Some honest input

[Comicality]

I'm steadily taking notes and trying to get everything straight in my head concerning this round robin story. But I wanted to know, from what you guys have read online, have you ever seen a collaborative story go 'horribly wrong'? Hehehe! Seriously, I want to know if there are any pitfalls that I should look out for before we get this up and running. You don't have to mention any story 'names' particularly (I certainly don't want to step on any toes here), but this is my first time being in charge of something like this. So I want to do it right.

 

Let me know if you have any suggestions for the "Do NOT Do" box! Cool?

[Dezlboi]

WTF? I posted a reply to this yesterday, and it seems to have gotten lost in the ether. Let's see if I can remember what I said...

 

I can't think of many collaborations that I've read, offhand. In fact, the only one I can think of right now is "Robin", which coincidentally is the first work of Com's that I ever read. The first few chapters of that story seemed pretty cool to me; maybe it derailled later on, I don't know, maybe I can go re-read it as homework and see what I think.

 

I know this idea will be met with much resistance, but I'm going to toss it out anyway, even if only for discussion and debate. I can sum up in one word how to keep the collaboration from going horribly wrong.

 

Moderate.

 

Now, I'm the last person to ever suggest that someone's creative work should be judged, filtered, censored, or anything like that. And moderating the submissions could certainly reduce the randomness factor - nobody knows what the next author will do, and each author following will have to pick it up and run with it, no matter what cards they are dealt by the previous contributor. But there's no getting around the fact that with many "cooks", the story could turn into a train wreck.

 

Also, reviewing the submissions before publishing them means more work for you, unless you delegate it or form a panel or something.

 

You might be able to strike a compromise - for example, only step in if you see major problems with a submission, rather than full-on editing or moderating. But that still puts you in the hellish position of possibly having to tell someone their stuff isn't good enough.

 

OK, even I hate that idea. But I think it still needs to be discussed.

 

-Dezl

[Comicality]

Understandable. It's definitely a concern. But I'm working on writing down notes that will sort of 'guide' folks in the right direction without limiting their creative freedom. Naturally, I won't be able to think of 'everything'....but I'll post it here for anyone who has any question before making it official. Plus, this forum will continue to be a place for open discussion about each chapter of the story. Not to mention, we have three cool proofreaders as well, to read and help us edit! So a lot is being taken into consideration so we can do this right.

 

Wow...hehehe "Robin", that was years ago! I liked working on it though. Even if I only did the second chapter. (There was only going to be three of us at first. Then it became an open book for the site. I hopeit's still going strong. I haven't read it in a long long time)