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Collab
Okay, so I've been putting a lot of thought into an idea. I know everyone's got their hands full doing their own stories, but I thought I'd throw the idea out there to see if there are any takers.
I was thinking about doing a collaborative web fiction project with numerous authors from across the board, so to speak. As of this time, it's not genre-specific, as the entirety of the story would be plotted and written by the group at large. I have no idea of any of the specifics as of yet, since I'm just gauging interest at the moment, but if anyone is interested, I'd be willing to commit a chapter a week to such a project.
So, simply put... Anyone interested in such an undertaking? :P
Responses
Posted 3 years ago
Interest on my end depends entirely on the group's wishes regarding mood, and what would be expected of me. I can see myself working on and contributing to something light-hearted and perhaps comedic.
In any event, I hope that lots of people express interest in this and that it becomes a reality. Collaboration is awesome. :)
Posted 3 years ago
What does everyone think of a open-content fiction project, where readers are free to edit the story as they like? I had this idea last night while watching this talk from Jimmy Wales, the creator of Wikipedia.
The idea was that I would post a work of my own under the very open license wikipedia articles use, and through user participation, end up with a story very different (and hopefully better) than what I originally wrote. Then I thought it would be even better to start with something collaboratively written--I thought of the round robin story, or something similar. If anyone is interested in this approach, I'm thinking of opening a subdomain of AlexMcg.com in the next week or so, as soon as I have AlexMcG.com fully up and running, probably with a wiki installation as the content (no blog platform in the subdomain).
If others wanted to get more involved, I would be willing (and eager) to discuss domain registration and hosting options. If no one else wants to pursue this method, I'll probably just get it going on my own eventually, but i would still hope for collaboration from other WFG forumites.
Children of the First
Posted 3 years ago
That sounds very cool. Everyone can toss in whatever contributions they like, and anyone can tweak those to better suit the feel of the story, and so on... a very forward approach to collaborative writing. It'd be interesting to see how things pan out.
Buuut how are you going to deal with the issue of "notability?" XD
Posted 3 years ago
Hahaha, well played sir.
I think the project itself makes the content notable, at least for now. Plus, fiction is subjective, so if people want to work on it, it's notable. I also don't see this getting big enough (at least for a long while) to have a lot of content I (and whoever else gets involved as a "moderator") don't directly oversee--not in that we accept some changes and reject others based on our opinions, but that we can make sure the project stays relatively on-track. Though that is a gray area: by its nature, can this sort of thing even get off track?
Children of the First
Posted 3 years ago
:)
Well, sounds great to me.
Posted 3 years ago
I love the idea of collaboration. But I, too, would require more details efore committing to such a project.
Though the Wiki idea sounds fascinating.
Posted 3 years ago
I on the other hand, as a great fan of the imni...inami...inimitoble...initmible..er, really good EJ Spurrell, am in, sight unseen, with eyes closed, no cards on the table, blind faith.
Of course, we'd have to discuss compensation and my up-front fee.
what? for free? really?
Well, I'm IN ANYWAY!
Posted 3 years ago
Sounds cool. I'm in, if time permits.
Posted 3 years ago
well the beautiful thing about the wiki, is that it shouldn't require much time after the original piece is put up
Children of the First
Posted 3 years ago
Actually, the mediawiki idea was one of the ideas I'd been considering. I was also thinking something round robin-ish as well. I think my idea going into this was to have a story universe decided on by the group in whatever genre is decided upon, then each designing a character or two and running with it.
I have worked on wiki stories in the past, and because of the platform, the options are pretty much endless. We could go with a Choose Your Own Adventure route, with each author picking up branches in the story, or go more traditional, allowing each of us to revise each other's work from chapter to chapter, or perhaps using a wiki to design the overall story, then each assuming a part of the story in the end.
Back in my fanfiction days, I recall a project called "The Seven Samurai of Anime", where seven fanfiction authors got together and took a character, putting them through the motions of dealing with an alien invasion. Each author was in charge of their own character, where the major collaborative stuff happened once the characters met up. I think I had something similiar to this in mind when I suggested the idea, but I'd like to arrange this more of a round table, where no particular author has any more say than any other.
The wiki idea is good as a starting point. Tonight or tomorrow morning, I'd be willing to set up a temporary wiki for us to exchange ideas and start formulating an overall plan for this project, with the eventual plan that we'll publish our created work through a POD service (Lulu, etc). (More to bring awareness to web fiction/notoriety for the authors involved. Because of the amount of people involved in the project, I think it would be better that any money made from the project be given to charity, or pumped right back into the project to pay for hosting/artwork/advertising and whatnot.)
Posted 3 years ago
Author's Round Table Wiki.
Woot.
Posted 3 years ago
Woot!
Posted 3 years ago
Wow, cool! This sounds like it could be a lot of fun!
Posted 3 years ago
Wow, that was quick. I'm really excited about this project!
I love your idea of getting it to a finished work EJ, very ambitious, but I think we can do it.
However, the idea I had about the wikiFiction thing is different--it wouldn't have a group of authors or a finished product, it would be an ongoing open thing like wikipedia. It's a small difference, but they end up as very different kinds of projects and I think there's room for both. I'm still a ways off from my thing getting going, so I'm happy to focus on this.
Also, the web fiction community is really rocking, guys. We kick ass.
Children of the First
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