a story by authors

[scotty94]

Dear GA Authors,

 

just had an amazing idea, I want to write the first chapter of a story then let a different author write each chapter afterwards, so everyone sort of contributes to the story. I know some though will need to be put on to it I just though It will be a good ideas and it will be a good way to see how writers interpret other peoples work. I have seen it done before so I reckon it will be something good to do. all your replies and suggestion are greatly appreciated.

 

yours,

scotty94

[Andy78]

Sounds like a good idea.  I'd be interested.

 

I'm not how the logistics would work though.

 

Who would be able to post/edit the various chapters? (Could be a lot of work if everything had to be collated through one person)

 

Who would the rep points for each "like" clicked go to?  (I doubt GA stories is set up to be able to assign rep points to individual authors of each chapter)

[joann414]

Sounds fun, but would have a lot of quirks to work out unless we posted each chapter as a sub-titled story for that author or something.

[Cia]

This is called a round robin. It has been done before, actually. You'd need to have someone in charge as the initial author. You can add more contributing authors to stories, but one person must be the lead author. I can't recall if only that author can add chapters, or if that author can add authors and the new authors can then add chapters as well. I know that Renee attempted one of these with some authors previously, but it fizzled due to time constraints. I'll ask her to chime in with what she remembers the system allows.

[TalonRider]

Here's an example of a round robin. Collision by the Collision Crew. It's also found at Awesomedude and CRVboy websites.

[Former Member]

Well what we could do is have a lead author.  But we could also ave a forum for it as well and we could tell readers that they can go and like the forum post where the original author posted it and the lead author essentially is just an archive of what's already been written.

 

The thing that I'm concerned about is more than one person responding to the same chapter.  You know, like five people attempting to write chapter 2.  Would we call dibs or something, lol?  And would there be a limit as to how many times the same author can contribute?

 

Great idea, I say we do it after we work everything out.

[Renee Stevens]

If I remember right, ALL authors that are listed CAN add chapters.  HOWEVER, and this is a big however, ONLY the main author can respond to reviews (at least that's how it was when I attempted it).  Also, unless something changed, if you have to edit chapters later on, you might have issues editing any chapters NOT posted by the main author. 

[Krista]

Easier if it was a blog deal not a Stories deal, yes? That way the authors can all be added to the blog so they all can edit their posts.. 

[JSmith]

We could set up a private sub-forum for authors interested in doing this if it takes off. It would be an easy way to collaborate on the story and we could password protect it so only the authors writing chapters could have access to the juicy details before each chapter is made public.

[AnimalMorph]

Is this a sci-fi or a fantasy genre? If it is, then count me in!

If it is not, then I think I'll take a look and see how things work out first.

 

I think Joey has done this before, this round-robin thingy. It was posted in the games and humor section of the forum, if I remember correctly.

Too bad he suddenly disappear on us and the project is abandoned.

 

Back then, I was just a newbie and didn't know a thing about writing so it would really be nice of this project -whatever this might be- can be realized.

 

The big problem still remains though, who wants to be the lead author?

[scotty94]

thanks for all your comments keep them coming, and hopefully if there is enough people wanting to contribute maybe we can have the go ahead when all the finer details are ironed out.

[scotty94]

im thinking off it this way each author who wants to contribute choose a chapter and doesn't change there mind I will be the lead author ill write the first chapter get it edited and when my editor and i am happy with it post it the next author write there chapter after reading the first chapter get that edited and e-mail it to the lead author who will post it. that is just a suggestion.

[AnimalMorph]

How about like this...

 

Each author have their own main char (with a maximum of two supporting characters), therefore have their own personality and their own Point of View.

Each of these characters will inevitably interact with the other authors character somewhere in the storyline.

 

Each author post in a fixed turn. For example, lead author post the first chapter, Mr. A post the second chapter, Mrs. B post the third and then back to the lead author in a constant manner.

 

Lead author will determine the main genre / theme of the storyline. He/she also the one who will creates major event that will happen in the main storyline and decide the turn of which the author must post his/her chapter.

 

That's all I can think of for now, any other suggestions?

[Former Member]

See that's more like a roleplay. Where each author has their own characters. I think it would be fun for other different authors to write the SAME character

[Thorn Wilde]

I think of it as kind of a story arc on a season of a TV-show. Usually, the head writer or executive producer will decide how the story is going to end, and make up a few plot points that need to be incorporated, and then other writers will write the individual episodes. That's if you want structure, of course, because that way there's sort of a plot to write around.

 

It could be done more democratically, of course. If one creates a sub-forum for this thing, then we could all discuss what the story should be about and plot it out a bit (no huge detail, just so we kind of know where it's going and don't write ourselves into a corner) and then divide up the chapters between us.

[Former Member]

Now we just have to get it going!  A community wide roleplay would be a good idea too, I think.  We make an environs and go to TOWN.  Just ideas.

[Persinette]

If a roleplaying game did get off the ground, you'll probably want a sub-forum for it. Make a character profile thread where people post the profile for their character - maybe have a basic profile written for people to fill out - then people create threads for RPing in. So you have a thread somebody's started set in the bar, and everyone interested joins in. Or something like that? That way not everyone has to be doing the same plot or in the same conversation.

 

Of course, you'd probably want a GM (Game Master) to run things. They could introduce plots for people to play in. Like, if it was set in a fantasy city, the GM might say 'the kingdom's longtime enemy has launched an attack on the city and [insert details here]', then everyone plays out that plot. Where the players take it is up to them, so there's no set plot to follow, but it gives people a starting point to jump off of. Otherwise you run the risk of everyone being too polite and worrying about dominating the RP, so nobody starts any big plots.

 

...Sorry, I have put way too much thought into this.

 

(And then you want basic rules for whether one character is allowed to injure another without the players getting permission from each other, etc.)

[Former Member]

Yes.  Yes please.

[layla]

oh man if this becomes a giant RP then I am so in. I play an online writing rp game, its actually how a lot of my characters were created and its a ton of fun interacting with people.

[Former Member]

So should we start planning?  I want to have an adventure!

[Persinette]

Well, the first thing to do is decide what kind of setting people want, and what kind of tone.

 

For example, if people wanted fantasy, what kind of fantasy? High medieval fantasy, with sweeping important events and high stakes? Something more like Scott Lynch's Gentleman Bastards, where the magic is more mundane and the stakes are high, but the world isn't going to end? Urban fantasy?

 

And then there's tone. If it was a highschool setting, you don't want seventeen players who think it's about romantic hyjinks, twelve players who think it's meant to be all about child abuse and eating disorders, and five players who want to secretly be assassins but nobody knows.

 

...Maybe somebody needs to start a new thread about this?

[Former Member]

*raises hand* on it!

[Celethiel]

i see someone reads scott lynch besides myself