like an awesome idea :)

Right, right. Google docs it is. Enjoy your UNUSABLE CHAT SYSTEM working servers. I now realize that all of us choosing a genre will be a bit of a clusterfuck, so I suggest those interested should say what they are and are not interested in writing -- and some reasons why -- and we'll whittle our options down once we have enough preferences that there's a noticeable theme. I'll start!

✓ Stephen King-esque Urban Fantasy/Sci-Fi. I like characters that grew up in the same world as me, with traits similar to people I've met. Not for nothing, I don't know many dudes like Obi-Wan or Borimir, so I find stories set in the modern age (Or at least some point in time from the 50's to now, if any of you guys wanna do a period piece) more identifiable. By "Stephen King-esque" I should explain that I mean "Classic Fantasy/Sci-Fi/Horror trope explained rationally". 1408 is about a haunted room, which makes more sense when you consider Stephen King's universe has weak spots in reality Lovecraftian horrorterrors can influence and visit our world through. It is about a monster that turns into your worst fear, which is actually an alien that uses this method to hunt. There are other examples, but I gotta run right now. Point is, I don't like it when fictitious elements aren't explained in some way.

✓ Space Western/Space Opera. The journey into the unknown wilderness is a common element in writing, no doubt about that, I just think it'd be fun to do so with another planet. Maybe a story about crash-landed astronauts trying to send a distress signal? Anyway, point is, I like Sci-Fi when it's not too Sci-Fi, so a story about humans set in a nonhuman place seems about the right amount for me.

✓ Realistic fiction. No space juju, no magic, nothing unnatural of the sort. In order to make this idea interesting, it'd probably mostly be crime-focused. If we're staying strictly realistic I'd prefer to do something set in the past, preferably 1900's onward.

✘ Hard Fantasy/Hard Sci-Fi. I find that a lot of projects get abandoned because people spend a lot of time explaining the world as if they were in-world, when really, "It's a generic fantasy world" would do. The federation is always either good (Star Trek, Stargate) or bad (Star Wars, Firefly). The elves are always pretty. The aliens are always more advanced than humans, except for the one group of not-klingons. The dwarves always like gold. It seems a waste of time to create a whole universe that adheres to a lot of the laws of its genre, save for a few details like dragons being able to turn into people or some shit.

✘ Apocalypse/Post-Apocalypse. This one's more personal than the other, iunno. These last few years, the media has kind of had a zombie boner that I've gotten tired of. If our protagonist doesn't start off in a coma or in a bunker, we have to write out the whole apocalypse, and even then, The Walking Dead has pretty much done everything with the genre that can be done. Special kinds of zombies? Different factions with different philosophies? The real enemies are the humans? TWD did all of those. Just kinda seems done to undeath at this point.

I personally am a big fan of post-post-apocalypse. Basically, it takes place anywhere from 100+ years after a world ending event. I find the whole idea of "who/what came before" to be really interesting to explore. It even works for modern day, if the people you're writing about are actually the second race of intelligent beings on the planet.

Also like exploring worlds, and coming up with cool places to visit and interact with. I think an external quest/adventure is good to draw parallels with for a character's internal adventure as well.

Lastly I also like urban fantasy. I think the whole idea of there being a second world just out of sight of our own is a really interesting concept to explore. Basically I just like exploratory stories.

There are more things I like, but those are the things that really get me going with a plot more than anything else

Bumping this back up. Lots of declarations of interest, not a lot of discussion. There probably won't be an OOC with more info to be waiting for, so start letting me know your likes and dislikes.

Bumping this back up. Lots of declarations of interest, not a lot of discussion. There probably won't be an OOC with more info to be waiting for, so start letting me know your likes and dislikes.

I'm wondering how many people would actually be the best balance for collaboration, but wouldn't drown the story in conflicting interests

<Snipped quote by DeadBeatWalking>

I'm wondering how many people would actually be the best balance for collaboration, but wouldn't drown the story in conflicting interests

I'm hoping for a team of 3-4 including myself.

I think there are ways to make any genre interesting, so I'm probably fine with anything. Depends on the specific story we decide on, I guess.

Bumping this back up. Lots of declarations of interest, not a lot of discussion. There probably won't be an OOC with more info to be waiting for, so start letting me know your likes and dislikes.

@Gowi@Celaira@ayzrules@Chaotic Chao discussion is a thing that must be done.

<Snipped quote by Mercenary Lord>

I'm hoping for a team of 3-4 including myself.

