Right. Valerie has kindly volunteered to go first. Author invites will be arriving shortly.
First of all though, what's the damn thing going to be about?
The random word exercise generated the following:
izard, bromide, Scot, gunfire, bellicose, fluorescence, mulberry, falconer, slavonic, sex, pot, lemming, cheese, gravel, leaf, defluous, pedicab, marathon, inattention, spoof, notebook, shameful, illiterate, philistine.
Well that's obvious, innit? We're going to be writing about KITTENS.
Seriously though, does this list inspire anything in anyone? It could be a war novel I guess. A spoof war novel?
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22 comments:
I think it suggests that the random word exercise is probably better with fewer words.
Beyond that, I don't really know.
I understand that you are trying to reach a consensus on this project by democratic means. In my experience of life I have found that no matter how well intentioned an idea may be there are always those who lead and those who follow. Put another way there are people who make decisions and those who like to have their decisions made for them.
Which is a roundabout way of saying that at some point somebody has to piss or get off the pot.
Well, if it's not about kittens, I'm not sure I want to be involved. *sulks*
The collection of words suggests some sort of international-man-of-mystery
type-thing to me. Something with adventure and intrigue and incredibly camp characters. It put me in mind of Mark Gatiss' The Vesuvius Club, in other words, but someone already wrote that. All by himself.
OK, how about THIS as an idea. It's a personal ad from Time Out a few weeks ago.
"Eddie J Roberts. I last saw you about 20 years ago. I am in Los Angeles now and I want to catch up with you. You were born in Epsom and have a brother Charlie."
To anyone with even a modicum of nosiness, that raises a lot of questions, not least of which - why? And why did they lose touch. what is this person doing in LA? What happens next?
Oh and dh - how about you coming up with an idea then?
Well, we could start with the personals ad and see how well we can do incorporating some of the ideas and words in the random word list...
(I am sure we can get kittens in there too...) ;-)
When/if I do start, do you want a chapter, 1000 words, or something in between?
when, Valerie, when...
have you had the invitation yet?
My reason for suggesting the 1000 words limit as opposed to the chapter is that swapping over authors mid chapter seems to me more likely to keep the story line consistent. However - given the nobility of your offer, whatever you feel most comfortable with.
I've got it. Want me to just get started?
— Rarin' to Go
yes please!
I like the personals ad. And Violet's idea. (she said unhelpfully.) I guess it is open enough to incorporate all, including kittens...
Okey doke. I'm up to 500 words so far, bouncing off the personals ad. I'll post the first chunk as soon as I hit ~1000 — probably tomorrow, because honestly I'm supposed to be at work right now ;-)
Urgh, but I'm no good at camp, so I'll have to do the serious bits. I mostly write crime and noir novels/short stories.
Noir works for me valerie. Ooh, it's all so exciting.
noir is cool!
Dear God. Valerie's at 500 words. I suddenly feel terribly scared and impossibly inadequate.
This trepidation aside however, how's this lark work then? What happens when Valerie's done (in about ten minutes or so)? Does someone offer to pick it up from there? What happens if someone - a sad, inadequate, amateurish writer for instance - take a bit longer than half an hour to bash out their magnum opus? I'm asking for a friend, obviously.
someone needs to offer to pick it up from there. I don't imagine that everyone will be as quick as Valerie but equally if whoever is writing at the time hits a block or is too busy to get on with their chunk within a reasonable time scale, say about 3 or 4 days, then they should just say so without worrying about being judged. It's meant to be fun after all
"Oh and dh - how about you coming up with an idea then?"
OK I asked for that. I was getting a little overexcited. I promise to behave.
It looks as though the ball is rolling. Good. I'm happy to contribute a chapter/part but I'd prefer to hang around in the bushes until I see which way the wind's blowing. I'm using up all my best cliches already.
A noir but with options for the story to be taken in another direction if someone is inspired?
Or does everyone have to agree to stay within noirish limits?
Will there be a referee or a vote for controversial decisions? Maybe someone kills off someone else's favourite character. Tough love? Just deal with it? And no "He woke up. It had just been a dream ..."
Sorry. So many questions.
You can totally take this in another direction. I tried to leave it as open as possible. Just saying where I come from as a writer :-/
Also if anyone hates the character names I started with I'm happy to edit them. I have zero attachment to names.
I don't know about killing off characters. Perhaps if you kill someone's favourite, you have to be prepared for them to turn it into a dream sequence when they have their next go.
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