We need to discuss collaborative fiction. Please read.

People are posting yet no one is collaborating. Other than getting a "writers" designate on your mini profile there seems to be absolutely no reason for collaborative fiction to exist.

As those who hold the titles of "writer" we need to discuss this. We need to discuss it right now.

I wish I could earn it by collaborating with a few writers.

No one else can fix this. We are the writers. It's our job to work it out. Any and ALL input is not only welcome, it is prayed for.

You are absolutely right. I couldn't agree with you more. I just recently acquired my title of "writer". I sent a U2U to John Bull1 inquiring about being a writer, and next thing I new, I had a new "writer" status on my mini-profile. I was very pleased, and thought that since I got it so fast, that I had better use it. But, I had absolutely no idea where to start! I felt the need to collaborate with other writers also, but I didn't know any of them, still only barely know one or two of you. So, not knowing what else to do, I started a thread under collaborative fiction and basically said, "Help!"

Well, I really said more to the point that I was happy with my new status, but now what do I do with it, where do I go from here, etc...etc... and I got answers, at least enough to start with. I am currently working on one story started by DontTreadOnMe, who had thanked me for asking the questions that were confusing to her also. Then a few days later, I started one of my own called "Trapped". I currently have 2 others working on it also. However, I feel that we are just doing our best to pick where the last one left off, none of us really knowing where the other is going. And "Neighbor from Hell" the one started by DontTreadOnMe, there are only the two of us working on it, and I think she knows where the story is going, but I really don't. I just try to follow her lead.

Sorry to have written so much, I'm sure I could have condensed it into one or two sentences: I agree that more than just one or two of us should be working on one story, rather than have about 20 threads started by 20 different people, or one person has started more than one thread. Either way, there are just a whole bunch of stories with a beginning, no middle and no end. That's no good. But, the question is, how do we go about getting together and collaborating on one or two great stories? I would love to know, and would be more than willing to co-operate.

U2U me if you like.

CyberKat

MaskedAvatar wrote:

"The man who moved in mysterious ways knew exactly where he was going, directly to Lab W.U.P.Y., to intervene in the experiment. There, unseen by any party, he injected foreign DNA and the reagent into the designated coccoon, retraced his steps and departed, allowing the mutation to begin immediately. "


Having returned from the restroom of Callorbative fiction the wupy neatly folded his newspaper back into shape and placed it on his desk. From the caccoon of his hopeful butterfly there emerged a loud belch.

Startled, the wupy crept closer to investigate. What was that smell? Was it beer? could it be possible the butterfly to emerge would be of a southern variety and play the banjo?

With trepidition in the back of his mind he sat quietly and waited for whatever was to emerge, to emerge.

The wupy didn't know the cocoon had been tampered with. It looked just like any other cocoon he had seen in his short life.
But, he couldn't get that smell out of his mind. First it smells like beer, than more like pizza.

He decided he would wait and watch as long as it took for the butterfly to emerge. He still had half a thermos of coffee and some Krispy Kremes to keep hunger at bay.

A crack appeared in the transparent cocoon and the wupy was mesmerized. This was a once in a lifetime experience and the emerging butterfly had the wupy's total attention. Would it be a swallowtail or an iridescent blue morpho, or some species not yet discovered?
Slowly the butterfly began to appear. He would be the first to see the butterfly emerge and dry and harden it's wings before flight.

ed. for spelling



[edit on 15-3-2005 by DontTreadOnMe]

First there came out the head.

It was an ugly, bulbous thing that reminded Wupy of the cranial structure of a costumed character he had seen at a conspiracy website. The eyes were closed on emergence, and the creature seemed for a time blissfully unaware of its surroundings.

As the squirming wriggling metamorphosed mutant thing struggled further, the strangeness of its being became more clear. For - unlike the anticipated mottled and striped and colorful wing patterns of the butterflies in the habitat around Creative Fiction Laboratories - this new-fangled member of the order insectivora bore wings that were like the pages of a book!

Not just any book, but a tome of living parchment and papyrus, replete with strange symbols on every leaf, all the way to its extremities... and illustrated as if by some ancient hand.

Wupy could not fathom the significance of the hieroglyphics and unfamiliar geometric patterns and languages that unfurled in front of his eyes as the multi-faceted bibliopillar thing revealed more of itself, finally opening its striking red eyes.