I got dibs

alright let's do this

I am interested in:

*Steampunk-I just love everything about it, from the fashion and aesthetic to the concept of technology powered by steam. I like how you can pretty much make up whatever you want but you still have guidelines to follow and a general rule-of-thumb that it's gonna be either something that already existed in the time period or powered by steam/gears/etc. I think developing the tech for steampunk stories is a LOT easier than for space sci-fi stories because Victorian tech is, relative to us, easier to understand and there's plenty of info about it online. I'm down for both the more fantastical side of it (with vampires and werewolves or whatever) as well as the more science-y side of it (focusing on the different tech and clockwork automatons/airships/whatever). I'm also down for a combination of both!

*Historical Fiction-I'm lowkey a history nerd, so I would love to do historical fiction about pretty much anything. I will say that I am not a big fan of the historical romance genre; like romance is fine, but I just don't like it when it's the main focus of the story. My key periods of interest include ancient China/Egypt/Greece/Rome, colonial America, Renaissance Europe, eighteenth-century Europe and Asia, and the 1920s in general. I am not a big fan of WWI/WWII historical fiction unless we have a REALLY interesting plot going.

*Historical Fantasy-Again, I'm a lowkey history nerd, so historical fantasy has also piqued my interest. I like medieval fantasy if it doesn't seem like it's been overdone (since we've got sooooo many medieval fantasy books these days), and I also like fantasy set in the 19th century. It's just kind of cool combining magic and whatnot with old-timey stuff.

*Action/Adventure (including 'super-powered' humans)-I like this genre in both a historical setting or in the modern day/sometime not too far in the future. It's just a fun genre in general, because you get to think of elaborate schemes and conspiracies and you get to make badass characters. I will say that I lean more towards "historical action" just because I am a bit put off by the amount of research you would have to do to write an action-y story in the modern day just because of how technology has advanced.

I am ambivalent about:

*Urban Fantasy-Okay, I actually really love reading this, if it is done right. But I feel like this genre has become super overused in the past couple of years, and that a lot of the urban fantasy I read quickly becomes a bit cliche. I dunno, it may just be me being nitpicky, but I'm not a huge fan of this unless the world is more "unique".

*Sci-Fi-The only reservations I have about this is the technology aspect. Call me a lazy piece of shit, but I really don't want to spend hours researching for a tiny detail in the story. That being said, I do like this genre in terms of plot and I very much enjoy reading it.

*Cyberpunk/Space Sci-Fi-I like the concept, but not so much the tech knowledge required.

*Dystopian/Apocalypse Fiction-Like @DeadBeatWalking said, this has been done so many times in the past few years that it seems super cliche when I find a dystopian story. Again, if we can come up with an original plot and world/concept, then I'm all for it.

I am not interested in:

*Fantasy/Superhuman School-Please, just no. I guess the Harry Potter series just made this genre insanely popular, but what the hell is so interesting about kids going to class every day? I mean, sure, it's not a "normal" class, but seriously-writing this has become something I just absolutely will not do, RP or otherwise.

*Teen Fiction-I don't know, I just don't find the lives of kids going to school very interesting. As I have stated above.

*Romance/Erotica-This is kind of gross, so no thank you.

*Mystery-I'm not sure why I don't like mystery very much. If it's done right, I'm fine with it, but I think I've just had too many bad experiences with cheesy mystery novels.

If it is not to late to join...

Stories I like:

I like comedy, but only to a degree. While sometimes all you need is an utterly stupid little short story that makes you laugh, Comedy can't carry a whole novel by itself; It needs other elements to give it structure to work off of.

Thinking about it I'm actually fairly open to most genres, what matters more to me is good writing in order to draw the reader in. I'm happy to write just about anything... but I do have one request.

If there is one thing that bugs me, it's the idea of some secret society pulling the strings of everything. It's a common trope I know but it annoys the hell out of me. If we were going to base a story in the modern world, the idea that there is a single, secret group of people who get around a table and congratulate themselves on making the planet a worse place to live to 'distract the common folk so we can keep ruling' is stupid and lazy writing...

A better twist on the trope would be to have multiple such organizations (At least double digits) all of whom have their own, often times conflicting agendas and the reason the world is screwed up is because they keep either trying to screw each other over or undermine each other.

@VarionusNW I never actually expressed an interest to join, just in the idea. I haven't decided if I want to join yet, so I'm just watching for now.

@VarionusNW I am actually up for fantasy, sci-fi, steampunk. (Would be cool if steampunk was mixed with fantasy.) I can think of a story to do with any theme if you want me to as well.

I'm not so much a fan of steampunk, personally. Just feels like a sort of limited writing palette.