A Writing Experiment - One Story, Multiple Authors

[Zapdos]

Hello! Thank you for reading this. I've had this idea kicking around in my head for some time now and I figured now was a good time to present it here. Normally in a roleplay, each person will roleplay a character (or more) and they will interact within the GM's story. My idea here is to have all the writers take turn writing the story. Each poster will take turns writing; in the end what will result is a (hopefully) cohesive and interesting story. All of the characters, setting and plot are made by all of the writers, each one building upon the work of the people who wrote before them. To provide a short example (obviously the posts would be longer in the actual story):

Poster A:

"Frank was walking down the street on his way to work. It was his last day on the job; he was proud of his 43 years at the Wonderful Wheel Company, but he was looking forward to retirement. He arrived at the old factory, same as ever, except he was surprised to see..."

Poster B:

"that it was decorated with banners! The old factory worker saw banners, balloons and homemade posters celebrating his last day and wishing him well. A hint of a smile showed on the man's face. But the biggest surprise was when he walked into the place..."

Poster C:

"a huge array of tires spelling out "BEST WISHES FRANK" right on the factory floor! What was previously a hint evolved into a full-on grin; the man never expected his coworkers to go through all this trouble. Honestly, he thought they didn't even like him. However..."

And so on. Again, this would be longer if we were actually writing. I'm not looking for big essays here; just two or three quality paragraphs per post. If you want to write longer, cool. Ideally, this will have some advantages:

-If someone loses interest or gets busy with life, the whole story won't grind to a halt.
-Multiple authors can provide multiple perspectives, making the story more interesting.

I've never done this before, so let me know if you have questions, thoughts, or even just if you're interested. I do have some ground rules/guidelines in mind to help make things run more smoothly, but I'll put that in the OOC thread if enough people are interested. This could be done with just a few people, in theory. Have a great day!

P.S. I'm just mentioning people here because I know them and I know they're good RPers.

@CloudyBlueDay@CloseEnough@Blazion@Korkoa@Artifex@Inertia@General Scales@L4dyH4wke

[Tiger]

If you're still thinking about starting this, I'd be interested in giving it a go. Would this be done on forum, in a google doc, or some other method?

[Virgil]

@Zapdos This sounds like exactly the level of commitment-but-not-over-commitment I need to kick my writing back into gear! Like Tiger up here, I'm interested.

[Abolish nICE]

I could see myself giving this a crack

[Chuuya]

This is unusual and I'm extremely intrigued.

[Relin]

I'm gonna keep my eye on this. I'd like to see the premise of the story before I commit to writing it though. I'm kinda picky with that stuff, mostly sticking to sci-fi or fantasy.

[Tiger]

I would be fine with either of those genres. Does anyone else have a preference?

[Virgil]

Considering the only other times I've seen this, people have oddly gravitated towards modern/family aesthetics, I'd be down with something a tiny bit more ambitious; Fantasy and/or Sci-Fi sounds good to me frankly.

Who else wants to voice their thoughts?

[Chuuya]

Considering the only other times I've seen this, people have oddly gravitated towards modern/family aesthetics, I'd be down with something a tiny bit more ambitious; Fantasy and/or Sci-Fi sounds good to me frankly.

Who else wants to voice their thoughts?

@Virgil

I have no preference between the two, but I personally feel like a having a non-modern setting would be much more engaging. +1 for the idea of Sci-Fi or Fantasy (if this is still happening, I mean).

[Bria The Human]

Definitely interested! :)

[Tiger]

@Abolish nICE Does Fantasy/Sci-Fi work for you as well?

Where all do we want to see this come to life? Are we looking to make a thread here on the guild, or do we want to move outside this site? I've found google docs easy for collaborative writing, but I'm down to try anything that works well for the group.

Also, we should establish if anyone has any hard limits for what they're willing to write about. I personally am not a huge fan of graphic torture scenes or gore, but as long as there's a sufficient warning or clear indications of a start point and end point, I can just skip over anything I'm uncomfortable with.

[Bria The Human]

@Abolish nICE Does Fantasy/Sci-Fi work for you as well?

Where all do we want to see this come to life? Are we looking to make a thread here on the guild, or do we want to move outside this site? I've found google docs easy for collaborative writing, but I'm down to try anything that works well for the group.

Also, we should establish if anyone has any hard limits for what they're willing to write about. I personally am not a huge fan of graphic torture scenes or gore, but as long as there's a sufficient warning or clear indications of a start point and end point, I can just skip over anything I'm uncomfortable with.