What Wupy was also observing in front of his eyes, on his lab desk, was that the creature stood erect on the largest (and bottom) pair of its legs, and put two other legs on its abdomen where a humanoid would put hands on hips, and began to grow at about one inch per minute, and when the bibliopillar was a foot tall, it said gruffly, something that sounded like ....





[edit on 15-3-2005 by MaskedAvatar]

"What hath this day brought?"

The faceted wings and colors of all language came forth in a moment of time that told stories of old and visions of stories unwritten. The dream of every author, nay, the dream of every man spread out from wings and body of this new life creation. Beauty as only the beauty of a newborn child filled the room.

Wupy slowly stepped forward and extended his arms. Pregnant moments had so often delivered the ugly babies in his life, but this was differant. There was no way to express the grandeur of this child.

It grew another inch.....

MemoryShock kicked his chair in frustration. He had to remind himself that lucid realizations were not cause for panic.......yet, the lucidity was now threatening to run rampant with the addition of this "literated 'pillar."

"Damn," MemoryShock cursed silently aloud. Plans were moving along nicely and now cooperation seemed to be happening as if people wanted it!! "mrwupy." The coarsely breathed syllables reverberated through MemoryShock's body and for a moment his breathing became heavier, as if the air itself had taken on more density.

Begrudged concessions would have to be made, and patience meditated upon. This wasn't over, not by a long shot, and the next, albeit unexpected, act would center upon the learning more about these turn in events.

MemoryShock glared at the shadowed blue carpet on the floor. He gave one distinct shake of the head as he realized with renewed certainty......this was far from over.

Wupy was uncertain of the dimensions that the bibliopillar would reach in its strange and awesome growth spurt.

The thing had taken a relaxed attitude to butterflyesque life, and now sat on its haunches (at which point Wupy reminded himself that butterflies ought not to have haunches), bottom legs dangling over the edge of his lab desk, four other legs being used to support its abdominal weight. It surveyed its surroundings, slowly moving its bulbous head here and there, and seemed to give off an air of comfort with its initial habitat... almost a confident look of taking charge.

Now an impressive and psychedelic 21 inches in length, the bibliopillar reached up with a foreleg, ending in a tendril, and affixed this to one of its hundreds of page wings, and gently tugging at it, peeled it from amongst the others, then passed it to Wupy, silently, without looking at it.

Wupy noted that all of these unfolding events ought to be captured on the security camera in the corner behind him. He began to read and explore what he could make of the wing-page.

(c) 2005 MaskedAvatar et al.

[edit on 16-3-2005 by MaskedAvatar]

The text would bend and shift with the light from every angle the Wupy chose to expose it to. Stories were told and untold as if life could be bent and folded back upon itself. All stories from all time existing on the single winged page of of his creation. In every birth he touched a death, In every bright beginning he sorrowed in its end.

This was not meant for the mortal mind.

He turned from the page, from the agony it brought to his being. Life is of eternal hope, to face the end of all hope was too much. If all things ended than why was any beginning being demanded, From stories or from his fellow beings.

Conspiricies were afoot. He knew this but knew not how. It dawned on him that a conspiricy was only a conspiricy when the person who suspected it was not involved. When you are invited to the party its an obviously brilliant plan. When your not invited, its a conspiricy.

The wupy looked at the beautiful butterfly, for no parent could percieve their child as anything less, and asked.

"Why has thou brought this before me?"

The man in the cloak behind the curtain six and a half miles away observed the security camera image of Mr Wupy and the bibliopillar in the lab.

He could see Wupy intensely perusing the page-wing, responding to particular symbols here and there, and he could see the sense of wonderment and awe in the facial expressions.

The lesson was now to be imparted.

To move to the next stage of the experiment, he turned the dial on his orgasmomoodatron to setting 7, which lifted the concentration of pheromone D47XG in the reagent, producing a subtle scentless vapor and waft from the bibliopillar's lachrymous gland that immediately permeated the lab.

"UUnnnggghhhhhhhhhh" The butterfly groaned as it tightened in on itself.

"Are you alright?" Wupy asked. Though his children were grown he had yet to be blessed with grandchildren and therefore was rusty when it came to newborns. The last time he'd heard a grunt like that it turned out to be constipation. Silently he prayed this was not the case.

"UUUnnngghhhhhh!" came the response as the new being bent over and pushed its abdomen with all its might.

