Creating a story can be a rough process.
There are the countless ideas for different locations and time frames for the story to take place within. The creation, and then revisiting the different arcs of any and all of the main characters is a full time job in and of itself. With all of the different variations of heros, villains, heroines, tricksters, mentors, shape shifters–that are sometimes literal shape shifters–and countless other stereotypical archetypes within a story or plot, it’s hard to know where to add, and where to delete, content as it is mostly usable content, perhaps jut not in that location.
Thats where inspiration comes in. that, and a great editor. But editing is about polishing, were discussing the creation process right now. Sometimes inspiration for the creation of characters and environments and world building is as simple as a song on the radio, or a person you see on the street. Other times, there’s nothing. Like pulling teeth ideas just don’t want to come out. Writers block can hit and who knows how long it will take to inally bust through the darkness.
There must be something better.
Maybe there is. That’s what this site is about. An experiment. A trial. An opportunity to visit a new and exciting story creation idea. A dynamic development of a story where readers offer their input via polls and comments to try and perpetuate a story’s final version. Similar to a prompt, but with the strength of a collective argument behind the direction in which to push a story. A crowd-sourced writing forum. A place where you come, read the chapter(s), and then participate in the poll/survey and share your opinion on how the story should continue. Each week/month, a new chapter will be released complete with your input as to the direction (and possibly content) as guidance for what stays and what goes. Alternate plot lines may be an option eventually, but for now, a single canon story where the characters go on a journey that you decide. It’s more than a “Choose Your Own Adventure” (CYOA), it is a create your own story (CYOS).
How does it work?
Its quite simple. Read and comment, and occasionally vote in the polls. Thats it. Share the blog and the stories with your friends, tweet your own prompts and post the input here…which ever way you want to add information is perfect; it is entirely up to you. If you add a short one line note in the comments, that can be helpful, sure. However, if you write out complete narratives and directional changes for plots or character arc, then there will be sufficient content with which to develop the story into new and exciting directions. Heck I may scoop up entire sections of your comments and/or ideas to put into the story itself …which brings me to the licensing/use of your input below.
The more involved you are as fans/readers of this blog, the more impactful your input will be. I could write the stories from start to finish, but then it isn’t a dynamic or interactive experience. The more you add or share, the more personal you can possibly make the story. If you don’t like a character, vote or suggest a dramitic change. if other users/followers liek the change, I will implement it in the following chapter(s). Dynamic story building!
Using your input in the story.
Copyright, and the right to use and/or licensing is such a fickle, tangled, horrible beast that none of us can ignore it when we craft anything. With that said, I want to clarify. All of your input, votes, comments and thoughts that you share with this site are ideas and concepts. Ideas and concepts are not copyright protected in the US, according to Title 17 § 102.b. This means anything you provide as fodder for a storyline, character trait, plot twist, death scene, environment addition, etc., is not yours to protect under copyright an therefore may be included, without licensing, into this body of copyright protected work. I will certainly agree that I am no lawyer, but I’m also not a horrible beast trying to purge you of your wonderous original ideas. You freely give input as part of the experement, and I select, at will, whichever parts I want to include. Should I include an original idea or thought from a reader (as opposed to a vote cast by many via a poll), I will certainly give a shout out for your submission, participation, and addition. However, the completed work as published here will be the sole property of this blog and it’s owner.
How long does it take?
I wish I could do this full time and keep it updated daily or every few days, unfortunately, that isn’t the case. I will do my best to try and update the stories weekly. If a poll is available, and there hasn’t been a vote cast, I will simply decide on my own, and then create a new poll for the following entry. This isn’t an exact sience, and of course, it will be much bette ronce I have a readership and following to help craft the story as it grows.
Stay with me as this site develops further as I anticipate there being a lot of fun content available to read, and participate in creating. Maybe at the end of the journey we can look to do a run of print-on-demand copies of the finished piece of art and share them with others. Just a thought.
-BB