@Tiger

I personally don't do any kind of smut content, but aside from that I'm open to whatever.

[Relin]

@Abolish nICE Does Fantasy/Sci-Fi work for you as well?

Where all do we want to see this come to life? Are we looking to make a thread here on the guild, or do we want to move outside this site? I've found google docs easy for collaborative writing, but I'm down to try anything that works well for the group.

Also, we should establish if anyone has any hard limits for what they're willing to write about. I personally am not a huge fan of graphic torture scenes or gore, but as long as there's a sufficient warning or clear indications of a start point and end point, I can just skip over anything I'm uncomfortable with.

@Tiger

I'd think a forum thread would be good. It makes it clear where one person's post ends and another begins. We'd just have to have a heads-up that somebody is writing a post at a given time so we don't accidentally duplicate sections and have one writer lose their time. As for limits, I don't really have any. I've been on the internet long enough to see the nastiest shit imaginable, and I don't think we'll approach that. Haha.

Also, if we're all good with sci-fi/fantasy, we should try to narrow down the genre so we're all on the same page in terms of tone and whatnot.

Obviously, we'd need to choose between fantasy and sci-fi.

For sci-fi: Is it on earth? Space? Multiple dimensions? How advanced is the technology? Dystopian? Utopian? Are we exploring a frontier?

For Fantasy: Light-hearted adventure? Grim oppressive world? High magic? Low magic? Lots of politics? Or are we just slaying a dragon?

I will say I have one hard rule if we do a traditional fantasy setting: no guns. Guns ruin swords and sorcery for me.

[Chuuya]

Where all do we want to see this come to life? Are we looking to make a thread here on the guild, or do we want to move outside this site? I've found google docs easy for collaborative writing, but I'm down to try anything that works well for the group.

Also, we should establish if anyone has any hard limits for what they're willing to write about. I personally am not a huge fan of graphic torture scenes or gore, but as long as there's a sufficient warning or clear indications of a start point and end point, I can just skip over anything I'm uncomfortable with.

@Tiger

No hard limits here, but I'm too inexperienced to write smut and also not comfortable writing it with anyone I haven't known for at least a year. I also vote for a thread.

I'd think a forum thread would be good. It makes it clear where one person's post ends and another begins. We'd just have to have a heads-up that somebody is writing a post at a given time so we don't accidentally duplicate sections and have one writer lose their time. As for limits, I don't really have any. I've been on the internet long enough to see the nastiest shit imaginable, and I don't think we'll approach that. Haha.

Also, if we're all good with sci-fi/fantasy, we should try to narrow down the genre so we're all on the same page in terms of tone and whatnot.

Obviously, we'd need to choose between fantasy and sci-fi.

For sci-fi: Is it on earth? Space? Multiple dimensions? How advanced is the technology? Dystopian? Utopian? Are we exploring a frontier?

For Fantasy: Light-hearted adventure? Grim oppressive world? High magic? Low magic? Lots of politics? Or are we just slaying a dragon?

I will say I have one hard rule if we do a traditional fantasy setting: no guns. Guns ruin swords and sorcery for me.

@Relin

+1 for forum thread.

As far as science fiction goes, I'm personally not fond of space exploration. I wouldn't mind the other options. Same for fantasy, but I do think light-hearted adventure could be a bit more fun for this kind of Roleplay. A little chance to flex comedic muscles is never bad.

[Tiger]

I personally don't do any kind of smut content, but aside from that I'm open to whatever.

@Bria The Human

No hard limits here, but I'm too inexperienced to write smut and also not comfortable writing it with anyone I haven't known for at least a year.

@Hyde

So smut is out. Good choice if we're using a thread. Speaking of,

I'd think a forum thread would be good. It makes it clear where one person's post ends and another begins. We'd just have to have a heads-up that somebody is writing a post at a given time so we don't accidentally duplicate sections and have one writer lose their time. As for limits, I don't really have any. I've been on the internet long enough to see the nastiest shit imaginable, and I don't think we'll approach that. Haha.

@Relin

I also vote for a thread.
+1 for forum thread.

@Hyde

A thread is perfectly fine with me. We can set up a system for post writing. Maybe a dedicated ooc thread or pm system where we can state if we're starting a post, so it won't clutter up the rest. Alternatively we could 'reserve' spots if we're writing something, or use the like or laugh to indicate a post we'd like to follow up. Maybe only use the system if there's three or more of us online at a time.

