Writing

[seventhe]

So I've been thinking about something I read about on delylah's LJ a bit ago, and how I can turn this really awesome idea to something for FF fandom. Basically, the idea was a Choose-Your-Own-Adventure ficathon, where people write fic in response to other people's choices.

I've thought on it a bit on and off this week, and here's what I'm thinking: I'd post a situation to start everything off, describing a character and a particular setting and a situation in which the character has to make choices. Then people reply to that entry, 'choosing' what to make the character in question do. Other people could then reply to that (like a roleplay, almost), presenting their own scenes or choices, or I could reply and set up another 'choice' for the writer(s). Obviously more than one person could reply to the same situation completely differently -- different choices would lead to different scenes. Eventually we'd have multiple stories being told in comment threads, and we could wrap them up at the end of the [week?] and move on to a new 'scene'.

Responses would be brief -- maybe only about 500 words each, plus or minus a bit. You wouldn't have to write a novel -- just the next step. The only thing I'd ask was for people to try and avoid responding immediately to someone who responded to them: I'd rather see A - B - C - A - D than A - B - A - B - A - B just because I think it would be way more fun to mix it up a little.


For example: I'd make a post saying something like:

Squall wipes the sweat from his brow and takes one brief moment to glance around -- what's everyone's status? To his right, he hears a constant stream of explosions: Selphie must be doing alright, but why are there so many monsters that way? To his left, there's nothing but silence; Squall wonders whether he should go check on Irvine, but then reminds himself that Quistis and Xu are running intel behind the line of fire -- they'll know whether or not Irvine needs help.

Squall adjusts his grip on his gunblade. His area is clear, but he's seen no sign of Rinoa's captors. Where should he go now?

And then you could all continue the stories whichever way you choose, such as:

PERSON A
[Squall goes back to check up with Quistis]

PERSON B
[Squall heads over to Irvine's area to help him out]

PERSON C
[Squall continues onward and finds Rinoa / Seifer / a Malboro to make out with]

PERSON D
[Squall is suddenly hit by Ellone's power and catapulted into one of Laguna's memories]

...and then these stories could be continued themselves by anyone who wanted, such as:

PERSON A
[Squall goes back to check up with Quistis]
   -->PERSON B
   [Base has been sabotaged and Quistis and Xu are nowhere to be found]
      -->PERSON C
      [Squall signals for Selphie and Irvine to retreat to base]
         -->PERSON A
         [They find a note that Quistis and Xu are being held for ransom with Rinoa]
         -->PERSON D
         [Squall is shot; Selphie and Irvine find the body]
   -->PERSON D
   [Squall walks in on Quistis and Xu making out]
      -->SEV COMMENTS
      [Will Squall join in? Or will he yell at them for improper behavior on a mission?]
         -->PERSON D
         [Squall joins in, and they have a hot PWP threesome]

There would be a set amount of time for responses -- maybe a week. At the end of the week, I'd edit the original post to somehow summarize the different paths, and then set up a new 'scene' (possibly an entirely different fandom!) to do it again. I just think it would be really interesting to see how many different ways we could take one scene just making different choices: does it turn into porn, or devolve into crack, or does everyone blow up and die?

The alternative (and closer, I think, to the original idea) is to do this all in a new community, as a much more closed sort of thing. I'd post the scene with the choices, but original comments to that would be screened. There'd be a set time limit on that, too. Then the post would be edited, with links to new posts for each of the choices. Responses to those posts could be made (and screened), and then new posts would be linked to. This is more for readers -- they could see the original post, and then "Choose" which branch of the story they wanted to read by clicking on individual links (to new posts), and working their way through whatever kind of story they "chose". This would be really really cool, but it's a bit more work, and I'd rather wait on this kind of thing until I see if anyone's interested.


Anyway. What do you guys think? Would you be interested? I'm more than willing to start a trial run if you are.

Comments

[novel_machinist]

I'd do it. I love choose your own adventures. It may be easier to do it on a message board? But yeah... that sounds like a blast!! Maybe it could get a little convoluted though? Maybe you should be like "oaky, first person gets the next part... and then they don't get to do it again, next person gets to stake a claim... ect. like a first come first serve one time per customer?

[seventhe]

It would basically be a bunch of giant comment threads, and you could reply anywhere you wanted to -- and if two people replied to the same comment with different things, so much the better, IMO.

So it's less a choose-your-own-adventure and more just a co-writing-fic thing, in the end.

[lassarina]

I think I would play! Um. But here's the problem: I'd mostly play from work, and I'd need some way to hide NWS?

[novel_machinist]

Giant clusterfuck?! I'm SO IN.

[seventhe]

EXACTLY!

[novel_machinist]

Dude, we need to talk RP. XD

[seventhe]

Hmmm. You're right -- we could label comments with "NWS" in the header, but until we had enough comments to stack, they'd still load on the page and potentially get you in trouble. Maybe the first round could be work-safe just to test out the method?

[lassarina]

That would be good! Also, potentially, keep separate posts - this post cannot has NWS in it? And set an upper limit of PG-13, please keep f-bombs to a minimum (read: nonexistent, edit in with stars if absolutely absolutely necessary to the scene), and no words for naughty body parts, please.

I realize this makes me sound horribly like a fandom mommy, so if I'm overly complicating things I just shall not play.

[seventhe]

Well, I think it all depends in the end on who wants to play in the test round anyway! I can watch the post and just tell you to back out if bad words start showing up. ;)

[wallwalker.livejournal.com]

...this sounds awesome. :D I'd try it, although my writing inspiration has been sporadic lately, so I might not be able to comment as much as some. But I'd try. XD

(You know my fandoms, more or less... early FF stuff, still haven't played FFXII for some damn reason.)

[safety-caesars.livejournal.com]

That sounds awesome and confusing and I would love to witness the chaos and possibly participate if it somehow ventures into the realms of IV or VI XDD

[hilldo.livejournal.com]

Shit didn't see the tag and read this anyway!
Sounds fun, except for my lack of fandom knowledge.

[first-seventhe.livejournal.com]

Man, and I even used your tag for that very reason!

We could do a Sir Hilldo one for you, I guess... ;)

[hilldo.livejournal.com]

Well you had not been using it, so I stopped looking for it.

And yeah, I'd do that if we could get a few others to play.

[first-seventhe.livejournal.com]

I bet we could. Although I'm not sure we'd like what they did to Sir Hilldo. ;)

[hilldo.livejournal.com]

Well, when other people write stuff for your characters, you just gotta live with it. :O

[mangacat]

That would be asjdfgakjg yes. good.

[not-cynical.livejournal.com]

THING THAT MAY OR MAY NOT BE RELEVANT TO YOUR INTERESTS!

EDIT: Okay, it turns out I COMPLETELY misunderstood what woodburner was saying when she was putting this together but WHAT THE HELL, WHY NOT.