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

Dear Spidey,

Hope things are getting better for you. Liked your new, Wintry intro.

You mentioned the idea of writing the first two paragraphs of a story - to help each other with crits. I thought that this would be fantastic help for those of us interested in writing novels.

I wondered if it would be worth while setting up a group to do this. I don't know if anything like this already exists. I wondered if you would be willing to start one off - if not I would do it.

I didn't know if it would be better started as a competition or in a more casual manner. Maybe it could be a bit of both.

For example, each month, at the start of the month, 4 titles could be given and each member picks one title to write the 2 paragraph openings for, entries deadline the 15th of the month. Everyone else tries to read and crit and rewrite the openings by the 20th of the month. We have a fun competition, scoring the entries out of 10, by the 25th of the month. The winners are announced, as usual, with the winner picking the 4 titles for the next month.

Also, in the same group there could be a second thread for freestyle '2 paragraph openings'. This way people could try out the beginnings of their novels, and get lots of feedback while they are at an early stage of the process.

What do you think?

Fats.

Hi FG. Some good ideas here. Someone (might have been Tom) did something like this a while ago and it was quite popular. We did an opening para and then wrote a short bit of bumpf (ie: bookjacket para) to try to sell the idea. We were marked on both the opener and the advertising.

I think we'd have to limit numbers as we do in the 60 word thread. Maybe just ten to start with.

How about you go to groups and start it. This will give you the experience of 'running' a conversation thread. I'll back you.

You can 'advertise' it and put the link in wordplay.

If you make the deadline for the first one a little earlier in the month, say, the tenth of dec, this will give enough time to get one done and dusted before xmas.

One of the reasons it's a good idea is that some of the 60 word stories already read like a first para and sometimes it seems a shame to leave them there as they have so much potential.
This way, with constructive crits, some of us might be able to develop our ideas into much longer stories.

Go for it Fats!!!!

spidey

Cheers Spidey, I will take on board your suggestions.

I will look up Tom tonight and see if I can find his group/thread.

Fats.

Dear Spidey,

I left a message for Tom Hobbit and he replied, and you were right, he did a similar thing as a challenge.

I'm really busy at the moment, off-site, so I was thinking of starting the group up in December - ready for the first challenge to start 1st January.

It would be great if some of the people who do your 60 word challenge would be interested. They are rare gems. I have learnt such a lot from your challenges.

Cheers Spiderbaby.

FG