Also, if we're all good with sci-fi/fantasy, we should try to narrow down the genre so we're all on the same page in terms of tone and whatnot.

Obviously, we'd need to choose between fantasy and sci-fi.

For sci-fi: Is it on earth? Space? Multiple dimensions? How advanced is the technology? Dystopian? Utopian? Are we exploring a frontier?

For Fantasy: Light-hearted adventure? Grim oppressive world? High magic? Low magic? Lots of politics? Or are we just slaying a dragon?

I will say I have one hard rule if we do a traditional fantasy setting: no guns. Guns ruin swords and sorcery for me.

@Relin

As far as science fiction goes, I'm personally not fond of space exploration. I wouldn't mind the other options. Same for fantasy, but I do think light-hearted adventure could be a bit more fun for this kind of Roleplay. A little chance to flex comedic muscles is never bad.

@Hyde

I'm on board with the no guns in fantasy rule, if we want to go that route. How about we take a quick vote for either fantasy or sci fi, then narrow it down from there?

[Bria The Human]

I vote fantasy! :) Also as far as our different sections go, what we could do is once we have our set amount of people we could come up with a posting cycle. You could post a list in the thread with all of our names in a certain order and once we've seen that the person before us on the list has gone we'll know that it's now our turn to post. I feel like that would save a lot of confusion

[Virgil]

I think it'd be pretty cool to have a mixture of Sci-Fantasy -- a bit like "Dune" or "The Time Machine" where technology is taken for granted in feudal/tribal-esc society, or the inverse in which the world surrounding a feudal society is so highly advanced that it's practically "magic" anyway. An on-the-fly example of the latter would be:

A "sentient" (artificially intelligent) planet that can terraform or spawn elemental beings at will to eradicated or suppress supposed "threats." These threats could be anything from falling asteroids to the very people living on it -- a human population spawned from the survivors of a crashed colony-ship, technologically regressed after millennia of being forced into hiding from the planet at certain times of day or night, which is forewarned of by a series of "eyes" that illuminate the sky whenever the exoplanet has awoken for the day/night. This isn't to say they're stupid people, they just lack a lot of the previous technology and scientific understanding their forebearers possessed, adapting to the rules of their home in ways that are clever for the lack of technological exploitation / counteractivity needed to "master" this dangerous world. As a quick toast for @Relin, you could just say the technology required to produce guns is simply too time-consuming to manufacture at this level of technological regression -- making a bow or an atlatl may be tough, but it's a hell of a lot more convenient to make in a world that's constantly trying to harass you.

I could also see it being a bit *too* much of a combination though; if that were the case for everybody, I'd vote for Fantasy just because it's more grounded and less "let's reinvent everything about how to hold a coffee-cup" as is often the case with Sci-Fi.

I was also of the assumption that we'd be doing this on roleplayerguild. And yeah, no or limited smut is fine by me -- that takes a level of writing I'm simply not capable of, to pull off with any semblance of purpose or balanced-taste.

[Virgil]

I vote fantasy! :) Also as far as our different sections go, what we could do is once we have our set amount of people we could come up with a posting cycle. You could post a list in the thread with all of our names in a certain order and once we've seen that the person before us on the list has gone we'll know that it's now our turn to post. I feel like that would save a lot of confusion

@Bria The Human

Good call! There'd have to be a reasonable expiration date for anyone who couldn't post in time though, just so the next people in line could continue without the pace of the RP being bogged down by IRL issues. Maybe...if you haven't posted by the end of the day? Or so many hours after the last post was put up -- that'd also make it easier to deal with time-zone differences; 12 to 24 hours after a post is up?

[Bria The Human]

Good call! There'd have to be a reasonable expiration date for anyone who couldn't post in time though, just so the next people in line could continue without the pace of the RP being bogged down by IRL issues. Maybe...if you haven't posted by the end of the day? Or so many hours after the last post was put up -- that'd also make it easier to deal with time-zone differences; 12 to 24 hours after a post is up?

@Virgil

That sounds perfectly reasonable to me! I feel like things would flow a lot smoother like that

[Tiger]

A loose turn order is definitely doable. They use to be pretty standard when I was more active, though usually the gm would be the only one allowed to declare skips. Since we'll all have an equal hand in this, I think a time limit is a good idea.