City of IF

[Vikas Muralidharan]

Im planning of starting a co-authoring project with Crunchyfrog and Chinaren and fell that this would be the place to put it up. Ive heard co-authoring HAS been tried earlier, so I'd just like help on how to go about it now. Im pretty much willing to put time into this and (probably) make it the most succesful Co-authored storygame on IF. (YAY!)

So, people who Have tried it before, Id need your help.... And people who havent, Id like your suggestions too...

btw, Im right now thinking of each author writing one chapter, or each chapter being a collab between the authors. If you have any other suggestions, PLEASE tell me.

Oh, and if it works out well, I'd like a seperate section for Co-Authored projects ;)

[Thunderbird]

Some great stories have been co-authored.

And yeah, these are a couple of the ways of going about it. Either one is valid. I'm looking forward to whatever you all come up with here.

[Vikas Muralidharan]

Im just waiting for a few PMs from Crunchy and Chinaren.... Then, I'll start it :)

[D-Lotus]

Another option is something suggested by Key in his story of where the future of the City will lead: having a DP director. The DP director steers the plot and fabricates the DP, whereas the author is tasked only with the form-- i.e. writing the story. I was actually thinking about doing this with someone, but then opted for doing a speedstorygame on my own as a fun challenge. But it would be interesting to see somebody else approach it this way. o-)

[Shillelagh]

Well, I think it goes without saying, but the key to making this work is going to be constant communication. It seems like Thunder is right- either method would work. The trick is going to lie in making sure that everyone stays active in the SG. If you have everyone alternating chapter writing, you'll need to make sure that somebody's absense isn't going to a screeching halt. If you're all working together, you'll need to make sure that everyone is up to date on the latest brainstorming. You've got more people to spot plotholes and continuity errors, but you've also got more people who might slip up and forget something.

Still- that's a diverse group! I'm interested in seeing what you guys come up with.

[Cremuex Levier]

Sorry if my opinion isn't wanted here.

I haven't seen or read any of the collaborated pieces yet but I'm working my way through starting with this section (the experimental and general fiction section and not this thread as a section).

I think there are a few ways to go about it looking at things from a logical stand point. You could do it chapter by chapter with one author writing one section and one author writing the next.

I'm not really sure it would go with having a director and an author as seperate roles though since they both need to know the same information. I know that in D'n'D the dungeon master tends to control the environment and the player controls the character, this might work better then a director/author stance.

I'm used to role plays where one author is one character and another author is another character. I'm aware that there's a role play section and this isn't it but I also feel that I should bring this up in case your story has a multi-personality character.

I'm thinking that google docs might be useful here if there's multiple writers. What I'm suggesting is that each person has their own colour, say green, blue and red for three people? When one person has written a section the others type in brackets their comments for review before being posted. Why I suggest google docs is because people can edit it rather then having one person not being able to see what the others have written. Below is an example of what I mean:

Sally walked along the road on her own. It was a dark night and the only light that there was was from the street lamps or from the house windows, not even the moon could break through the cloudy sky. Occasionally she would walk under a street light, with her face looking down to the ground, all anyone could really see of her facial features was two long lines of black where her tears had carried her mascara and eye liner away down her flushed cheeks. She was devastated that her boyfriend had gone to the prom with another girl. They laughed at her and called her pathetic. She was so miserable. She was so cold. She was so alone.

It's sort of like how you would use quotes but you don't need to break up the paragraph as much.

[Chinaren]

Multi author stories can work, but they're hard work too.

There are various approaches though, and it can be fun to do.

I started one with Shady Stoat, about a thousand years back, but it was shelved as we were both busy on other projects at the time, and we never resumed it.

On the other hand, you can do one with many authors. CF did a famous one when she first joined, way back when, called the Hangover, as an example.

I'm running another one, er, somewhere else which is working well too.

The secret is to have one person 'in command' as it were, who directs the stories and authors. Otherwise it inevitably degenerates into an uberfest RPG.