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    The Cemetery Dance forum contributors story

    Since there are quite a few writers posting here, I was thinking it might be a nice idea to create the first ever Cemetery Dance story. Basicly, the idea is a follows:

    1) You sign up, here.
    2) Two weeks from now, I will post the first segment of a story.
    3) The first person that signs up will then pick up the story from there and write the next segment.
    4) After that, the next one.
    5) When the first cycle of posters is complete and the story isn't finished, I will write the next segment.
    6) We continue this (could turn out to be a short story or an epic tale spanning seven books, a whole bunch of comics, three movies, two television series, a musical and a radio play) until it's finished.
    7) There is no minimum number of characters for each segment. There is a maximum, and that is the maximum number of characters of a single post (~10500 characters).
    8 I will post the first segment in a new thread ("The Legend of Fairwill") and will ask CD to make sure the thread can be edited only by those that signed up for the Round Robin. Please only post story segments in that thread. No off-topic messages. If you want to comment on the story or individual segments, please use this thread instead.
    9) Since not everybody on this site has English as their first language (including yours truly) I see no problem in pointing out spelling and grammatical errors.
    10) I don't know about other people, but I for one really appreciate feedback on what I've written, so don't hold back.
    11) I propose that everyone tries to send in their pages within two weeks, although if you're quicker than that, that's perfect.
    12) If for whatever reason you can't make it (vacation, too busy, ...) then just say so. Either you take a little bit longer, switch with somebody else for that round, or you just wait for your next turn. After all, it should be just for fun.
    13) Pretty much everything that I've posted above is debatable. So go on, debate!

    Ofcourse this is not an original idea, people have done this before. What I'm hoping for is that we might actually be able to create a good story. And if so, maybe we could find a publisher that specializes in horror to publish the story

    The main goal is to have fun, maybe learn a little bit from each other and create a kick ass story. As for me, having a kind of "deadline" (after all, people are expecting you to hand in your segment) is a good way of forcing myself to sit behind the computer and actually write.

    By the way, do stories that are created in this fashion have a name? Something like a chain-novel? Or an E-story? EDIT: Apparently it's called a round robin.

    Anyway, hope to get a lot of participants,

    Greetings,

    Pennywise (or - if you prefer - Marc)

    Participants

    1. Pennywise (AKA Marc)
    2. TerryE
    3. MrRoland
    4. ozmosis7
    5. RJK1981
    6. adamjames
    7. peteOcha
    Last edited by Pennywise; 10-26-2011, 01:56 PM.

    #2
    Marc, you must be psychic. Just last week I was thinking about having a round robin story on the site. I was waiting for an idea to start, but we can do it this way. I was thinking each contributor would be restricted to the 10,000 character lenght of a single post, and the next person just adding to that. I'm game, but how will we pick the next contributor to keep 5 people from creating a continuation to each part?
    "Dance until your feet hurt. Sing until your lungs hurt. Act until you're William Hurt." - Phil Dunphy ("Modern Family"), from Phil's-osophy.

    Comment


      #3
      Psychic is the least interesting of my special powers

      Using the character lenght of a single post sounds like an excellent idea. Let's say each contribution has to be between 9500 and 10000 words.

      As I said, the order in which people contribute is based on when they signed up. So you'll be number 2 (after me). I will send a message to whomever is up next and to whomever is up the week after. If you write something even though it is not your turn, then unfortunately your contribution does not count. I think this is the easiest way. I will edit my opening post and will create a list of all participants.

      A round robin story eh? Wouldn't have thought of that in a million years

      Comment


        #4
        Maybe a minimum of 9500 is a bit too much. Let's say between 5000 and 10000 words.

        Comment


          #5
          I'll sign up for the third spot. And the range of 5000 to 10000 sounds good to me.
          http://www.facebook.com/michaelmcintyre333
          http://twitter.com/#!/mikemcintyre3
          http://luminescentyou.blogspot.com/

          Comment


            #6
            Great. Welcome.

