Thursday 25th January 2007

Story baton - thoughts

Okay, so the story baton idea seems to have generated a decent amount of interest. (Sorry I haven't had time to talk about it of late.) I've been giving the concept a bit more thought, and I still have so many questions.

Where to start? How do we maintain a common story thread? (Or should each story be distinct from one another?) Who will the main character(s) be? 

I've come up with the following (random) order of people to carry out the story. The submission dates give each author one week to write their story, but you can submit earlier than this if you can, of course, and speed the whole process up…

   Contributor   Submission date 
 1.  Theena  5th February 2007 
 2.  SpectralCentroid  12th February 2007
 3.  Parthi  19th February 2007
 4.  Shehan  26th February 2007
 5.  RD  5th March 2007
 6.  Yo  12th March 2007
 7.  Indyana  19th March 2007
 8.  nsharp  26th March 2007

(Sorry Damika, you'll need a blog of your own if you want to participate.)

If anyone else wants to join this list, please comment below. 

Also, I think a couple of basic guidelines are in order. If we're gonna have it as a continuing storyline, then I think we should say that the top of your story post should link to the previous episode, and the bottom of your story should link to the next episode.  (You'll have to edit your post once the next episode comes out, to add a link to it.) That'll make it easy for readers to follow the story across the various different blogs.

Secondly, if someone misses their deadline, or opts out, then the next author in line has to step up. I think that's fairly obvious.

And lastly, the stories should be Sri Lankan in some way, like I said before. 

Feedback please people! I have zero experience in collaborative writing, so more ideas would be very welcome…

Comments:

  1. 1 On January 25th, 2007, RD said:

    I’m in and ready (almost)

  2. 2 On January 26th, 2007, Parthi said:

    i have a few doubts…how many words should the story contain? and also just to make ti clear we post our part in our own blog and the other people can read from it? and i just have to link the previous and the following posts?

  3. 3 On January 26th, 2007, Parthi said:

    one more thing please use this blog since the blogsome one doesnt give the feed to kottu! http://mmparthiban.blogspot.com

  4. 4 On January 26th, 2007, Yo said:

    Parthi:

    How many words? Hmmm, I have no idea. It shouldn’t be a long essay, but apart from that, I think we’ll leave it open. A short story about something Sri Lankan, work within that, I guess.

    And yes, you post your own part in your own blog, and link to the previous and following posts, which are on other blogs. Then a reader can follow the trail of links…

  5. 5 On January 26th, 2007, SpectralCentroid said:

    Dude, count me in. Although a March date would be better for moi. (If I’m still alive by that time.) Feb’s gonna be a monster for me. No worries though, will try for Feb date if required.

  6. 6 On January 26th, 2007, Yo said:

    RD, you wanna swap with SpectralCentroid? I don’t, because Feb is a bit busy for me too.

  7. 7 On January 26th, 2007, RD said:

    Yo, Spectral

    Sorry but that wouldn’t be ideal for me either. Feb is looking quite mad.

  8. 8 On January 26th, 2007, Yo said:

    Indyana or nsharp? Can either of you swap with SpectralCentroid?

  9. 9 On January 28th, 2007, indyana said:

    YO, I’m just scared to swap !!It would be too early in the story for me to handle…

  10. 10 On January 28th, 2007, Yo said:

    Oh alright then, I’ll swap with you, SpectralCentroid. I think I can somehow manage…

  11. 11 On January 30th, 2007, Story baton - Part 1 « Theena Kumaragurunathan said:

    [...] Story baton - Part 1 Published January 29th, 2007 Creative writing , 2006 Yo, he of Lanetop fame, came up with a brilliant little idea for the Kottu community: a story blog where each blogger gets to write a small piece of a large story. With a myraid of writing styles and opinions coming to play, the results will either be a treat to read or a literature disaster unknown since one Dan Brown decided he would become a professional writer. Still, an interesting little experiment and I was asked to kick things off. Yay. [...]

  12. 12 On February 5th, 2007, Yo said:

    For the record, I’m working on this. But I’m really busy with other stuff at the mo, so if anyone wants to jump the queue, please do so…

    I’ll get this done as soon as poss, mmmkay?

  13. 13 On February 12th, 2007, SpectralCentroid said:

    Yo, I’ve done part two.

  14. 14 On February 12th, 2007, Yo said:

    Wow, thanks, you saved my life. I am so out of time these days…

    Parthi, you’re up.

  15. 15 On February 12th, 2007, T said:

    Sheez, you always have it easy…

  16. 16 On February 19th, 2007, Parthi said:

    part 3 is up, I think its a bit long, sorry about it, hope you enjoy it

  17. 17 On February 21st, 2007, Shehan said:

    Hey posted part 04…Hope it’s not too long…:)

    Story baton Part 04

    Enjoy!

  18. 18 On March 5th, 2007, RD said:

    Hi All Part 5 is now up on my blog too.

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