Chain Story GO! (All done!)

Vince Twelve · Mon 10/08/2009 21:05:48

This activity is done!
VOTE NOW!

[original post:]
Ok, we've got twenty people signed up. They are:

[Cameron]
LGM
The Ivy
TheJBurger
monkey_05_06
Babar
Andail
Akatosh
Andorxor
Scarab117
Trihan
Dualnames
tzachs
DanielH
Phemar
Bulbapuck
uncle-mum
Wyz
AtelierGames
Ultra Magnus

The rules

READ THE ENTIRE STORY THOROUGHLY BEFORE ADDING TO IT.
Once a story has been passed to you, you have 24 hours to send a response back to me stating that you received it.
Once a story has been passed to you, you have a total of 48 hours to add your part and return it to me.
If you do not reply within 24 hours or finish within 48 hours, the story will skip you, going to an alternate or to me.
Each person may add a maximum of 200 words to the story.
Do not post anything in this thread that indicates who has written what or what the plot is looking like. No spoilers.

Six stories have been started with the themes "Science Fiction," "Medieval Fantasy," and "Adventure Game Parody." For each theme, the twenty people who signed up were randomized onto two teams. Each team will collaborate on a story. After the completion of the stories, I'll post them here, we'll have a laugh, and vote on which team did the best job working together.

Current progress:

Science Fiction 1 The Mission 10/10		Science Fiction 2 Be Quiet 10/10
Medieval Fantasy 1 Charming Forest 10/10		Medieval Fantasy 2 Oran's Awakening 10/10
Adventure Game Parody 1 Shpritz 2000 10/10		Adventure Game Parody 2 A "Hero's" Tale 10/10

Atelier · Mon 10/08/2009 21:22:49

This sounds great! I can't wait to see how everything turns out, and how the person after me carries on my part (unless I'm last). I'll try working on a consolation trophy for those who are unfortunate, just to show they took part, but if anybody beats me to it then that's life.

monkey0506 · Mon 10/08/2009 21:44:01

The way you talk about being the hub Vince makes me worried that you might be more "AFK" than you try to suggest. I'm not saying it's a bad idea, but I was thinking about it, and what if instead of everyone having to pass their stories through a hub we took a little different route?

I was thinking specifically of Google Docs. You, Vince, could create 20 generic Google Accounts, such as "ags.chain.01" or something.

You could PM each of us our designated username and password as well as our designated slots for when to write...for example you could just tell me, "You will be fifth in line to add to the story."

Something like that...I mean if you're going to be sticking around Vince I don't object to the hub idea, but I was just thinking this could be another possibility.

Vince Twelve · Mon 10/08/2009 21:59:03

I considered google docs. I love it and use it all the time, and maybe that would be a good way to go. Especially since 10 out of 20 people signed up use gmail already. The only worries that I would have with it would be that people would have to be checking it for their turn to come up, or their might be confusion about who's turn it is and no one would really be in charge of declaring one person MIA and going on to the next.

It would be fun, though, for everyone to be able to read along as the story develops. Hopefully that wouldn't lead to collusion or something, though.

As for worries about me being AFK for an extended amount of time, I'm at the computer all day at work (like now) and am very rarely away from a computer for more than 8 hours (I have to sleep, right?) so I wouldn't see it as being a big risk. Plus, I'm always in my email with my blackberry, so I could forward an email even if I were off at the zoo with my daughter or whatever. If I had some emergency, I could just email the writing order along to the people with the stories and it could just be forwarded along by each writer like we did the last two times.

Anybody else thinking Google Docs would be a good way to go?

Akatosh · Mon 10/08/2009 22:20:13

Well, I have a strong dislike for all things Google, but that's probably just the tinfoil hat talking - if there's a majority vote for ~~Satan~~ Google docs, that'll be ok.

As for the rules, I think they're awesome. About the topics, however - how generic are they going to be? Is it going to be something like "one fantasy, one sci-fi, one contemporary", or are there going to be more in-depth restrictions?

Vince Twelve · Mon 10/08/2009 22:50:25

I had been planning on generic themes. Previously we had "Detective story" and "Contemporary Urban Satire". In the sign up thread, two people suggested sci-fi. So, I was thinking along the lines of "Sci-fi," "fantasy," and "adventure game parody" or something like that. Not restrictive, but at least a ballpark genre. Did you have another idea for restrictions?

Babar · Tue 11/08/2009 02:44:22

I'm not asking to specifically change it for me, but what I really enjoyed about the game last time was how it was the SAME story that slowly evolved into completely different tangents as each new branch had their go at it- so while my input may have been taken in 1 direction in the 1 branch, it was COMPLETELY different in the other.

Just a suggestion of an alternate.

Vince Twelve · Tue 11/08/2009 04:52:51

Yeah, last time was really fun. If there's some kind of consensus that we should do it that way again, I'll definitely do it! Anybody else of the Babar persuasion?

