Anotherealm Forum - Group Story

Sep 6^th, 2010, 7:19pm

	Welcome, Guest. Please Login or Register	Click the logo above to go back to the main site.
	News:	Click the logo above to go back to the main site.

Home

Help

Anotherealm Forum › General Category › General Board › Group Story

You do have to register to post but you will be a better person for it.
The Fine Print: The following comments are owned by whomever posted them. We are not responsible for them in any way.

(Moderator: Webbie)

‹ Previous topic | Next topic ›

Pages: 1

Group Story (Read 316 times)

Webbie

YaBB Administrator
Sponsor
Front Page Author

Offline

I love AR

Posts: 511
Anotherealm
Gender: male

Group Story
Oct 27^th, 2009, 8:41am

We have talked about a group story before. We even tried it a couple of times and it never seemed to quite work out.

After a bit of talk we have tried a new idea for a group story.

The 13th Annual Halloween Party and Costume Event.
Everyones just dyin' to get in!
Covered Dish-Pot Luck" dinner!
Door prizes and awards for best costumes!
Judging will be at 12 midnight!
Tickets $13.00 at the door.

This was the start of an idea to have a group write a story in a common world. Then we added a few central characters that everyone could use -- Mr. Perkins the school Principal. Chief Cody the Chief of Police etc.

Ground rules is you can't kill or hurt them. They must be available to wander into somebody else's story. A few key locations: ticket booth, buffet table, kitchen, bathroom, dance hall, DJ, and you can't trash or alter these locations.

It's such a big local event that people come from miles around, even out of town. The basic 'World View' would be that of today, current year. Of course add any mythology you wish!

You can't kill off the whole bar, burn it down, destroy the town or anything like that. The locals don't know what is going on, except for...

See the contest section for the results:
http://anotherealm.org/index.php

-W

IP Logged

Webbie YaBB Administrator Sponsor Front Page Author Offline I love AR Posts: 511 Anotherealm Gender:	Re: Group Story Reply #1 - Oct 27^th, 2009, 10:33pm I think that Arthur's story is the best of the lot. It has such a 'human' feeling to it. Ya know, real people. Even if they are dead...
Back to top	-W IP Logged

Gary A. Markette

YaBB Administrator

Offline

I Love AR

Posts: 85

Re: Group Story
Reply #2 - Oct 28^th, 2009, 12:55am

Thanks to webbie for handling this from the get-go. I am right in the middle of our reading period--not to mention in one of the busiest times at my "real" job--and unable to participate. Thanks also to all of the 'realmers who have contributed their time and talent. What a great idea this was and what terrific stories! My best to all involved. Thanks for keeping anotherealm the class of the web's ezines.

IP Logged

ArthurS Senior Member Offline I Love AR Posts: 163 Gender:	Re: Group Story Reply #3 - Oct 28^th, 2009, 6:44am Thanks Webbie for the plug. I truly hope you decide to make this experiment a regular feature. I'd love to see what the next batch of writers get to do with the next story idea.
Back to top	Visit my website: http://www.arthursanchez.com Read the blog http://www.arthursanchez.com/blog IP Logged

Jeangoldstrom Senior Member Online I Love AR Posts: 168	Re: Group Story Reply #4 - Oct 28^th, 2009, 6:57am Good writing made for good reading. I enjoyed all three of them. Yes, it would be great to see this feature again. -- Jean
Back to top	IP Logged

Webbie

YaBB Administrator
Sponsor
Front Page Author

Offline

I love AR

Posts: 511
Anotherealm
Gender: male

Re: Group Story
Reply #5 - Oct 28^th, 2009, 9:31am

I like the idea of it all. Our early experiment turned out pretty well.
Once we got the 'test group' together we talked about how to do this a lot.
We rejected many ideas that sounded real good, until we started thinking them through.

We came up with the problem that doing an story in 1000 words, in a shared world just wasn't cutting it.
So we are thinking that 2500-3000 words might be better.
The progression might be,
starting writers do contest stories at 1000 words,
then move up to shared stories at say 2500 words
then go to front page stories at 5000 words
then go to a novel in the New York Times Best Seller List �;)

One of the ideas was who can participate?
An idea was put out there that this should only be open to past writers of contest stories. Who have already proven that they can write a story with a beginning, middle and end. Also should be limited to just a few writers instead of a lot of them and they should get a 'Hidden" area on the BBS to chat about the project. Being able to compare stories so they could be synchronized with another writers story seems to be an important ability. Hence the BBS.

It seemed to work this time.
But before it becomes a regular feature it might need an adjustment or two.

Any thoughts?

-W

IP Logged

Webbie

YaBB Administrator
Sponsor
Front Page Author

Offline

I love AR

Posts: 511
Anotherealm
Gender: male

Re: Group Story
Reply #6 - Oct 28^th, 2009, 9:41am

Gary A. Markette wrote on Oct 28^th, 2009, 12:55am:

To bad you didn't have the time to get in on this. I think you would have really enjoyed it.

Ya know, I'm not really sure who's idea it was. A little input from everybody involved I guess.
Everyone who participated brought something to the table and in the end I think we had a good first run.

The only thing I think we missed on was getting the other writers characters into our own stories.
I'm thinking that will take some practice.

I really liked using the BBS as a meeting area, it worked out really well.

-W

IP Logged

Webbie

YaBB Administrator
Sponsor
Front Page Author

Offline

I love AR

Posts: 511
Anotherealm
Gender: male

Re: Group Story
Reply #7 - Oct 30^th, 2009, 8:01am

I'd like to try this again. It worked out pretty well the first time even though it was a trial run.

Here are our basic rules as we knocked them out the first time around.

The scene is set in the initial conditions.
You cannot alter the base scene by atomic bomb or other means.
You must leave the basic scene intact so the other writers can use it too.
Some stock characters will be provided, they cannot be killed, maimed or otherwise made to be un-useable to the other writers.
2500 words or less.
Writers must be former contest authors.
Participation is by invitation only.
Writers will get a custom area on the BBS to work in.
Participants agree to deliver their story by a due date. To be published 1 week later.
The goal is to deliver a block of stories for the readers to enjoy.

Any comments from writers or readers on this?

-W

IP Logged

Pages: 1

‹ Previous topic | Next topic ›

« Home

‹ Board

Anotherealm Forum » Powered by YaBB 2.2.2!
Anotherealm © 1995-2009. All Rights Reserved.

Barbara Bauer, affiliates or agents of Barbara Bauer Literary Agency
are not welcome on this forum. Any use of this forum shall
be considered copyright infringement. Please leave now!

The comments are owned by whomever posted them.
We are not responsible for them in any way.