"I'll get the pepto." Wupy said as he turned for the restroom. He wondered if butterflies could use pepto. it would be awful it was some kind of poison to them. Still, it was all he had so a spoonfull might do the trick.

As he came back into the room he dropped the bottle and spoon on the floor and stood in awe. His new life had not been sick, just spreading its wings. It now stood five feet tall and its wings had spread to a height of over eight. Gossamer like they swayed back and forth with life and purpose. The words moved across them like shimmering promises of things to be discovered.

The Wupy stepped closer to better understand.

"Do yo have a name?" He asked.

Hmm, maybe I am the odd man out. I rather enjoy this forum the way it is. I enjoy reading other peoples works, it inspires me. I dont there would be much harm in a larger colabaration of works on occasion, but the individual stories are what I LOVE.

Sceptical wrote:

"Hmm, maybe I am the odd man out. I rather enjoy this forum the way it is. I enjoy reading other peoples works, it inspires me. I dont there would be much harm in a larger colabaration of works on occasion, but the individual stories are what I LOVE."


If the individual stories are what you love then you belong in general fiction. Anyone can post there and general stories are what you get.

This is collaborative fiction and we should be collaborating.

If a rocking boat makes you feel queasy, feel free to swim away.

Love and light,

Wupy

Hey mrwupy.

This forum is not for comments it's for collaborative fiction. The Short Story forum is for (guess what ? ) short stories. In the main single posts that can be commented on afterwards.

MRWUPY:

Please don’t go yet…

I know now that it seems like you are having fun… but at the beginning of this thread you asked some very serious questions:

“Do we have a goal? Do we have a reason for being? Is there an objective to our existence?

WHAT THE HELL IS IT???????”

I think a lot of folks feel the same way… the ol’ Now What Do We Do? syndrome…

So I have an equally serious question for you (and everybody else)

Just what the hell IS collaborative fiction??

When I saw the phrase ‘collaborative fiction’ the First thing that popped into my head was the collective works of Larry Niven and Jerry Pournell. Here’s a couple of guys who have collaborated on a lotta books.

Only gig is, they do it for a buck. They work Together, from page one to page the end. They hammer out plot outlines, they make up character profiles, they graph the curve of the story, they toss ideas back and forth long before putting pen to paper. Each focuses on his own personal specialty… one doing the science, the other doing the color… They spend a year or two bumping butts in a cramped office before finally sending the thing off to the editor…

But I don’t really see that happening here (at least not yet… is that the way folks wanna go?)

So, when I didn’t see that happening the next thing that popped into my pointy little head was the Thieves World books (edited by Robert Lynn Asprin and Lynn Abby) I know the concept has taken off into games and comics and cartoons and what nots, but Way Back When it was just a book based on a (at the time) Crazy Idea.

If you guys are not familiar with the Crazy Idea, it went something like this:

Way Back When a buncha fantasy/sci-fi writers were at a convention. They wanted to collaborate on something, but schedules and geographic locations wouldn’t allow it (pre-internet) thus the Crazy Idea was born.

Someone would create a physical environment for a story to take place in. Politics, religion, economy, science/magic, technology, all the basics of a background. This blank stage background would be sent to all participants, who would then think of some type of character they would like to write about that would inhabit such a fantasy stage.

Writers then send their character sheets to the head honcho, who in turn redistributes all of the character sheets to all of the writers.

Now all of the writers have the cast of characters and the locations, we are free to use any and all of it as we see fit with one exception- - - you can’t kill off a character that isn’t your own (or turn them into a toad forever or whatever) without permission from the owner of said character.

Also, the goal is not to create a seamless novel, but rather a collection of individual stories that would stand fine by themselves, but tie together rather seamlessly due to the nature of the common world they all share.

The first book was good. The second book was even better because now all of the writers had even More information about the various characters and the world they all lived in (OH, so THAT’S what the Street of Red Lanterns looks like… ya, sure, I had it on my map, but you really painted a good picture of that, okay… or OH, you mean your witch character is Really a cute young woman and Not a hunched up ugly old hag? Okay, I see, ya, you bet my character is gonna fall for her charms… and so on)

That type of collaboration seems very doable in this type of environment, and perhaps could even generate some profitable results… who knows? *shrugs*

I know that playing word tag, the ol’ one person writes a paragraph, then another person writes another paragraph, and so on, without any communication behind the scenes, no plot outline or commonality is a Great Exercise and can be tons o’ fun, but nine times out of ten it degenerates into a chaotic, meaningless mess.