Phemar · Tue 11/08/2009 06:02:05

Should we write this story as seriously as possible, or is the aim to make it as humurous as possible? Oh yea, and can we maybe have an option of how many words - maybe 150 to 500. (150 just seems like such a little).

Andail · Tue 11/08/2009 09:02:57

Vince, it's nice that you're striving for a consensus here, but with activities like this it's probably better to just decide for the rules yourself and get going.
It'll take an eternity if everyone should share their two cents, and at the end of the day it's going to be about writing a story, and that's what people have signed up for.

I think you should go for your original plan, and just get it fired up.

I would like to add these reminders for our future authors:
Remember that this will be a short story. Short stories often have a limited cast of characters and just a couple of scenes. Do not include too many new elements, plot-changing twists and "hidden" facts just because you can. Try to build upon the ideas of your team members instead of introducing a whole bunch of brand new concepts.

I think the suggested genres will work, but I would prefer more specifications. It usually helps against writer's block if you have a more specified topic.

Oh, and definitely go for a fixed amount of words. I think 200 is fine.

DanielH · Tue 11/08/2009 13:36:08

I'm going to keep this short- I'm not a fan of the google docs idea. Seems easier just using email, to me at least.

Now a little more in depth:

I think a word count of 200 is a little short, but still okay. I suggest a count of 250, with a 50 word allowance either way. I think this will give more freedom without being too short or long. Also, I think the idea of both teams starting with the same idea or opening paragraph and having both stories evolve into something else is great. The 'hub' concept sounds good, providing you aren't going to be AFK for long (You never know what might come up). As for the idea of having three stories, That sounds good, because having to write three times will pretty much ensure everyone is occupied writing throughout the competition.

Vince Twelve · Tue 11/08/2009 14:19:37

You're right Andail. I'll still leave this open for one more day so that people can have a chance to read and understand the rules before handing out the first stories. I'll generally be following the structure I laid out in the first post, but may make some small changes based on suggestions here.

The reason I'm thinking of something short like 150 to 200 words is because the final product is going to wind up being really long. Maybe that's not a bad thing though.

Scarab · Tue 11/08/2009 14:37:25

So, as Phemar was saying, is the aim to make a serious story, or to try and stitch up the next person in line by raising more questions than you answer, and ending with things like:
"Plankton walked through the door and he saw the most amazing...".

I think it would be fun to have something like that, especially if there is an 'Adventure Game Parody' category.

Peace 8)
Scarab

Akatosh · Tue 11/08/2009 14:44:26

Urgh, last time we did this (first chain stroy, IIRC) we ended up with the detective talking to stuffed animals, who were also persons, and eating human flesh. Better not..

Wyz · Tue 11/08/2009 14:49:19

Well I really dislike people ending middle in a sentence. I actually like people to end in a paragraph. The halfway sentences are really going to stick out in de whole story and that will be very messy in my opinion.

Further more I vote for consistency. If a story starts out serious it should remain so, if another story starts out funny, same story.

DanielH · Tue 11/08/2009 15:22:46

Quote from: Wyz on Tue 11/08/2009 14:49:19
Well I really dislike people ending middle in a sentence. I actually like people to end in a paragraph. The halfway sentences are really going to stick out in de whole story and that will be very messy in my opinion.

Further more I vote for consistency. If a story starts out serious it should remain so, if another story starts out funny, same story.

This. The challenge in the Chain story is for everyone to come together to form one good, coherent story, rather than 10 short, almost unrelated paragraphs.

Vince Twelve · Wed 12/08/2009 16:30:47

Ok, the stories are in the wild! I sent six people emails telling them to start their stories. I used random.org to choose the teams and writing orders. There were three themes: "Science Fiction" "Medieval Fantasy" and "Adventure Game Parody" We'll see where these go!

I'll keep the first post in this thread updated on how far each story has progressed.

Good luck and don't post spoilers here!

Vince Twelve · Fri 14/08/2009 04:22:02

I wasted some time on two of these stories that, for some reason, got picked up by Google's spam filter. I've learned my lesson and told gmail to keep those precious emails. So far, I've received four people's writings, still waiting on two more who have about 11 hours till their deadline. Stories so far are looking really good!

Have not heard back yet from any of the four people that I forwarded the stories on to, so just a fair warning to everyone: Check your spam folders! I'll be sending PMs from now on to make sure people check.

Babar · Fri 14/08/2009 08:53:40

Vince, couldn't you like...give the names of the people who have currently been sent the story, or will that cause problems with the anonymity?

Are you sending these emails through the same address you used in the last chain story? Since my inbox caught it last time, and I have the email, it should catch it again, right?

Vince Twelve · Fri 14/08/2009 12:41:42

Theoretically.

I'm also sending PMs to people now to help speed things along.

Although I still have two of the first writers who responded within the first 24 hours saying they were working on it who haven't responded with the story. They've got about two hours by the original deadline.

Edit: One is in, and the other asked for a slight extension which I've granted. Moving along!