A Conversation for May I Conduct an Experiment?

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Post 1

Post Team

I think it sounds brilliant. If you're up to the challenge, please sign up with your username and U-number here.

Rich smiley - thepost


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Post 2

4me-2me (Please don't 8me)

smiley - tongueoutI find it very interesting, I would like to join, write something. Maybe not right now, but in one week and a half, I could start doing it.
Do you submit the entry, or we do it?
Would you be also able correct my "few" mistakes
4me
Please?


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Post 3

benjaminpmoore

The writing won't start just yet 4me, not until we get enough people to share the wrokload. I can submit it for you if you're not sure and I'm sure mistakes can be checked for you.


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Post 4

Keith Miller yes that Keith Miller

I think there may well be a few bod's hanging back waiting to see how this pans out.

I well remember a button bearing the faintly serious...:"I Grok Spock."
I always wondered just what Spock it was they Grokked; The obvious one or the lesser known one?

Now that your suitably perplexed and going smiley - ermsmiley - erm, I just chanced upon this>>>> <"not until we get enough people to share the wrokload.">
It reminded me of Heinlein's 'Grok'. One thing led to another.

Like a moth to a light(never actually seen a moth drawn to a flame, I'm sure they realise it's a mistake that's terminal), whereas with a hot electric light globe they hedge their bets..."Will I? Won't I? Will I? Won't....Bzzzz-t!

Anyway, I'm an absolutely terrible exponent of proper grammar and have no idea of the correct usage of ["] or[']. I'm sure Fowler had somewhat to say on the matter but I'm reliably informed that even he has been updated of late.

I'd like to think I might be able to scribble something but I'm not exactly clear about how much to actually write.
Five entries and base a story around those and then the next person continues it along, and so on and so forth. Is that gist of it?

smiley - erm


smiley - cool


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Post 5

Keith Miller yes that Keith Miller

See? I missed a 'the'.


smiley - sadface


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Post 6

benjaminpmoore

You have the gist of it perfectly. Whoever starts has, I think, the biggest challenge, after that you just follow on.


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Post 7

Keith Miller yes that Keith Miller

smiley - ok


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Post 8

Titania (gone for lunch)

smiley - lurk


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Post 9

benjaminpmoore

Is that a volunteer lurking behind that wall?


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Post 10

Mu Beta

I'm entertained by the idea.

If only I could understand it. smiley - erm

B


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Post 11

Skankyrich [?]

That's maybe half a dozen people who may be interested, yes? It may be worth popping round to a couple of our regular P&F contributors to see if they're interested. Without wanting to back them into a corner, Tibley Bobley and PedanticBarStweard seem to be able to turn their hands to most things, and might be keen on a new challenge.


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Post 12

Skankyrich [?]

Oh, and those of you concerned about punctuation and suchlike will be glad to know your submissions are edited by us. Not that we know what we're doing, either, but hey... smiley - smiley


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Post 13

Mu Beta

I'm not at all concerned by punctuation and suchlike, but ultimately still rather concerned that I don't quite understand the mission objectives.

Perhaps if I go second in the chain, after bmoore, I might get the idea.

B


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Post 14

2legs - Hey, babe, take a walk on the wild side...

smiley - lurk


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Post 15

Skankyrich [?]

I was reassuring 4me-2me and Keith Miller in posts 2 and 4, B. I know you're not fussed about your own punctuation and suchlike smiley - tongueout

I'll let bpm put you right about the idea, though, as it's his baby smiley - ok


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Post 16

4me-2me (Please don't 8me)

I'm now more reassure than I will ever be in my entire life!
smiley - cool


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Post 17

Keith Miller yes that Keith Miller

Do you think we have enough starters now and that once some see it started they will hop on board?
5 Edited entries spat out by the improbability drive, use those as the basis/foundation of a story(forget the genre) and the next willing supplicant will enhance and improve or at the very least endow the story with hopefully probability and(insert one of those damnable French sayings that always elude you when you want them) etc, etc.

How many words does the original need as a bare minimum before he/she hands over to the next willing personage?


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Post 18

benjaminpmoore

That's a good question, and I don't know if the post have any views on that, but if not I'll have a quick look at a few comperable fiction entries and see what sort of length seems about right. With regard to people jumping on board the post is not prepared (quite understandably) to start publishing until the whole story is finished so we can't start it in the post and hope others will hop on board.

Mu- will it help if I give you a hyptothetical scenario? Let's say you pull out five entries which are on: ducks; the great barrier reef, birmingham; elvis presley and , I don't know.... how to make the perfect chicken soup. You could then start a story about how a gang of brummie ducks reincarnate elvis, using a secret recipe based on chicken soup, in order to send him to the great barrier reef for some as yet unrevealed purpose. I mean I'm hoping we'll all be a bit more clever than that, obviously, but that's the general idea. Does that make any sort of sense?


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Post 19

Skankyrich [?]

Editorially, the important aspect is the quality of the writing, not the length. We'd rather have a brilliant short story than a long, rambling dull one. The length should be whatever feels right to you; I'd rather you just wrote rather than worry about word counts.

On this second point:

'With regard to people jumping on board the post is not prepared (quite understandably) to start publishing until the whole story is finished so we can't start it in the post and hope others will hop on board.'

That's almost right, but not quite smiley - smiley

What we wanted to see with this idea was that there would be enough interest for it to be a fairly regular feature. Obviously there are no guarantees, but I felt it was better to get the idea out and see how many people were interested rather than just starting it and hoping people would join in.

There is clearly interest in this, and if the possible contributors here are serious about it there is certainly enough to make a start. I'd hope that you'd pick up one or two more contributors as people read the stories and see what a good idea it really is. Even if they don't, with the people here you'd have half a dozen in the series, and I'm some would like to contribute more than one if they get the opportunity.

Bear in mind as well that it will be logistically difficult *not* to start without it being complete. Each writer will have to wait for the previous contributor to finish before they can get cracking, so if you were to write the whole thing first you could be waiting months before you see it published. You'd also presumably have to email each episode to one another in order to keep it under wraps.

Finally, as far as 'finishing' it goes, we would have no objection to this becoming a never-ending story.

Hope this clarifies things from smiley - thepost's point of view.

Are you writing the first one, Benjamin? If so, would you like us to use the IID to pick your articles, just so everyone knows it's fair and above board? As an alternative, we could run a competition - we set the Entries, you guys send in your submissions, and you take the winner as the start of the story. That might help to generate a bit of interest as well, as well as showing people what the idea would actually *look* like.

Let me know what you think.


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Post 20

benjaminpmoore

Hmm... well those remarks certainly make interesting read Shanky, thanks. Certainly I had never intended for anyone to be able to generate their own five entries so I guess you'd be the ideal person to pull the first five out of the hat, as it were. I hadn't especially planned to be the first author either but perhaps it will give people a better idea of how the thing works if I start it off. Not so sure about making it a never-ending story, myself I'd rather have maybe 20 episodes and then if it works well we can have a second run. Do we need an upper word limit? 1000 words ish? Do we need any tightening up or clarification on rules or guidelines after the initial write up or is it clear and strict enough. With all of that agreed, if you want to give me five entries I'll get cracking on the first episode- when's your next deadline?


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