I, for one, am tickled pink to have had the title of Writer bestowed upon me. It is not something I take lightly, nor am I going to allow it to become a ‘meaningless’ title.

Like you said, Mr.Wupy, it’s up to us.

I’m willing to wager we can make this The Most Viewed forum in internet history.

OR

we can just slink around being Bohemians, bussing tables during the day, sitting in sleazy bars at night, telling anybody drunk enough to listen that “ya, I’m a Writer”

rock on
twj

My friend, Its been right at one year since this thread started. Looks like we're two days short of one year to be exact.

Since that time worldWatcher has done some fantastic things with the forum. (though lately she has been slacking) We have had contests, challenges and so many good stories its impossible to even try to list them all.

I wrote for quite awile but then jumped over to podcasting and i'm about to jump into tinwiki. I write still, just on other things.

I hope you can reinvigorate the writing forum. You surely have my blessing

Love and light,

Wupy

I'm slacking huh?
what about you my dear Mr Wupy? You owe me some writing or did you think I forgot?

*Bursts Out Laughing!!!*

ya, it would help if I actually looked at the YEAR part of the date, huh? *blush*

sorry 'bout that... new guy on the crew, pointy head, *shrugs* it happens.

Being the new guy on the crew and Not knowing exactly what to do, I was going through the threads looking for things with flashing lights or READ ME or in some way eyecatching, official looking, important type stuff, ya know?

Never even dawned on me to check out the Year part of the date...

So, you've moved on and WorldWatcher is now running the show, yes? Okay, cool...

I'm still curious about how we go about collaborating, is there a game plane? is it a free for all? what's up??

As you can see, I'm digging up threads from a Year ago trying to find the answer to that question, so obviously I don't know what's going on or where to go to find out... if somebody could just sort of Point me in the general direction...

Or I could just keep flyin' blind... I don't mind (it's kinda fun, actually)

I'm pretty amped about this writing thingy... or maybe it's the coffee... hmmm..

tell you what. I'm just gonna back away from the keyboard for a while... step outside, get some air... maybe take a little walk or something... and I'll come back when I'm not so excited.

okay

rock on
twj

Hey, torbjohn...there's a number of threads going which are in a collaborative vein. I know it seems like a lot of writers are continually posting on threads which they started, like my Ghost Lodge thread for example, but I sure wouldn't be offended if you stuck in something there.

I've got a story called The Abandoned going, which some-one helped out on and it made a great addition to the story line. I'd love it if you could twist things from where it is now and we could take another direction on it.

Glad to see you interested in writing...I noticed your abilities in the field as you were adding content in the 'big thread'.

There's also the new contest...
.

I guess what my Big Question is, is what do people consider ‘Collaborating’?

If I just jump onto somebodies story and take it any old which way I choose, I don’t really feel like that is a joint effort, therefore, we are Not collaborating, we are merely working on the same project…

Does that make sense?

In MY pointy little head, Collaboration implies Communication between the participants. There’s a commonality, a defined goal…

The word game is FUN and a great exercise and all that, but it has been my experience that stories written in such a manner tend to spin out of control rather quickly. The exercise then becomes one of damage control, trying to steer the story back onto some type of recognizable path…

I guess I perceive collaborative writing as akin to a theatrical production or a movie; a group of people, each contributing their individual talents and skills, working together as a unit, in order to create a meaningful and cohesive work of art.

But hey, I used to slime salmon for a livin’, so what do I know? *laughs*

As an aside, I Did dump a losing entry into MUOC (it Better loose, the other entries I’ve read so far are Much Better) and I think DeusEx is trying to hook Loam and I up on some kind of write off thingy… I’ll be curious to see where that goes…

hmmm… it would appear that my daughter is trying to eat some dirt…

duty calls
twj

Congrats on the writers status Torbjon, Its a wonderful title to have on the board.

The collaborative writing forum has always seemed to strive to find its true identity here on ATS. Sometimes it comes together wonderfully and many times it leads to stories that could only have been written by Sybil. Still, the main point is to have fun. (at least for me it was)

As for your daughter eating dirt, enjoy them while they are that young my friend. My younest just left boot camp and has started her AIT training in the Army. My oldest is now carrying my first grandchild. I would trade anything to hold them both again as little babies.

Good luck in the competition. I should have a story in before the week is over.

Wupy