There we were. There were eight of us, all seated around these two tables we’d pushed together. I sat at one side, Forrest at the other. Forrest looks around and says something on the order of "Ok everyone, this is the game. We're going to, all of us, write a story together."
Instant uproar! "Oh, that won't work!" "But writing is supposed to be an individual thing!” etc. Interestingly both of these statements turned out true later, but let's continue.
So, we started an experiment. We wanted to find out if a group of writers could write a story together, and we wanted to know what they would turn out if they sat down and tried it. So, we tried it.
First, we had to decide how it would be done. All of us writing the thing in unison? Disaster, instantly struck down, we’d never agree and we’d have three viewpoints all deciding what was next. Nix. One person writes one section then the next person? Well, see we'd already tried that, one person does a paragraph then passes the story to the next person. Fun, but it didn't produce much of a story and we wanted to try something different.
"Well, how about one person is in charge of one aspect of the story and the next person handles another aspect?" That was clever old me. This got some agreement, not total agreement but after about ten minutes of discussion we actually moved on to the next thing. Progress! We'd begun!
Second, what's it gonna be about? After hearing several suggestions (all at the same time) we decided to put it to a vote. We started going through the genres, 1 for mystery, no votes for air story (as in war planes and such), and no votes for romantic (8 people writing a love story? Ugh!). Sci-fi got two votes if I remember right, western got half the votes (if you're wondering at this point, anyone can vote as many times as possible). Marine story, unanimous! Well, some people were half-heartedly voting for this one but they did vote, so with that we had a winner.
Now we went in for a bit more clarification on the subject of the thing. Would it be a submarine suspense story? An above water story? Some kind of sci-fi water civilization story? Well sci-fi/water got a nope. Underwater wasn't too popular. Above water was the deal, and somebody suggested a kind of aquatic/western deal. Approval!
So, with about half (maybe) of the group in relative complacency and the others at least not voicing their objections we had figured on an Aquatic story written in a kind of western style where each of us eight peoples would write each a different aspect of the story. So far so good.
Now we start getting some dissent. “What now?” “You know I don't think this is going to work.” “How was the thing you went to the other day?” Basically, actually confronting sitting down and doing it was going to be tough, on all of us. We started wondering if it would be better if each of us controlled a different aspect or each of us controlled a different character. Who would control the main character? Then we started debating whether or not the idea could work in the first place, and the conversation broke up into about three separate conversations. Back to square one.
Then Forrest saved the day! Why not have one world where there would be seven characters (each controlled by one of us) and he would be the one over all in control of the rest of the world, though we could give him ideas at any time.
We were skeptical, role-playing? However, this was by far the most popular suggestion and it allowed us to each have a story and character of our own while contributing to an overall story. So, we got down to work.
Forrest started explaining the basics of the world he had invented, we were able to get out a basic map and basics on the different races and such. We got it all pretty well worked up by the end, then people had to be leaving. But, the important part is that we got more work done in half an hour then we had in the previous hour and a half, and this was going to be a group story.
Conclusion: Experiment successful or un-successful? Yes and no. Writing a group story is a fun thing to try and undertake if you want to know what a headache feels like or it's been too long since your last one. Was our compromise a success? We’ll see. By the end of this we’ll either have seven stories or seven headaches.
CME
Note: I only just realized that this post is going up on September 11th. Perhaps some of my favorite literature out there would be the documents that shaped the birth of this great nation, such as the Declaration of Independence, the Constitution of the United States of America, and the Pledge of Allegiance. I think everyone should take some time to read them and think on how they, as individuals, can project the greatness of this country into the future; through their individual lives, their involvement in the community and the broader actions one can take which affect this country and the world as a whole.
Additional Note: I just re-read the short writings I displayed as "correct". They are not very good. They were written just off the cuff and for the purpose of the blog. Sorry!
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