Fantasies, Inc.
Mar 21, 2015 16:19:19 GMT -6
Mystic Wanderer, bonhommearmonica, and 5 more like this
Post by Deleted on Mar 21, 2015 16:19:19 GMT -6
As nearly the entire known universe knows (and you are excused from knowing if you are from some other, unknown part of the universe), BIAD and I were involved in a collaborative writing effort at TOS referred to as "the Space Opera" - although that wasn't it's actual, official name.
The idea has been floated to do something similar here, and this thread's purpose is to assess whether there is interest in such an effort or not.
Basic rules for a collaborative thread at Hernando's are here. For the purpose of this collaboration I would modify those slightly, more in the nomenclature than in the actual rules. That's only because I'm an old dog, and it's hard to teach old dogs new tricks.
Potential writers will have one main character that they write for, which is theirs. No one but that writer can kill that character off, and writing on behalf of that character by other writers should be minimized or eliminated - which could be relaxed by agreement between the writers in question. For example, at TOS I didn't mind BIAD writing on behalf of my character. The rules there forbade it, but since I didn't mind, it went forward unquestioned. At the same time, over time a couple of writers went ballistic over their characters being written for by other than themselves, and that DIDN'T fly. It boiled down in practice to the preferences of the character's creator.
I personally would be using my username to identify my character here just as there, but can't find a real reason to make that a rule - name your character what you want. I just use my username for ease of identity, and to differentiate that main character as "mine" from the other (what we called "NPCs" at TOS) characters I create that are not really main characters. It cuts down on the confusion for us old folks.
This brings us to what are called "Pivotal Characters" in the rules here, and which we called "NPCs" a holdover, I suspect, from role playing games and their "non-player characters". NPCs are fair game for any of the writers to write for, regardless of their creator, up to and including killing them off if the story warrants it. In practice, I've found that it's best to get the creator's permission for that, too, in order to prevent ruffled feathers. Creators sometimes develop an odd attachment to their own NPCs, and/or may have specific plans for them down the road. They are usually created to further some specific story line or story arc, but occasionally become a "part of the family". They also can facilitate bringing out a character's thoughts by providing a foil for the character to talk to, and they have literally dozens of other uses, limited only by the imagination.
Of course, all of the rules in the Collaborative Stories rules thread referenced above apply - non-story posts in the story thread will be removed from it - moved to the workspace thread if I can figure out how to do that, removed and lost to the ether if I can't.
As new writers enter the fray and older writes drop out of it, we'll make accommodations insofar as we can. It may come to an end, or it may NEVER come to an end... that's entirely up to the writers.
SO - I guess I'm fishing for interest in a collaboration here, trolling for writers. Not only am I looking for writers, I'm also looking for story ideas, what you want to write about. The "Space Opera" started out as a straight space opera, then morphed into other areas as writer interests came to the fore. There was elements of westerns, time travel, sword and sorcery, new-agey stuff, and weird science all wrapped into the sci-fi wrapper that it started out as.
What do you want to write about? Do you even want to write at all in it? I'm all ears here, and we'll firm it up as we go along - but we need to hash out a basic framework before we get it going, before we even make the first post in the story...
The idea has been floated to do something similar here, and this thread's purpose is to assess whether there is interest in such an effort or not.
Basic rules for a collaborative thread at Hernando's are here. For the purpose of this collaboration I would modify those slightly, more in the nomenclature than in the actual rules. That's only because I'm an old dog, and it's hard to teach old dogs new tricks.
Potential writers will have one main character that they write for, which is theirs. No one but that writer can kill that character off, and writing on behalf of that character by other writers should be minimized or eliminated - which could be relaxed by agreement between the writers in question. For example, at TOS I didn't mind BIAD writing on behalf of my character. The rules there forbade it, but since I didn't mind, it went forward unquestioned. At the same time, over time a couple of writers went ballistic over their characters being written for by other than themselves, and that DIDN'T fly. It boiled down in practice to the preferences of the character's creator.
I personally would be using my username to identify my character here just as there, but can't find a real reason to make that a rule - name your character what you want. I just use my username for ease of identity, and to differentiate that main character as "mine" from the other (what we called "NPCs" at TOS) characters I create that are not really main characters. It cuts down on the confusion for us old folks.
This brings us to what are called "Pivotal Characters" in the rules here, and which we called "NPCs" a holdover, I suspect, from role playing games and their "non-player characters". NPCs are fair game for any of the writers to write for, regardless of their creator, up to and including killing them off if the story warrants it. In practice, I've found that it's best to get the creator's permission for that, too, in order to prevent ruffled feathers. Creators sometimes develop an odd attachment to their own NPCs, and/or may have specific plans for them down the road. They are usually created to further some specific story line or story arc, but occasionally become a "part of the family". They also can facilitate bringing out a character's thoughts by providing a foil for the character to talk to, and they have literally dozens of other uses, limited only by the imagination.
Of course, all of the rules in the Collaborative Stories rules thread referenced above apply - non-story posts in the story thread will be removed from it - moved to the workspace thread if I can figure out how to do that, removed and lost to the ether if I can't.
As new writers enter the fray and older writes drop out of it, we'll make accommodations insofar as we can. It may come to an end, or it may NEVER come to an end... that's entirely up to the writers.
SO - I guess I'm fishing for interest in a collaboration here, trolling for writers. Not only am I looking for writers, I'm also looking for story ideas, what you want to write about. The "Space Opera" started out as a straight space opera, then morphed into other areas as writer interests came to the fore. There was elements of westerns, time travel, sword and sorcery, new-agey stuff, and weird science all wrapped into the sci-fi wrapper that it started out as.
What do you want to write about? Do you even want to write at all in it? I'm all ears here, and we'll firm it up as we go along - but we need to hash out a basic framework before we get it going, before we even make the first post in the story...