            Comment


              #7
              I defintely agree with not having a minimum. Do you want any rules on how to end your section? Make it like a chapter end? Insist on a cliffhanger? (That would be tough with the short sections). End in the middle of an action, so the next person knows exactly where to start? Should we try to keep a consistent style, or not worry since we'll all be so different coming in? We should keep consistent POV conventions throughout. If it's 1st person or 3rd omniscent that will be easy to keep going, but if it's 3rd limited we'd have to agree whether or not the POV can change characters, or keep it consistent with the first POV.
              "Dance until your feet hurt. Sing until your lungs hurt. Act until you're William Hurt." - Phil Dunphy ("Modern Family"), from Phil's-osophy.

              Comment


                #8
                Maybe it could be a marketable project...like a story about a guy who orders a "not so ordinary" limited edition book from CD.
                Website l Facebook l Author Page l Twitter l Instagram l Amazon

                Comment


                  #9
                  Terry: I'll respond to your questions later properly (if anyone else wants to chip in, please do)

                  ozmosis7: Could be a nice idea Does this mean I can add you to the list of co-writers? You know what, I'll just take the liberty of already adding you.

                  Comment


                    #10
                    Count me in. Sounds like fun.

                    Comment


                      #11
                      Consider yourself counted in, Steve. Welcome.

                      Terry: Definitely not try to end each section with a cliffhanger. That would make for very tiresome reading and it can't possibly result in anything good. Other than that, I don't think any rules are necessary in this respect. If you feel the next participant can pick up where you stopped, than stop. Whether that's at the beginning of a new chapter, at a cliffhanger or in the middle of an action sequence is up to the writer. Just don't end in the middle of a sentence, because...

                      By the way, as I said earlier, once we've started we can discuss the progress of the story and that might help the next participant decide on how to continue.

                      As for style: just write in your own style. I'm sure we'll all be able to meet somewhere in the middle. And if not, we'll just edit the living crap out of the story once we're finished

                      POV: Yes, that needs to be consistent. It's either going to be 1st person or 3rd person omniscient. Let's not complicate matters at this point. Once we're ready to write the sequel, we can expand the challenge by having each participant write from the POV of his/her own character or something .

                      Do you agree with this?

                      Comment


                        #12
                        Marc, I can concur with all of that. As far as discussing story progression, there's 2 ways to approach. The 2 times I've done something like this (with friends) it started as a cold opening without plan, and each writer just went wherever whim took them. If you have any plans from the start, it will be hard to see everything drift far away from your vision (kinda like working with Hollywood). If it's a throwaway idea, or something you started and wasn't sure where it should go next, it makes it easier to let go. And too much plotting can restrict future participants too much. On the other side, organic progression can grow out of control and a story about the quiet terrors of childhood could end as a space epic/Harlequin romance hybrid.

                        I appreciate your optimism in thinking about a sequel, but lets figure out if that's necessary when we finish. Some stories are told so perfectly that any continuation is unnecessary. I'm still glad that no one has touched the E.T. property in the years since.
                        "Dance until your feet hurt. Sing until your lungs hurt. Act until you're William Hurt." - Phil Dunphy ("Modern Family"), from Phil's-osophy.

                        Comment


                          #13
                          Originally posted by TerryE View Post
                          no one has touched the E.T. property in the years since.
                          This isn't entirely true....

                          Website l Facebook l Author Page l Twitter l Instagram l Amazon

                          Comment


                            #14
                            God that's funny! And very well made, too.
                            "Dance until your feet hurt. Sing until your lungs hurt. Act until you're William Hurt." - Phil Dunphy ("Modern Family"), from Phil's-osophy.

                            Comment


                              #15
                              Oh, don't worry Terry, I wasn't completely serious about the sequel bit. For now, I'll be perfectly happy if we can wrap up this first story nicely.

                              That ET sequel looks awesome by the way . Very nicely done for a fake trailer.

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