Hi,

I know that other fiction writers use this forum and wondered if anyone would be interested in a collaborative writing project. The idea would be to handwrite a short story, each member of the group adding a few paragraphs in turn. We would circulate the story by snail mail so that everyone can experience the full joy of a handwritten creative endeavour. Each writer, if they wished, could add details about the pen / ink / paper which they have chosen for their section.

Feel free to discuss the project below or send me a PM with comments. I look forward to hearing from you.

Best wishes,

Dan

This really is a very nice idea.

I'm IN...

Questions...

• we all play in different genres (right now I am experimenting in paranormal romance and hard-core sci-fi). Who/how are/is/will the various contributions get sequed together...or is that the responsibility of the succeeding author?
• Each section---on paper of the writer's choice?
• Can we multiple round robin...?? That way, characters each author has introduced can be developed...
• Can succeeding authors have their characters interact with charaters from previous sections??

I ain't never done this before, but...Get the sucker started...I am READY...

Bill

Answers to your questions:

[*]This is just an experiment. Of course it's going to be hard to match up different styles / genres but as long as each writer is challenged and is exposed to new and invigorating ideas then, in my mind, we'll have succeeded.

[*]Paper is at the discretion of that writer. You could even carry on at the bottom of the previous writer's paper if there is some space! Some people might not like a hodge-podge of different styles of paper / colours of ink. The same argument as above seems to apply here as well.

[*]I have about five writers who are interested. I'll get together a sheet of names and addresses which I will circulate with the start of the story. I think this is a good number - assuming each writer takes a week or so then we'll expect to see the story every couple of months.

[*]Yes...


I have started something off so will try to get it out to the first writer this week.

I was in before Bill The Meat Eater.
Want dibbies on the phrase "It was a dark and stormy night".

I did this a few years ago and it was really fun. The cliffhangers that were created and how the next person got the character out of it was great fun since there was always a lag before you saw it again.

K

Would you be interested in trying again?

I want in as well. Please PM me for any info you need (i.e. address).

Count me in--my curiosity is prodded and imagination engine is revving.

"Bruce Willis, hormonally frustrated due to a lack of fem-i-9 companionship and the loss of his back-up band walked around with rain cascading of his recently shaved pate. Sensing danger, he pulled his Glock and ripped off half a clip into the dwarf peddler of tainted Chinese shrimp seasoned with corrupted Indian all-spice and befouled Mexican chili peppers. Feeling smug having saved the world again, he sauntered into a bar and swilled his favorite product-placed beer."

Yah...that resonates...

Bill

I would like to participate too, if there aren't too many cooks already...

Can I have dibs on

"If On a Winter's Night a Traveler..."

Pep

I like this project idea a lot, though I'm terrible at continuing stories other people have penned (and thus won't subject you to my bizarre ideas).

Still, I was thinking... it would be fun, too, to eventually put together a collection of whole short stories written by the creative writers on this forum, perhaps including whatever story this particular thread yields. I could include short works between 500 and 3500 words by FPN members. The "Fountain Pen Network Literary Journal" if you will...

A travelling collection of short stories / poetry all written in FP sounds like a wonderful idea... Something that could be passed amongst members and added to as and when. What do other people think?

That's actually pretty cool nifty - get a notebook and everyone throw a piece of ultra-short flash fiction or something 3-5 pages or so into it and mail it along to the next person. I would enjoy reading some of the other FPNers fiction. Would solve the problem of all of our different styles, too.

Count me in please if you still have space...

I would be interested but I have my own work of fiction that is keeping me busy. Tonight I finished nearly seven more written pages.

If you join now the buck won't pass to you (as it were) until at least a few weeks down the line. I am sending out the first part of the work today or tomorrow so let me know by PM if you would like your name and address added.

Thank you. But I'm going to have to say no thanks. I'm actually writing a novel and I'm only about a quarter of the way through it. I hope to have it finished sometime early this coming spring. It's about 100 pages long now typed.

Any more bizarre than my Bruce Willis rif? Which was done, as God is my witness, BEFORE i saw the Smithsonian piece...

If not...Join in...
Bill

I'll play.

Ray

I'm interested, if there's still room.

Ehhh, maybe.

Just a quick update-- the second installment is written and on the way to the third writer... whichever one of you that is. Because I'm HUGE on redundancy, I've scanned the bits Notts and I have written against things going astray in the mail (mainly a talismanic effort-- prepare for disaster, and it's less apt to strike).

This is pretty cool. If I am not mistaken, I believe that Stephen King and Peter Straub collaborated in a similar manner on the Talisman.

By the way, with the authors' permission, I'd be happy to post the contributions on my blog so others who aren't participating can get a sense of how the story is progressing.

James P.

I've not objection, but I'm not the project initiator. Notts? Thoughts? (yes, that was on purpose. Please apply the ill-will generated to the politician of your choice)

NOTE: This is a prime example of why proof-reading is a GOOD thing. Yahr, me am good writing making guy.

"it was a dark and stormy night......................"

Does anyone else think it might spoil the surprise a little if each update was added to a blog? I suppose I could just choose not to read it...

It's definitely a good idea to scan pages periodically just in case of loss in the post...

So....


How's it going, gang?

I hadn't caught this thread the first time around, but it sounds like fun - is it still underway? If not, or if there are more people interested than reasonably fit in one thread, want to start another one?

It reminds me a bit of a play-by-mail role playing game, in structure at least.

I haven't seen anything yet. Where's it up to?

Ray

A long time ago, and far, far away.....