This message is for Brenden Simpson – I don’t have access to ICQ right now, and I’m never sure what your e-mail address is. But, anyone interested is welcome to reply.
While I’m waiting for the perfect Live Journal narrative idea and video graffiti idea to strike me, how about:
1. We write an outline, with say 10 landmarks (more might be necessary).
2. We setup a content managment system.
3. We take turns writing 250 – 500 word chapters.
4. We plan it out so that we alterate hitting landmarks.
5. The idea is, to make it challenging for the other guy to execute his assigned point on the landmark without doing ridiculous things.
6. Also, keeping consistent with characterization will be a challenge.
7. We should probably write the outline ourselves, but it would be fun to invite more people to play.
8. One chapter a week?
August 10, 2003 at 3:39 pm
I like it, been a while since I’ve thought about this subject but here is a twist on the proposed structure:
Rather then break down the writing by chapter, how about breaking it down by narrative voice. The writers all become actors in a sense. A narrative framework is set up and then each writer tells the story from the perspective of their narrator. Plays off the blog form well, each narrator could have their own blog, or site of some sort, so the story gets told by various perspectives.
August 10, 2003 at 3:58 pm
I’ve pinged your Yahoo and Technoccult emails. More data exchange thataway, Birdman.
August 10, 2003 at 4:43 pm
Sounds like a good idea, it solves the problem of voices changing every turn. It might provide an easy way out for characterization consistency.
Would you like to play, Abe? It would only require writing once every few weeks.
August 10, 2003 at 4:52 pm
What sorts of landmarks did you have in mind?
August 10, 2003 at 6:23 pm
Well, first we need a story, I expect. I was think that anarchofacist world conquest story we talked about a couple years ago, but you’re already doing an epic world conquest story.
August 10, 2003 at 7:10 pm
The Wild West if it happened in (or the time period was superimposed over) Ancient China. Dragon six-shooters, that sort of thing. I can see it coming together now.
August 10, 2003 at 8:06 pm
I know fuck all about ancient China.
August 11, 2003 at 1:06 am
That’s what the Internet is for. Well, that or someone else can pitch a better notion.
If that’s possible.
August 11, 2003 at 2:38 pm
I don’t know if I can get a good enough understanding of ancient Chinese culture (or old west culture, for that metter) to feel comfortable writing that period without pretty extensive research. Let’s stick to the modern world, or imagined worlds.
August 11, 2003 at 6:12 pm
Rural Botswana is nice in the autumn, I’m told.
Pick a city or general region. Shanghai, Seattle, Paris, Prague, Gaborone, Galveston. Whatever you want. We can go from there.
August 11, 2003 at 8:28 pm
More important than city I think is genre: fantasy, sci-fi, contemp fiction, crime noir? I think crime noir would work pretty well for medium we’re working in.
August 12, 2003 at 2:50 am
What exactly is this project? Is it like the Space Invaders game that was linked on PLSJ, except with narration?
August 12, 2003 at 11:46 am
This project is just supposed to be a fun game, that will hopefully also be fun to read. I can’t figure out what the space invaders thing is about, but I haven’t spent a lot of time on the site (I’m on dial-up and have a limited amount of time I can spend on the computer, so looking at a lot of graphics heavy pages doesn’t work out). I think my idea for a Live Journal project is more like the space invaders thing, though. This is a pretty straight-forward blog-fiction project.
August 12, 2003 at 12:29 pm
Crime noir is good. I’ll just put on my fedora and start packing heat. Maybe buy a button that says “Untouchable” for my lapel.