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

Hello to you,

While the Never Ending Story steams ever onwards towards its (naturally) unreachable destination, a new (kind of) project could be on the horizon...

Does anyone like the idea of writing the worlds first book written by people who have never met?

The whole idea began weeks ago in this thread: F19585?thread=262133 and inspired Uncomformity to create 'Mental Meanderings' as well as the MSN group. Since then, the only surviving element has been the NES. A fundemental reason for this was probably the decision to write the book offsite to avoid the BBC owning any rights to the stuff we wrote.

Anyway, the MSN group hasn't seen any activity for weeks now, and I still think the collaborative book idea is great. So, why not start it on here anyway? It'll get more traffic and we'll become rich and famous!

We would have to decide how the book would be written (i.e. one sentence per post, or anywhere from 1 word to 1000 per post for example), what type of book it would be (novel, I reckon), what genre (i.e. sci fi, crime etc), the basic plot and (roughly) how long it would be.

What do you all think?

A comic sci fi novel will probably be the automatic choice, but personally, I think any other genre would be just as good, if not better (as you have to conform to the laws of physics, etc).

Just post away and discuss your hearts out and we'll see what comes of it.

Keep in mind the advertising blurb once we've signed our £50 milliom publishing deal: 'The first book to be written by X number of people who had never met...'

To find out about the rights the BBC has over the work, see the above link.

i think we should carry on with the NES because it will give us a chance to work collaboratively before moving into anything more serious and allow anybody who wants to help to join before the book is writen, if you know any people who are really funny or imaginative send them a quikee and invite them over.

Bookmarking the story. It's intriguing to say the least.

I have no intention of stopping the NES - I'll be updating on Friday. The introduction and Chapters 1 and 2 are up on h2g2, links on this page. The aim is to get the whole thing up here so that anyone who wants to can join in, and because as nobody has been posting on the grroups website, it will soon be deleted. As for people, we just need ones who'll keep posting.

Also, we need people who can help with editing, after exams I'll be able to catch up with the NES, but editing 2 stories will be too much, especially considering that I won't have as much internet access over the holidays. Existential Elevator helped put part of the NES onto h2g2, people like that who don't necessarily write but help in other ways are important. It may not be a comic sci-fi - but considering the way things went with the NES, I can't see what else it would be....

We would also have to find a way to avoid simulposts. They are very hard to smooth over...

If you have any suggestions, Ythika feel free to make them. Perhaps this time I should write up some sort of list of who's interested and who wants to do what. If people have volunteered to take certain roles then it might work more smoothly

Well organised and some great suggestions as usual, Unc!

I've had an idea of a possible way to write the book - a 'caretaker' scheme. Kind of like the role of EU President if the new constitution goes ahead. The idea is that each person signed up is given the book for one week, during which time they can add as little or as much as they like. Then they submit their work to the site, and the rest of us give our critique. When we've all decided on the editing, the next person is given the book for a week and so on. This way is as democratic as it can get.

What do you all think?

Some people won't want to write though, just edit or help in other areas... I suppose we could have an editorial team...

...those who want to mainly write could take it for a certain amount of time - a week might be too long, maybe each person could take it for a day or two? There would be no minimum limit as to what to write - we don't want to put pressure on people. People who aren't too busy on those days could take to story. Then they could submit their bit for editing. Everyone who's free could help with that. Both review and little things like spelling.

...or maybe we could make use of the collaborative writing workshop? Each person could write their bit and then submit it. It would make editing and review easier....may even draw in some more people. Maybe. Perhaps we could knock out the timescale bit completely, and move on once we are happy with it...

In fact, I might try putting the bits of the NES into collaborative writing work shop, might help get it edited quicker.

...but I've really got to get back to plant science revision...

i dont think that would work to well for 2 reasons 1)i wouldnt want to wait for several weeks to get a chance to post, think about it, if there are 12 people we would have to wait 12 weeks to post something, and 2) the thing i like about colaborative writing is that if i have a mental block i can just leave it and let some one else continue.

i think we should be able to post as much as we want each time though

What do you think of the collaorative writing workshop idea then?

Right, really *must* revise...

yeah that is a good idea, what about the bbc writes though cause we would be giving them part of the finished product wouldnt we?

They have non-exclusive rights, apparently. That means that they get one copy of anything that we write on here but that's it.

What is the collaborative writing workshop?

It's a review forum to write collaborative entries that break the writing guidelines (essentialy, for fiction)

Ah.

So, if I've understood, the way to write this would be for each person to have it for 1 or 2 days, during which time they can add as much or as little as they want, then they submit it to the workshop where we all get a say on the new additions, then, when we are happy, it goes to the next person and the process repeats itself.

Is that right?

If so, sounds good to me.

or maybe we could make it that if somebody wants to have it for a day or two they can but for the rest we do like the NES where we just post as much as we want

That would just lead to simulposts... which I can tell you are a real pain to edit...

stick with one person having it for a day or two.. Should work better. There's always the NES to keep people occupied in the mean time

Do airscotia and Kiltedjedi know of this thread? It would be good to get them on board.

How many people do you think we'll need to write the book? 5 - 10? 10+?

Air's on holiday. Kilty is probably a bit tied up at the moment with his Dune project, but I'll see if he's free when we're ready to start. I'd say 5-10 writers, but more people to help with review and editing.

Sounds good. I think the next step would be to make a list and recruit people.

So far,

Unc
Jonathan
Flake
Kilt - ?
Air - ?
Existential Elevator - ?
Ythika - ?
Andy - ?

Thats 8 already if the question marked become definite.

yeah, i left a message is someone on h2g2 who is really funny but he still hasnt replied, dont know where he is cause he is raelly funny