... two words at a time.
The 'Let's All Write a Story...' thread has but one rule. No one may post two (or more) consecutive words. However, this one rule has created a good deal of controversy. Characters can do their thing in London but they can't do their thang in New York. (Damned good thing too I'd have thought). Fish may not be of the flying variety unless one person posts 'flying' and another tops it off with 'fish'. Perhaps most troubling of all, the world created is entirely devoid of Toilet Ducks.
Hyphens are appearing all over the show in places where they really ought not to be and I, the miserable editor, have to look up each and every one in my desktop dictionary, (the final arbiter), only then to be prodded in the direction of Wikipedia etc. by disgruntled contributors.
Who would have dreamed that such a simple rule could lead to such controversy and disaster, pain and suffering?
So, for those that want it, here it is. The thread to write a story in which you can post two - yes, two - consecutive words. Let us together build a world in which flying fish can encounter Toilet Ducks in New York.
The only rule is that you can't contribute more than two words to the story consecutively. Beyond that, contribute as many words as you want as often as you want.
Paragraphing and punctuation will be provided, as necessary, by my good - exquisite, actually - self.
Right, I'll start.
Once upon...
Announcements
Audio for the completed chapters -
I - Bits and Secretions
II - Things Grow Wings
III - Mournfully Under Oath
IV - Crisp yet Deadly
- their text and artwork are all available here.
It is also up on Authonomy as a book entitled Lost Litanies and Vanished Sects, but until it reaches the 10,000 word mark it will be invisible. I reckon we should hit that point around page 550 of the thread.
Too unwieldy now for a single post, updates are restricted to the most-recently-completed section and all contributions subsequent to that. However, each completed thousand words is still available in the text file with the audio.
Some suggestions for contributors
i), don't be shy, just pile in.
ii), try to avoid hyphenation. If the editor - an utter sod, I know him, really not a nice bloke - feels the hyphenation is gratuitous he'll ditch half or all of it.
iii), sometimes this thread moves superfast with two, three, even four people contributing at once. If words arise that are clearly aberrations blocking the grammatical flow, follow on from the last word in the flow. The aberrant word will be removed in the editing if it really doesn't belong.
iv), please try to follow others' leads in grammatical structure. The posting of random words brings about an occasional happy accident, but most of the time it just won't hack it.
v), also, please read back several pages. There may be a narrative flow going. You may be able to put something in randomly that leads to a happy accident, but very often a carelessly-placed word can break the flow altogether. As with grammar, if someone contributes a word that just seems to smash into the narrative flow, ignore it and go with something that fits. The intrusive word - if it really can't be incorporated - will disappear at the editing-stage.
vi), please don't try to dictate the flow with the intrusion of punctuation, particularly 'open speech' marks to say 'I want someone talking here'. As you've taken the words preceding your own contribution blind to take the story where you may, so it's best if others are allowed to do the same. Don't worry if you're afraid that your contribution will be misunderstood if you don't put in punctuation-cues by way of explanation. People can almost always work out when a new sentence is starting or whatever, and if they don't it may be because they've found a novel way of incorporating your words into the flow that you didn't expect.
vii), The following MCs may be posted as a single word, (ie., as just one of the two words allowed to you):
Big Ron (a penguin)
Get Out (Big Ron's best friend)
Mrs. Turnip
Mr. Turnip
Cataclysmic Tim
viii), never argue with the editor. He's a swine, power-crazed, arrogant and thoroughly uncooperative. It's just not worth it.
And finally...
Coherent passages can be spoiled if someone leaps in feeling anarchic, believing themselves witty, seeing themselves as having a particularly refined mind that could send the idea off in a new and fruitful direction or just plain liking the sound of the words they're posting. Passages work really well when a group of contributors feel one another out. They can be spoiled by just one individual leaping in with a 'Look at me!' attitude and just posting something randomly that buggers it up.
Empathy produces continuity
The English language is rich with simple, familiar yet evocative words. The story has no use for neologisms, false-concatenations, orthographic creativity or obscurity. There's no point in posting albitic to the thread and instructing me as the editor to go look it up in Wikipedia. The way people will read Lost Litanies and Vanished Sects - should anyone read it at all - will be for its evocation. No one is going to stop reading to find out what the word means, it will just be lost on them and bust up the flow. Even if it's the perfect word, if no one knows what it means, so what?
Simplicity is evocative
Besides which, if I don't know what a word means or if I think it'll be a bugger to pronounce when I'm doing the audio I'll probably edit it out anyway.
Ah! Power. Love it.
Posted: 19/02/2012 05:53:58
Last Edit: 27/12/2012 04:19:55 by Pete Marchetto
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