The Baseline

Alright, my friends. The time has come for suggestions as to how the story should begin! I have created a short template that will make it easier for me to sort through suggestions with an open note option at the end for anything else you want to add. Please use this template to make suggestions in this post in the comments section. (Just copy and paste). Fill it out as you see fit. If you don't have any particular suggestions, then leave the space blank or write NA.

Some General Explanations:

--Genre: The style. Is it Literary Fiction? Sci-fi? Fantasy? Paranormal Romance? Historical Fiction? Anything you can think of that you like to read.
--Setting: Where is it taking place? The past? The present? The future? A parallel universe? A foreign land? On the back of an elephant?
--Rules: Every universe has rules, especially ones that are set within the world of fantasy. Magic comes at a cost. What would the cost of magic be? Is there a sort of government? Different creatures? Can animals talk? Are there psychic powers? Is there an entaglement of romantic interests? Is the grass a hyper-active shade of blue? Can parallel universes only contact each other at a certain point--or will they never know that each one exists?
--Characters: Do you have a suggestion of any character or attributes that the character should have? Do they have a twitch? A limp? A shady or golden past? Have you ever seen someone in passing that you would like to know what their life was all about?
--Plot Ideas: Where should this story go? Do you have any feelings as to a general outline or where they are going? Do the main characters arrive at some epiphany? Is there an overarching adventure? Hero or Heroine?
--Notes: Any other ideas about the direction the story should take? Write anything else that comes to your mind here.


If you do not have a blog/google account and you somehow cannot make comments on the blog, feel free to participate via facebook. I have included a document that covers these parameters here:

TheOWE: Facebook Document-"The Baseline"


~~THE TEMPLATE~~

GENRE:

SETTING:

RULES:

CHARACTERS:

PLOT IDEAS:

IDEAS I LIKE:

NOTES:


(Copy and paste this template into a comment and post there! I look forward to your ideas! I have a few of my own that I will post in the comments as well. If you like any of them let me know. Talk to you soon!)

Faithfully yours--Josh B.

Some General Guidelines

--THE ORGANIC WRITING EXPERIMENT--

~General Guidelines~

Hey everybody, I am very excited to have you be a part of this writing experiment. I am hoping that we can create a community that will be loosely bound together by the interest in the creation of the story. If this takes off in any way, we could start off-shoot story communities that will focus on new characters, new situations, and new serializations. I want to get this started off right, so here are a few guidelines on how I am envisioning this working. As this is a preliminary run, these guidelines are subject to change. If you have any suggestions, please add them in the comments section.

1.) There are really no rules as to where this story can go. The theory is that the story will come to a conclusion when it comes to a conclusion and then a new story can begin. This could be a completely new story from scratch, or a continuing adventure with previously established characters (a la Sherlock Holmes). We will jump that hurdle when we get to it.

2.) Each Sunday will introduce the next section of the story. All comments will be made through the week, and I will consider them all as I receive them. The "Master Storyteller" (or main author of the story) will have the creative license to accept or reject suggestions as they see fit to the development of the story, acting as a moderator. Even though many of the suggestions may be wonderful, to facilitate movement and agreement throughout the flow of the story, the Master Storyteller must decide what to include or exclude. Do not be discouraged if your idea doesn't make it into that week's section. Just keep posting! It may even show up later on in the story.

3.) Posts can involve comments on the actual section, plot direction/twists/ideas, new character ideas/character sketches, rules of the universe, informative facts, links to research, personal views on how you see a specific character acting in any given situations, psychoanalysis, pretty much anything that you feel would contribute to the story. Please be tactful in the suggestions you make for the story.

4.) As creator of the blog, I reserve the right to accept or reject any comment based on its appropriateness. I want to have a good clean time here, and so any comments that are derogatory to any other member, trolling, or flaming will be removed. I do want to foster good communication, so if you agree or disagree with  any comment/member, feel free to have a thoughtful open-minded conversation about it. We are all big-kids here, so let's play nice. :) Also, please refrain from incorporating any intentional or unintentional pornographic material and/or gratuitously violent/gruesome ideas.

5.) HAVE FUN, READ, POST IDEAS, WATCH IT GROW!!!

I really appreciate all of your support, so let's get this off the ground!
--Josh B.

THE CONCEPT

THE IDEA:

I have spent some time creating a simple blog format that will serve as the platform for the kickoff of this idea. The world of writing and reading is changing, especially with the integration of digital media. I have been thinking about the initial craze of serialized stories in the 1800's and how it has pretty much died out, but with the capacity to easily disseminate information these days, it would be relatively easy and effective to serialize a tale once more, but this time with a twist.

This time the tale has an interactive component. Each week there will be a section of the story released (I have arbitrarily chosen Sundays), but that section of the story will have been influenced by your ideas! So, you read the section and comment afterwards on how you speculate the situation playing out, or your own view on who the character is, how they would react, whether you view them as noble or shady, whatever!

Let's create the world together. If there are those with enough interest in it, I would even welcome collaborative guest writers. It all starts with you! I am open to having anyone join this blog. If I see enough interest generated here, I will create an official group on facebook and google+ to post updates and we can follow it together. The first posts to decide the genre, world, and initial direction of the story will go up tonight! (1/6/2013)

If you are interested, join the blog, and post your initial thought or idea here or on the facebook event.