The Sword and Laser discussion
An incredibly out-there suggestion
It would be amusing to see where such a story would go. I remember doing something like this in primary school, and we were each given a short time to write something, then had to pass it on. I really enjoyed it, though a few people got quite upset that their stories had been 'messed up'.
Well I am definitely cooking something up for the beginning. It would be a lot cooler if this was done via snail mail but I can understand the apprehension towards that. Email will work. I'm wondering if there should be some ground rules thrown out there before we initiate this. Maybe get a list going of the order in which everyone who is participating will receive the "cocktail" story.
Also, I wouldn't mind being a moderator of sorts so there is no discrepancy as to whether someone altered a segment that was written by someone else. I could be Cc'ed in all of the correspondence. (And give fun updates)
Genre: I would guess we would stick to sci-fi and fantasy, allowing all the sub genres those encompass; steampunk, the weird, horror, etc.
Length: what would be a good length so that everyone gets a semi equal segment? Maybe have a limit of no more than 2 ish pages? 1,000 words? Open to suggestions on that one.
Other than those I can't imagine setting up any other barriers. Let those imaginations run wild.
If it's short I'd join in, but doubt I have the ability to write something longer! :)
I suck at writing but im quite good at moderating. I mean, ive been moderating game forums for years now. So if you need any1 to keep a copy and make sure it all runs smoothly count me in. And, we should set the rules before starting, just in case.
I'm gonna go ahead and selfishly declare myself the moderator and look into creating a google doc. I say we give it a few more days to see if more people are interested before we begin. In the meantime, any more suggestions for ground rules?
It is a great idea, as long as there are ground rules, and we can decide a general idea of what we want to produce count me in, just as long as i can be a tad bit selfish and still put forward my own work for the anthology, eggs and baskets and all that?
I'd be willing to participate as a writer as well. Sounds like this might be a lot of fun guys. Would it be easier with a sketchy outline of plot/characters? We could use this discussion to hive-mind some basic outlines, then let the participants fill in the details with their contributions. The suggestion is meant more to propose a loose organization to the story than a straight-jacket to everyone's creativity.
great idea. as others said, i think there should be ground rules - although thy can be fairly loose. and we don;t need to waste lots of time perfecting them; if anything, i think we'd be better rushing ahead and then amending rules for a second try, if they needed it.I'd definitely be interested in joining up.
This sound fun! V&T want to chime in on whether or not this could show up in the Anthology?
I think it sounds like a neat idea. This is something I could see myself contributing to, more so than the anthology per se (I'm really not that talented...I'm good on the smaller scale!). :DBut it sounds like a nifty idea. Kinda like those Twitter-stories you see written, where a few people write it 140 characters at a time.
I'm in. Be neat to see where this goes...So, Sword or Laser?
this actually seems really interesting! not sure if I'll take a hand in it as my writing skill is poor but would love to read what the community comes up with!
Great suggestions. I'm creating guidelines/FAQ Will be posted a little later.
Sounds like a really fun idea. I'd love to join in, unless there's a requirement for prior writing experience.
How about also deciding, if it's to be written in first/third person or omnipresent view? Also if people introduce new characters, maybe have a 2 line mini description of them so they don't become too much of soap opera characters changing too much between each contributor.
Also, put in restriction on amount of new characters every contributor can introduce, to combat bloat?
Am I getting ahead of myself here or what?
Pouria wrote: "How about also deciding, if it's to be written in first/third person or omnipresent view? Also if people introduce new characters, maybe have a 2 line mini description of them so they don't become..."
Nope, not ahead of anything. Then the decision has to be made if it's gonna be a hero's quest, something more complex, will it be straight or LGBT, what are some of the themes, etc...?
I am excited people are interested in this and can’t wait to see what it will become. With that said, I don’t expect this to be a New York Times best selling story. On the other hand, I urge the participants to really put forth some effort to make it coherent and engaging. Here are some guidelines and other questions I have addressed:Guidelines for S&L cocktail
1. I will moderate all correspondence regarding the story. Got questions, comments, suggestions, edits? Let’s talk about it…
2. Each individual will write roughly 600 words (about one page) and depending on how many participate, determines if this will be a short story, novellette, etc.
3. You have about one week to complete your portion and alert the moderator so the next in line may begin. In that week you will have access to edit the Google document, thus begin writing. After that week, you may only view the document and not edit. At any given time, only the moderator and one writer will be able to edit the document.
4. Genre of the story: This is up in the air as an individual can write anything they want. The key is to make this story engaging. If a space opera battle is followed by steamy romance with a typewriter, do your best to be creative and make it believable.
5. As for POV, themes, new characters, etc. – this is a collaborative effort and each individual will come up with their own segment. I don’t want to put too many limitations on this and I also don’t want it to be something completely different with each page. Try and keep some continuity within what has come before.
6. Have a good time and be awesome.
Asides:
“What if a nice story is coming along and someone, to be funny, has a nuclear bomb hit and kill everyone?”
Under the guidelines of this story, that CAN happen. It is the creativity of the one that comes after to remedy this in whatever way they see fit. Remember we are all supposed fans of genre fiction and ANYTHING can happen…
“Will the story be public as it comes along?”
