h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Probably enough
Could start another thread on Ask when we're ready to start, just to make sure everyone who wants to join in can.

Ok, but don't we need a final list before we start discussing what type of book we're going to write?

yeah i think so, i think we should annoy a lot of people and start the book with the word "because" english teachers hate that, we could make it something like "because!" it had started out bad, it wasnt supposed to be this way. or something

We could get people together, and perhaps write the first page the same way as the NES, just to get it started. Whatever we get from that will show who's interested and also what sort of genre the rest of the story will be.

I'm going into the Big Sister house though on Sunday, so either need to get it sorted by then or wait until afterwards. I'm going to try and get the NES sorted today and tomorrow. There's a lot to do...

I think waiting til afterwards would be best.

Me too, not enough time to get things organised otherwise

I'll give you a hand, this sounds like a great idea. I'm not sure that BBC having rights to it is a problem, we would still have them too. Surely the BBC deserve something, as we are using their site to do it (or at least to plan it).

Tango

Flake,

I'd definately be interested in helping write the book.

My feelings are we'd need to thrash out a wee bit of background first such as settings and characters, and perhaps a basic structure. (Just going from previous experience)

KJ

Glad to have you on board!

I completely agree with your comment. I reckon we need to get a definite list of contributors first though. And decide what each person does, i.e. writer, editor, guide MLer/page maintainer.

Welcome too, Tango.

Sorry, I didn't see your post til just now.

<./>writing-collaborative</.> is the link

Helo Mort,

Do you wanna help? If so, glad to have you aboard.

Actually i was just lurking as usual but would be interest to see what this about.

The book wouldn't necessarily need to be written chronologically would it? If you had a good plot map to start with you could have more people writing at the same time and working on different sections. Editing to make it fit together smoothly could be done at the end. Strong organisation would be essential however it was going to be written and everyone who is involved would have to take it seriously and pay attention to the editing team or there would be serious trouble of it all going pear shaped.

Maybe once the overall genre is decided on characters would be a good place to think about starting. Perhaps everyone who wants to be involved could think up a central character, minor characters would naturally introduce themselves as they are needed.

I don't know if it would work, but it sounds like fun.

Some excellent suggestions there, speckly. I'd never considered writing it like that before.

But I can see some serious work for the editors using that method. Continuity being the main one. But if the editors know what they're geting into, I don't see why that way wouldn't work.

What does everyone else think?

Oh, and by the way, I take it you're interested in participating, speckly?

I'd love to play.

I can write and edit for content and continuity but I wouldn't suggest letting me near grammar or spelling.

I can see merit in both suggestions. Te whole thing with this is it will give us the impetus to do some writing (something I have sadly lacked since leaving Edinburgh and the writing group).

I also think whatever way we do it we need to have fairly strict deadlines, and if someone doesn't think they can complete their *assignment*(for want of a better term) then they should be up front about it and let someone else do it.


Perhaps if we set up a yahell group or something to discuss plot lines and main characters, as well as times etc and use this forum to post the content of the story.

(Or if peeps are on MSN we could maybe arrange a time we could all get together and discuss it realtime?)

I agree with your first 2 points, Mr Jedi, but I'm really not in favour of having any off-site groups or real time discussions (unless its really important). Real time discussions can move far too quickly and ideas can be lost and even missed by people not in the discussion. Backlog is easier to get through on here, plus everyone has the chance to agree or disagree over new ideas. Just my opinion.

As for where to post the book, why not create a new guide entry for each finished chapter like what's been done with the NES? Then work out the plot, characters, theme etc on this thread?

OK, including myself, this seems to be the list of 'collaborators' so far:

If the universe is infinite, then im "a" center
Uncomformity
Kiltedjedi
Tango
Sir Mort
speckly
Ythika - ?
Andy - ?
airscotia - ?

Well I guess this counts as 'group maitainance' so I can post a bit (In case you missed it, I'm in the Big Sister house)

The NES sort of worked as a pilot for a book project. It was only ever intended as a game but kind of grew. Once starting a collaborative story was brought up on Askh2g2, and I started an MSN group website. Lots of people joined but only a few ever posted. The trouble is they simply didn't want to move away from hootoo for any length of time . Cosequently the group was only ever used (mainly by me) to post updates on the NES and say it would be a good idea if we started the story at some point. It never started...

We tried using msn as well, and had a lovely 3/4 hour conversation about making tea... It can prove useful however to discus postings before making them. And also to completely embarass yourself by having to admit you haven't made the tea yet because you forgot to plug the kettle in...


If, however, people are prepared to post on a group site then it could work well. I also occasionally send the NES via email, but am now writing it up into Guide articles so more people can read it. Not everybody was on my 'people to mail the story to' list, so some people missed developments leading to continuity problems.

I think that posting each chapter seperately as we are now doing with the NES would probably work best; then everyone can find it. It would also be easier to discus it.

I guess I should ask Darkwin if he wants to join in as well... he hasn't posted in the NES for a while due to school etc but he might want to join in a new project..