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

Yep, that should be more than enough time.

I'm really glad this thing is moving now, and happy that it's being done so professionally. Hopefully something really good will come out of it.

That's the main feeling I am getting from this convo, that we all want it to be the best it possibly can be. With all the talented people that have signed up already, then I don't see any reason why it shouldn't. We just need to make sure that we remember the overall goal of the project is to write the best collaborative book.


One thing I am worried about is that it doesn't turn into a compilation of short stories around a central theme. That's one thing we will have to watch out for.

Yea, it's too tempting to have 10 separate stories all linked by one plot twist or something.

But if we are all hands on with feedback I imagine we'll get a very interesting and varied plot and characters. You can't really fail to achieve that when there as many of us as there is.

Indeed, I think this projct has so much potential. (Excuse the Americanism here) I am really psyched about this.

(I'll squeeze in my university of life project on Dune while I'm doing this as well )


I have just posted a journal entry which should get to the unfortunate souls who added me to their friends list. Hopefully that'll drum up some additional volunteers (including Airscotia who was earmarked earlier, and Listy-Lou)

Excellent, the more the merrier. Although, I was thinking, once we've decided to finally push on and begin writing the real thing, should the membership be closed? I think that perhaps it should, after all, if we manage to get some sort of schedule worked out, it could throw things out of balance if any new recruits arrive. Then again, we could work out a way to integrate new people. What do you reckon?

I agree with you on the membership. Although we may have to take into account people dropping out. Maybe keep a note of peple who expressed an interest earlier?

So looks like we may have an agenda of sorts for the first discussion

1. Main Plot

2 Goal (ie what we want out of the book)

3. Characters and some personality traits

4. Administrative:- Memberships after writing starts, how to cope with leavers, integrating new contributors

5. Review of the short stories

And I'm sure loads moer that I missed

Sounds good but shouldn't it go:

1. Discussion of inspirations drawn from review of short stories (which surely would have been reviewed on hootoo).

2. Goal/philosphy/key point of novel.

3. Main plot.

4. Characters.

5. Admin.

That certainly sounds like a plan Flake

Just an annoying bookmarking post so i can remember where i have read up to

28th sounds like a fair date, gives me a week, which is certainly long enough . I'll put a link up in my journal too. That should bring up more people as well as telling some people twice . Opt and EE have expressed interest as well.

Do you think we should put a thread on askh2g2 to give anyone else who wants to join a chance? (I am not sure because I think we are getting close to having a good number of people involved already)

Flake and I revived the 'lets write a book/story together' thread on ask a few days ago, but we (well, Jonathon) started that thread at least a couple of months ago so some people may have missed it. Last time though most the people said they'd help but we never saw them again... Perhaps if given details of how the project is expected to work it might bring in more dedicated people, though we have nearly enough.

Having a main coterie would seem to be a good idea. Obviously it would be a bad thing to have people dropping in, writing three sentances and disappearing again. That would just be disruptive. But I'd be wary of too much inflexibility. The project should still be open to outside contributions. Newcomers should be welcome to offer ideas and suggestions and maybe get involved with organisation and editing, even if they aren't going to be allowed to do any of the actual writing. And if a person can show that they have followed the progress of The Book and can fit themselves in with the work already done then including them should be an option, up to a point. Perhaps if there was an initial period when anyone can join, followed by a period where people can join but have to go along with what has already been set up, leading eventually to a total ban on new contributors. What think you?

Maybe once the project is closed to new members we could set up a secondary project for short stories based around the ideas and characters of The Book so that non members could still participate. That would also give us a forum to try out new ideas before they are added.

Well, if we take the period they can join up to as the 28th June, when the story should be submitted, then that should be fair. If people come along after that then they could help with the NES maybe. I'm working on putting up chapter 6 at the moment, so it's quite a substantial project in itself (though i would never make a book). Or maybe we could find some way that they could help with the project, I case I guess we'll just have to wait until the time...

...so anyway, all in favour of a bit of well scripted publicity?

Speckly:- Very good points well made

Unc:- Agree giving up until the 28th is plenty of time, especially as we are now up to 11 confirmed members now (had 3 volunteer on the page itself)

Publicity:- Lets go for it and see who it brings in.

Looks like we may need to advertise for editors rather than writers at the moment.

Well LadyChatterly signed up for proofreading

If we get all writers, perhaps we could take turns at editing?

(Although given the fact that I nearly misspelt every word in that sentence maybe I should be ignored )

What number writers do you think will be most productive? I always imagined 10 to 15 as a good number, and probably 5 or 6 editors?

What you think?