I think the fun of this is the mystery behind what it’s going to become. I’d prefer to not make it public until it is complete. The writers towards the end of the list will obviously have to read it to complete their section, but we should practice a sort of discretion as far as public announcements. Any comments or questions should be aimed towards the moderator.
“If you want to make a “good” story the revisions are crucial, who does them?”
“Can you make small changes to prior chapters to enhance yours?”
Small editorial changes wanted by the writers OF THEIR OWN WORK should be directed to the moderator. What to do with the final story edits will be decided upon completion of the story.
“Would it be easier with a sketchy outline of plot/characters?”
I think the beauty of this is that we don’t know what’s coming and we have to improvise and be creative to keep the story interesting, whether you enjoy the pieces prior to yours or not. Make yours count.
“Is it meant to be silly or serious?”
That depends on who is writing. It can be anything!
“What is the name of the story?”
We can decide this at the end.
Let’s do this!
-Tyler
(P.S. – for reference, this post is about 585 words)
Also, I think we should still wait a couple days to start so more people can see this and participate. I'll make a list of those that have shown interest and post it up tomorrow.
What about those of us who aren't authors of any kind, no blogs, no nuthin'? Still gonna let us in? We might butch the whole thing up. You know, "Joe stood on the corner, watching the hookers down on K Street." Everyone yells, "you don't 'watch" hookers, you 'ogle' them, dummy!" and it's a big mess. You guys ready for tussles like that? Embarassment? Humiliation? (Actually, sounds like fun.)
Loving the direction of this thing. Looking forward to participate and seeing how it turns out.
In response to the above comment, I think we need to give pretty wide latitude to Tyler to make editorial decisions about this project. Otherwise we're likely to end up with a camel (horse build by committee). As a practical suggestion, might want to try letting each author have an extra day or two to edit the whole document after the first draft is done. That way folks can go back, add some foreshadowing, character details, etc. Might be worthwhile to require that the Editor 'approve' just those changes somehow as well. Thoughts?
I addressed that if they want to edit something let me know and we can work it out.
This sounds like a great idea. I have been wanting to tri NaNoWriMo but just can ever bring my self to get past the first few pages. This could be a wonderful way for people like me to start small now and build up.
Joshua wrote: "This sounds like a great idea. I have been wanting to tri NaNoWriMo but just can ever bring my self to get past the first few pages. This could be a wonderful way for people like me to start smal..."Agreed! I used to write a lot and then ended up getting submerged in business technical writing and the doldrums of work. It'll be great to actually go back to writing fun and creative things!
Not a writer by trade but I would love to participate and get to play with being part of something big but still have a manageable commitment.
So this is the list so far. Let me know if I left you out if you want to participate or take you off the list if you do not.Samantha
RuthAnn
elie88
Joel (with umlauts)
Paul 'Pezski'
Andrew
Joel
Joe
I'll scratch out the people that have given me their email.
If you would like to participate, please PM me your email so I can add you to the list on the google doc.
Just an update: I will strike out those that have sent me their email and once we get a decent number we can begin our journey to greatness.
I want to know what grade that English assignment got. I was laughing my butt off.
We used to do this all the time on the City of Heroes forums, simply out in the open. That way people not involved could enjoy it, too.What we would do is is either have it be a free-for-all where anyone could jump in at any time OR assign people a slot and they'd have a week. If they didn't do anything in that week, the next person would take their turn.
Very excited for this.Also the English assignment may be the best thing ever. "Your writing is the literary equivalent of Valium."
Both stories actually started OK, to be honest. But once you got to universal peace and lithium-bombs it lost me.
Alright so the first segment of the story has been written and tomorrow, once I have access to a PC (the goodreads app won't let me check messages) I will add the rest of the emails and we can maybe begin next week? Anyone want to volunteer to go second?
I've just seen this and think it's a great idea. I would like to join.I have a couple concerns mostly to do with timing:
I count 25-26 people on the list, and with a week each that's half a year. What if the schedule were compressed to half a week (say 6AM Wed-6PM Saturday; 6PM Saturday-6AM Wed)? Depending on the anthology schedule, this is more likely to make the cut.
My second concern is with a single moderator. Half a year or even three months is a relatively lengthy time for something untowards to happen to Tyler. I respect him for bringing up the idea and volunteering to moderate, but a modicum of redundancy is always worthwhile.
Can't really comment without seeing Tyler's final numbers for those committing to it, but if there are too many we could always split it into two or more groups. It would ease the length, both in terms of word count and the amount of time you'd have to wait for your turn to come around, and I'm sure we could find more than one moderator.In terms of actual submission time please remember not everyone is in the same time zone. That's something that would need to be ironed out before starting to make sure everyone has the same amount of time available to write in.
Tom and Jeff: please send me your emails so you can edit the google doc!
Also, some folks will not use the entire week, I'm sure. I also don't want everyone to think I'm some domineering overlord for this project. It is truly collaborative and I'm just kind of getting the ball rolling. We can edit it as we go and also have a final edit at the end. It's just easier if only one person has access to edit the document at one time, otherwise it might turn into a shit storm with things changing constantly.
If no one has volunteered to go 2nd yet, I'll do it. Thanks again for setting this up Tyler.
Update: this will begin sometime this week. Most likely Thursday.
Any takers?
Maybe it will be good enough to submit to the S&L anthology....