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So I got an idea, which I'm probably going to regret, but what the heck, here goes...
In as much as this has a "purpose", think of this as possibly waking up your creative juices and shaking you out of a rut. Mainly, it is just intended to be fun. The final result is not the point. It's about playing with the process. If it's important to you that the final result be perfect, you aren't going to enjoy this, because the final result will not be within your control.
Guidelines:
1. You cannot respond to your own comment. (This means a fork will die if there aren't at least two people contributing to it.)
2. You cannot contradict anything in the thread you are commenting on. (Improvisational "yes, and" protocol applies.) If you dislike something, you need to back up and find a point where you are still in sync with the narrative and start a different fork.
3. You do not have control over what people follow up your entry with. (This is not the place to introduce a beloved original character that you feel protective of. Anyone could kill them off or write them behaving in a way that violates your headcanon and that's perfectly within the rules.)
4. The story can fork off in as many different directions as people want (but people are also free to ignore the threads they aren't commenting on and you can't make anyone follow up on your thread). You can continue to contribute to more than one fork if you are so inclined.
5. There needs to be some length-cap to each comment. (How long can a Dreamwidth comment be before you get cut off? Is there already a reasonable limit or do we need to make a rule for this? EDIT: Dreamwidth will cut off a comment that gets too long but they are very generous. The FAQ says 16000 characters and Google says the average English word is 4.5 letters. So adding in spaces and punctuation let's round up to 8 for easy division and claim the limit is 2k words before Dreamwidth cuts you off. I can't imagine anyone going over that.)
6. Should there be a deadline end date for a post or can we count on things naturally trailing off?
7. Open membership for now, but if we get a reasonable number of people, I might lock it down to a thing you have to apply for and perhaps restrict the total number of participants. (I feel like there is a chaos tipping point but I haven't figured out what that number is yet.)
8. Rules can vary by post. Maybe some will be strictly G-rated and some explicit. Maybe some will be a crack-fic free-for-all and some be limited to a realistic modern world. Fanfic. Original fic. Crossovers encouraged vs crossovers forbidden. Perhaps some can be limited to X number of comments in a fork before it's declared over. Or keyword challenges. The story isn't over until we've logically worked in certain keywords. We can change the rules on every post or we can go, "Hey, that thing we did last time really worked well. Let's do that again."
Some of this I don't think we can know until we've played a few rounds and gotten a feel for it. I've made a tag for "longest forks" because I think it would be cool to copy-paste the longest fork of a given entry into a single post just to see how well it flows (or doesn't). There's also a tag currently for "brainstorming prompts" because I have so many contradictory ideas for point #8 and I'm curious what other things people might come up with that I haven't thought of yet.
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oldtoadwoman2019-02-24 02:06 pm
Entry tags:
[discussion] and we have given up?
So the comm is set up and ready to go and this is the point where I should start advertising it to try and get more people on board, but the general consensus seems to be that it's not really worth the effort since Dreamwidth is already overflowing with writing communities and doesn't need another so… meh.
oldtoadwoman2019-02-15 10:26 pm
Entry tags:
let's fork!
I feel like these posts should be members only (with perhaps the longest fork being a public post if people so desire?), but for now I'm making this one public so it can serve as an example.
Remember, don't contradict a fork. If you don't like something, start a new fork. You can write in more than one thread. You can write more than once in the same thread, but you cannot write directly onto your own last comment. Remember the goal is to PLAY WITH WORDS and not get uptight about getting the ending you want or having a polished final product.
All comments must be fic! If for any reason you need to make a comment that's not part of the story, mark it in brackets or something so it's obviously not part of the story. Like maybe: [Hi. In my last comment, I typed "lose" but I meant "loose".] But generally try to avoid any non-fic replies or it will get really confusing.
Comment over on the brainstorming post about what you like and dislike about this process so we can decide the rules for the next one.
If the story never forks, we have not failed. If the story forks multiple times and we have seventeen contradictory stories, we have not failed. Accept that this is a hot mess before we even start!
I'm making up this first one without input just because I feel it's easier to just do it rather than keep trying to explain what I mean.
Remember, don't contradict a fork. If you don't like something, start a new fork. You can write in more than one thread. You can write more than once in the same thread, but you cannot write directly onto your own last comment. Remember the goal is to PLAY WITH WORDS and not get uptight about getting the ending you want or having a polished final product.
All comments must be fic! If for any reason you need to make a comment that's not part of the story, mark it in brackets or something so it's obviously not part of the story. Like maybe: [Hi. In my last comment, I typed "lose" but I meant "loose".] But generally try to avoid any non-fic replies or it will get really confusing.
Comment over on the brainstorming post about what you like and dislike about this process so we can decide the rules for the next one.
If the story never forks, we have not failed. If the story forks multiple times and we have seventeen contradictory stories, we have not failed. Accept that this is a hot mess before we even start!
I'm making up this first one without input just because I feel it's easier to just do it rather than keep trying to explain what I mean.
the first experimental ficI'm going to call an end to this one Sunday night (Feb 24th, USA) unless people are still actively posting (or sooner if people aren't actively posting).(All rules are bendy.) [EDIT: first bendy-rule adjusted, no end dates needed.]
imaginary bonus points for working these into the story:
apricot, ice, chartreuse,grandmother✔"Coffee!" she demands without so much as a please or thank you.
She doesn't wait to hear the price and shoves a handful of coins across the counter. One of the coins is a U.S. nickel. Two are British shillings, oddly shiny given their age. He doesn't recognize the other coins she's handed him, but at least one of them appears to be solid gold.
EDIT: I just realized we don't have a title. Maybe this time we'll come up with a title at the end?
guidelines
oldtoadwoman2019-02-15 10:03 pmEntry tags:
[brainstorming] key words? prompts? tropes? ideas?
How do people even want this to work? (This is also the part where I think it's cool if the rules are different for each post.)
A list of suggested keywords that have to be used in the story at some point for it to be declared finished? (We could fill up a spreadsheet with words and assign numbers and then just roll the dice?) i.e. This story must include "rainbow", "left shoe", and "distributivism". Go!
Or instead, have a list of tropes to vote on?
Coffeeshop AU but everyone is a vampire. Go!
If inclined toward fanfic is there any series/movie that everyone is familiar enough to write for? Keep it original fic but establish a universe? (Wizards are real but vampires are not? Ghosts are real, but no other supernatural beings? No magic, but spies! Pirates?)
Should the post include a first paragraph or just a list of rules or a brief starting off point of "A and B walk into a bar and…" ?
This is the place to discuss/suggest any and all things.
A list of suggested keywords that have to be used in the story at some point for it to be declared finished? (We could fill up a spreadsheet with words and assign numbers and then just roll the dice?) i.e. This story must include "rainbow", "left shoe", and "distributivism". Go!
Or instead, have a list of tropes to vote on?
Coffeeshop AU but everyone is a vampire. Go!
If inclined toward fanfic is there any series/movie that everyone is familiar enough to write for? Keep it original fic but establish a universe? (Wizards are real but vampires are not? Ghosts are real, but no other supernatural beings? No magic, but spies! Pirates?)
Should the post include a first paragraph or just a list of rules or a brief starting off point of "A and B walk into a bar and…" ?
This is the place to discuss/suggest any and all things.