SF Writing Co-op

[Reynard369]

Inspired by this thread, I have come up with the idea of various forum members jointly authoring a short story. We can come up with ideas on what we want to write, perhaps take input from all members and then put it to a vote, and then each interested party writes a section of the story.

The only requirement would be that the writers take the project seriously. That is not to say that the tone of the story or the subject matter must be serious, but that those who wish to do the writing treat the task with the care and respect they would give to their own writing.

Who's in?

 

[Don Carlos]

The threak you seek already exists:

http://www.styleforum.net/showthread.php?t=189375

 

[Don Carlos]

On a more serious note, having lived through many attempts at jointly or group-authored stories on this forum and on others, I would suggest a different experiment. Maybe a blog featuring everyone's short stories? Or something of that nature?

A single story with multiple authors is too difficult, and in execution, it ends up pretty haphazard and disjointed in tone, structure, voice, tense, style, and even setting and/or characters. In order to make it work even reasonably well, you'd probably need to add some rules and restrictions to the project before anyone begins. Things like "We will be using the first person" or "This story must take place over the course of one year, and each person's post will chronicle one day," or "Everything must involve Protagonist X and be told from his or her point of view," or "The story unfolds in a linear and sequential fashion from post to post," or "We will assign an order to who contributes when," and so forth. Otherwise, everyone just kinda acts individually, and the result is a jumbled Frankenstory whose parts were very obviously written in isolation.

 

[Reynard369]

Originally Posted by Don Carlos

On a more serious note, having lived through many attempts at jointly or group-authored stories on this forum and on others, I would suggest a different experiment. Maybe a blog featuring everyone's short stories? Or something of that nature?

A single story with multiple authors is too difficult, and in execution, it ends up pretty haphazard and disjointed in tone, structure, voice, tense, style, and even setting and/or characters. In order to make it work even reasonably well, you'd probably need to add some rules and restrictions to the project before anyone begins. Things like "We will be using the first person" or "This story must take place over the course of one year, and each person's post will chronicle one day," or "Everything must involve Protagonist X and be told from his or her point of view," or "The story unfolds in a linear and sequential fashion from post to post," or "We will assign an order to who contributes when," and so forth. Otherwise, everyone just kinda acts individually, and the result is a jumbled Frankenstory whose parts were very obviously written in isolation.

I agree that there would have to be a pretty strict outline for the story, and clear guidelines/rules, but I think it's possible. You in?

 

[imschatz]

Wouldn't you be better off trying to write a collection related short stories? Narrow down the topic to be as defined as possible .. but identify the project as multiple short stories, instead of trying to pass it off as a single story written by multiple authors.

 

[Don Carlos]

Originally Posted by Reynard369

I agree that there would have to be a pretty strict outline for the story, and clear guidelines/rules, but I think it's possible. You in?
I think a much more fruitful exercise is, as the poster above suggests, to aim for a collection of stories around a single concept. This will be easier, and will produce better results, than trying to craft a Frankenstory by multiple authors in multiple voices, styles, and so forth. For instance: give everyone a one-sentence logline. Or give everyone the first sentence in a story. Then everyone writes individual stories, all from the same source material or logline. This way, you embrace the virtues of collectivity while not suffering from the fact that everyone's going to want to write his own story in the first place. For instance, imagine if I gave everyone the opening sentence "The second time you shoot up, it gets a lot easier." Imagine how many possibilities could branch off from that line. How many genres. How many styles. How many characters and circumstances. I'm just using that line as an example; feel free to come up with others. But I think this is a better exercise than trying to keep everyone on task to writing alternating chapters of the same story.

 

[Reynard369]

Originally Posted by Don Carlos

I think a much more fruitful exercise is, as the poster above suggests, to aim for a collection of stories around a single concept. This will be easier, and will produce better results, than trying to craft a Frankenstory by multiple authors in multiple voices, styles, and so forth.

For instance: give everyone a one-sentence logline. Or give everyone the first sentence in a story. Then everyone writes individual stories, all from the same source material or logline. This way, you embrace the virtues of collectivity while not suffering from the fact that everyone's going to want to write his own story in the first place.

For instance, imagine if I gave everyone the opening sentence "The second time you shoot up, it gets a lot easier." Imagine how many possibilities could branch off from that line. How many genres. How many styles. How many characters and circumstances.

I'm just using that line as an example; feel free to come up with others. But I think this is a better exercise than trying to keep everyone on task to writing alternating chapters of the same story.
Hmm. That might be a good idea. We should probably establish a word limit. 2500? 5000?

 

[mm84321]

I would enjoy participating in this.

 

[Don Carlos]

Originally Posted by Reynard369

Hmm. That might be a good idea. We should probably establish a word limit. 2500? 5000?

I think 2500 sounds reasonable. Too far beyond that limit and you lose attention spans over lengthy bouts of contribution and reading.

 

[tagutcow]

I'd be willing to participate as well, as long as there are some sort of guidelines in place. As I've mentioned, creating a short story from scratch can take months or years for me.

 

[Reynard369]

Let's start throwing out some ideas for a general focus for the stories. It could be something very general like "Family," or something more specific.

My first idea... An unexpected encounter

 

[Reynard369]

Originally Posted by tagutcow

I'd be willing to participate as well, as long as there are some sort of guidelines in place. As I've mentioned, creating a short story from scratch can take months or years for me.

What are some rules you think we should have? Story length has already been mentioned. We should also probably set a time limit (can be generous, but ideally would like to have all the stories in at the same time).

 

[mm84321]

Originally Posted by Reynard369

Let's start throwing out some ideas for a general focus for the stories. It could be something very general like "Family," or something more specific.

My first idea... An unexpected encounter

My idea: A revelation.

 

[Ivwri]

I'd definitely be interested in joining this, especially if it is just 2500 words.

My contribution to the idea pool: Perfume.

 

[Reynard369]

Let's go folks: Any more ideas? If not, which of the 3 do you like best?