Poll Result and Planning

[Kessie]

I like dark secrets, angst, terror--and love, comfort, and hilarious wisecracks. You can't have one without the other, to my mind. Sometimes the reader just needs a break from the suspense.

[stormiel]

Yeah, I like the more serious plots but there needs to be a break in the action to prevent reader fatigue as well as create depth in the characters.

I love it when a serious character gets teamed up with another character that drives them crazy. Kinda like Luke C3PO and R2D2 or Carl and Steve from Family Matters or Apollo and Starbuck from Battlestar Galactica (not quite as funny but still makes for an interesting combination) .

Hopefully we can get a good mix of everything.

[rjj7]

Hey Joel,

Since we're a bit slow at the moment, how about we set a date to start writing. It can be a few weeks out, or a month, or a few days, or whatever. That'll give everyone time to shake loose, relax, stretch their back out, and possibly return if they wandered off (a few folks might not realize that we've sort-of-started again).

I think we have enough to go on that if we just start writing stuff and build as we go, it should work out okay. People can throw things in as we write, and we can decide on things as we go along. This isn't to say that planning discussion should cease; but I think if we get the starting gate set out, it'll help people get psychologically prepared for it.

I'm gonna recommend we do something like this: Assemble the team and do one round of writing (in a specific order). Each person can post up on their turn as little or as much as they'd like, with the provisions that they only have 5 days. They can post before their time is up, but once they're out of time, they need to wrap things up and get it posted. There can be a 2 day grace period for them to post (to account for unexpected real-world problems), but if they still haven't finished after that, then the next person should just go ahead and pick up where the story is left off (though if the absentee wishes to send his/her work so far to the current writer, it would be viewed as constructive help .

After each round, we have a brief discussion in some thread. In this discussion, everyone is expected to explain any ideas they had and things they included in the story ("I have no clue what it is; I just threw it in" is an example of an acceptable explanation ).

I don't remember if we ever decided on what format we were going to use for compiling the story. Was it just going to go up on the forum? Or were we going to get a filesharing system going? I can actually set that up if people would like (though in either case, we'll need a "status tracking" forum thread, where people can post to let everyone know that they're done and its the next person's turn).


**Exact timeframes for people's "turns" is of course open for debate. And if it ends up being just you and me, we can of course be more flexible about things. I've never done this before, so I have no idea what is an appropriate turn length (and of course, we can change it after the first round if people feel its too fast/slow, so don't worry about it too much).

[Joel P.]

Okay, sorry I've been gone so long (I saw this post the day after you posted but was too busy with work to reply).

Anyway, we were going to do it by email. Having done this before, I have to say I don't know that I'll be able to do the five-day thing - I'm taking a class with the Christian Writers' Guild that takes up about a quarter of my available writing time, plus another couple of projects (one of which is part of a semi-contractual agreement with Glyn @ TC2). Let's make it seven days instead.

And by 'after each round', do you mean after it's gone to everyone once, or after each time someone writes on it? Either way, that's a great idea.

[rjj7]

I was thinking of having everyone do a piece, and then comment and discuss. Mostly to keep things rolling.

As for the five-day thing, make it two weeks, or even a month, if you like. As far as I'm concerned, you can set the pace. Though thinking about it, it might be better to start slow and work up to a faster pace than start fast, stress out participants, and scale back later.

[rjj7]

So when do you think would be a good time to start this up?

[Joel P.]

Seeing how it looks like it's just going to be you and me writing, now would work. Do you want to start, or do you want me to start?

[rjj7]

Since you ask, I want you to start.