Group Collab Project Idea

So I’ve had this idea for quite a while and it was only the matter of fleshing it out more that kept me from positing. But on to explaining. I have two different idea styles for a group collaborative idea that a group of us can do. Idea #2 is lacking just a bit because I wanted the feedback of the group before carrying on.

  1. Adventure Collection Story: Each writer makes a mini story/adventure to add to the story. So in the end, it will be a book consisting of a collection of stories from different writers. Because we’ll all be choosing different stories, genre and what not wouldn’t really matter.

  2. Larger Story: This one is the project that would need more fleshing out. My thoughts so far is that each writer makes their own character and at the beginning give a cool little interactive backstory for them that the reader plays. After that is done we start the story. How we do this is largely up for debate and also has to do with what kind of story we choose. We could allow the reader to choose an already premade character to play or have them create their own. Or I was even thinking we can have the reader play as the narrator to the story, and the POV’s change from chapter to chapter or we attempt to use third person. If this idea was chosen then I would only be looking for maybe 3 - 5 writers.

The first idea allows for more writers to join in since we all won’t necessarily be dependent on one another. While the second idea will be more of a challenge but will allow more interactions and from my perspective, an interesting end result.

I’ve had a few ideas of stories that we can use for the second one (a thriller/suspense, superhero, and then a fantasy) and I’m definitely open to others. Anyway I think I covered most of what I wanted to say.

If you’re interested whatsoever then please tell me. I might also be looking for anyone who wants to help by doing something besides writing, but that will come after we decide on the idea. But if you don’t think you’re up for the challenge or believe that you can see it all the way through then it might not be a great idea.

Thank you to any and all for you your feedback and interest!

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I think the second idea is more logical and interesting, because a project having 10-20 writers would be chaotic and the project will have a greater chance of not getting completed. Also, in the 1st idea there would be no sense of continuity in the story.

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I agree with you on the number of writers being chaotic, but I wasn’t planning on taking more than ten on that one anyway lol. But since the first one would just be all different stories entirely anyway, I don’t/didn’t think the continuity issue would be all that important.

Do you want to have it released by Hosted Games? Then the story must have a sense of continuity since it will be exported as a single product.:grinning:

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Like you said the second one could probably be published with Hosted but publishing wasn’t really a must for either, especially the first. If we do go through with one and the group wants to then sure, but it wasn’t my direct intentions.

I’m interested.

I’ve pondered that “quantity has a quality all its own”, especially in world-building, which only multiple writers can make.

But an editor-in-chief (or dungeon-master) will still be required.

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@ToxicDreams have you taken a look at Uncle Irving’s Bookshop (WiP)? (I believe the name’s been changed to Through the Pages)

It’s pretty much what you described and is quite interesting to experience all those different stories with multiple endings though with an overarching plot that links all of them together.

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Hmm I’ll have to check it out now!

The second idea sounds more likely than the first. Either way it’s interesting, so I’m interested.

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@jry and @Marzban I’m going to see if anymore writers are interested and then I’ll send a group message out so we can go ahead and talk about it. :grin:

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Count me in if you want one more. I did a writing round robin thing for two years that was lots of fun.

My suggestion might be more like a superhero or fantasy world that all our stories were in, by booth each person introducing their own characters and such (with a few shared ones to tie it together like the Dude’s proverbial rug). If it was a HG could be quite sizable, but regular stories would be good too.

The two finished collabs that have done something like the second are through the pages and starship adventures. (Not sure if the link for the bookshop story is still up as it’s in the publishing line up, you’ll have to check, but would be worth looking at if you’re planning to run this.) Through the pages gave writers a bit more leeway in the setting, as there was an over arching plot but each “book” could have its own cast of characters as an individual short story with the same goal in mind, where as starship was written with the same cast of characters and theme but as individual “episodes” that linked up with stats and the conclusion. Setting something up where each writer is in charge of a section like these and then linking them may be easier than having multiple writers working on the same sections of the book, although it can take some editing to piece them together at the end and make sure everything is consistent enough to work.

You could do the first idea if you wanted and treat it like a short story collection with an index at the start/end of each story that lets you access each one individually. It would be easier to co-ordinate but the end product might lack some depth due to the short story nature. Still it would be a good way to get short stories out there that would otherwise be too short to publish by themselves :slight_smile:

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Definitely what I was thinking and after reading this I even feel like it could help with ideas and writer’s block. That remains open and writer’s could just keep submitting their content to it.

Also, I haven’t played either story that you mentioned so I’m wondering how they did the reader? Did they allow you to make a character like normal or did these authors do something different?

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I was involved with starship adventures and it started out as a short writing jam (that kept going). We basically got together and decided on the theme, stats, a selection of main characters and what they’d be like. We then each wrote an “episode” or two, (much like a self contained TV episode) and linked the episodes together into an overarching plot. (Major props to @Felicity_Banks in particular for co-ordinating it, it was a bit of work.)

Although it was a “whole story”, you can read it as individual episodes as well and we do have an episode list you can jump to at the end of each. In terms of other characters that appeared “transiently” in each episode, you could introduce whoever you wanted as long as they fit the theme and some of them got built into the main plot in one way or another and appeared again. We had a discussion thread going as we were writing and editing as well. I liked it :slight_smile:

If you mean MC character creation, we kind of set the MC up to be your retro TV starship captain, so there was some pre-characterisation I guess you’d call it, to make sure it fitted into the senario.

You’d need to ask someone who wrote on the bookshop story for more info on their editing/writing process. You’re given an MC with a background and a goal to go forward from memory.

Unless you’re going to have self contained stories, I’d say it’d be helpful to have at least some guidelines/background as to who the main charaters, including the MC are so that everyone is on the same page and you don’t have to make major edits to get the stories to fit together.

Edit: If this is of any help, this was the original thread started for starship adventures where some of the initial stuff got hammered out. (More happened later but this could give you an idea of how we started setting it up :slight_smile: ) 3-day game jam in a shared 50s scifi world

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Definitely sounds interesting, but maybe wait until Feb 1, 2017—I think a lot of authors are a little busy until then.:sweat_smile:

Anyway, go with the second idea—it’ll make for some fun collaboration and idea bouncing. Good luck with it!

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I’d be interested, I want to beat my summer procrastination :slight_smile:

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What i can say is that group collaborations are fun, but it’s very hard to get it to work, progress and get everything to match.
I’ve tried it myself a few years ago with some forum members, who unfortunately are no longer active, and after a long period it just broke apart.

There are however some examples of good projects made by a large group, one of them being… um… well, I forgot the name, it’s been some time. But I’m sure it’s here somewhere, I don’t know what happened to it though, I’m not as active as I used to be, which is a shame.

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I’d be interested! I’ve been looking for a small project to do.

I’ll add you to the group message. Though I’m not so sure this is a ‘small’ project lol.

That part is true. However this is done, it needs to be compartmentalized in a way that allows for it to survive a few people dropping off without completing their piece. Because inevitably it will happen.