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I was wondering if anyone here has ever thought of creating a 'Writers Pool'? I'm not sure about anyone else, but I've been writing stories for quite some time, and have quite a bit of stories that I've started but for one reason or another, have shelved. Some of my longer ones may end up as stories when I can get my muse to work them in but I do have some really good starts but have lost interest in continuing.
The aforementioned is why I bring this subject up. Often, if another writer is struggling for something to write, and their muse may have decided to take a vacation, they can either read or draw inspiration from another author's written piece. Granted, the style may differ slightly from what they use but the idea would still create a spark of inspiration for them, and a decent writer can adapt the story into their own.
I guess it would be much like when you were back in school and your teacher wrote a paragraph or two on the blackboard and assigned the remainder for you to finish. I know that often, writers are very 'protective' of their stories but if you have started something and have no real intention to finishing it...why not share? Think of it in this way, it would be like raising your child and sending them off to make their way in the world..perhaps another author can create the 'next big thing' from your 'lightning in a bottle'.
Any thoughts?
it might be an interesting idea.
Maybe even do it on purpose - have one author do a paragraph, and leave it for someone else to try and write the next one, and so on. I could see that being kind of fun.
That WOULD be interesting...
That WOULD be interesting...as long as the other authors had a similar style to yours. I was involved in a story with a group that I worked with which was quite fun. Some of the people were writing very funny stuff while others were trying to keep it serious. At the time, I was only beginning to get serious about my stories and had one person 'challenge' me to write a bit of 'porn' in my installment...needless to say what I wrote burned up the pages...the people after me that were involved were fanning themselves because...when I want, I can write with a lot of 'steam'. Ha!
Anon Allsop
I love the idea...but how would you make it work?
I've had tons of ideas that I just don't know how to finish, or ideas that really need a good rethink to make them work-as is, they're pretty bad. I've used other people's ideas-Rasufelle gave me the basic idea for my series Unexpected Attraction, for example.
Sometimes when I'm stumped or blocked, I write a totally different story to help give my muse a kick in the rear, and it usually works-but a pool of ideas to draw from would be quite an interesting concept.
If you can figure out how to make it work (maybe just posting a paragraph or two about an idea-though I have no idea how other writers could share in the database), i'd love to participate!
Wren
PS-can we make it a wading pool? Since my ampuations, I don't swim all that well! :-)
Writer's Pool? I would almost rather see a hot tub.
Would we HAVE to wear bathing suits in this pool?
Would this be an outdoor pool where we could work on our tans?
Could we import some of the REALLY cute (female for me please) life-guards from "Bay Watch"? (The time-travel element shouldn't pose too big a problem for the great sci-fi minds we have here.)
Would there be a diving board?
Could this pool be located in Winnipeg so it would be easy for me to get to? (Of course it would need to be well heated in that case.)
with love,
Hope
Once in a while I bare my soul, more often my soles bear me.
writer's pool ... oh, you don't mean one
of those things filled with water?
Okay, so a writer I'm not.
If you all decide to create a writers idea pool (or some other variation) please let me know as I have decrypted a few starts on stories which I could drop into it for others to finish or take to either logical or illogical conclusions.
;) Renae Dumas
Umm, I don't know?
I'm one of those that's protective of my stories. I think the paragraph or two with different authors might be fun, but as far as letting someone else write my story, well I just don't know. I've had comments that i should change or add to a story i'm posting that would change what I wanted, or the new author could change the personallity of the hero(ine) to someone I don't like. An example for me is the rewrite of Homecoming Princess which I allowed to be edited to the point where I no longer recognized the story. I'm not saying the additions were bad, but they weren't me. I completely lost interest in continuing the story as it was. Maybe I will be able to bring it back to where I'd like it to be, but as it is right now, I rather write something else.
Your idea is good, seeeing as though half of the series on this and several other sites have never been finished and never will be. If we can get permisssion from the author then full steam ahead, Arecee
I Agree
Stories that are worth a hoot are the sort an author is seldom able to hand over to another to finish or rewrite. It's akin to having a child and then sending off to someone else to raise. I have gone as far as turning down an offer to have one of my TG stories commercially published simply because I would not have the right of last edit.
Nancy Cole
www.nancycole.org
"You may be what you resolve to be."
T.J. Jackson
It sounds like a lot of fun.
The concept is a good one that could create a lot of good writing. I remember a series of stories from some time ago published under the name Tails From the Vulgar Unicorn. An Sci-Fiction writer created a world with a few simple rules then turned people loose to create storied using the common characters. Having a pool could jump start a lot of stories.
This would create a group dynamic that would float a lot of boats by adding other perspectives to our way of doing things.
I vote yes count me in.
Misha Nova
The only bad question is the one not asked.
the problem isnt my muse trust me
my stories have stopped because i lost interest in them not because i don't know what to write so i am in a different pool.
Sure,
sounds like a splashing time! ^_^
In fact, several stories
currently in progress on this site, including T.D.Aldonetti's and Jeff (Jaye Michael) Mahr's stories have been/are being finished and extended posthumously, without the right of "final edit," at least in this continuum, but with the full approval of the authors.
Take a look at Air Force Sweetheart (Aldonetti), 'Neath Quicksilver's Moon (Michael), and Daughter to Demons (Michael), and see how you like them.
Mark Twain's The Mysterious Stranger was finished and published after his death, as was Austin Tappan Wright's Islandia, a wonderful "classic" in the field of "world-building" that precedes Tolkein and The Lord of the Rings. There's a saying, Artists never finish a work, they abandon them, which is probably more true than not, and all are eventually abandoned irrevocably.
The world would be a poorer place if artists didn't occasionally find the courage to let their works fly free.
Puddin'
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Cheers,
Puddin'
A tender heart is an asset to an editor: it helps us be ruthless in a tactful way.
--- The Chicago Manual of Style
P.S. Shared Universes
are very popular on BC, and are a traditional technique of allowing stories to make continued progress in spite of uneven inspiration, limited available writing time, or even impending illness or death, on the part of the authors. Jaye Michael's four unfinished stories, 'Neath Quicksilver's Moon, Daughter to Demons, The Lanyon Chronicles, and The Dandelion Wars, were explicitly released as "universes," in which others could create their own creative works, with the understanding that the central story in each would be completed by a literary executor, another author. I think you'll agree that the two so far completed (or in progress) have enough detail and breadth to host more stories. Quicksilver has worlds mentioned but largely unvisited, and Demons has a cast of millions available, as well as what seems to be a physical universe filled with stars and galaxies to wander around in. I believe work on The Lanyon Chronicles (itself a story set within Robert Lewis Stevenson's capacious Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde "Universe") is proceeding apace, and will begin posting as soon as Daughter to Demons finishes, which looks like it might be soon.
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Cheers,
Puddin'
A tender heart is an asset to an editor: it helps us be ruthless in a tactful way.
--- The Chicago Manual of Style
Writing is a messy business.
I'd really like to see writing being more orderly, and I am sure that I am not alone. It is a sure thing that sometimes stories finish of in a way that is completely unexpected. I had no idea that "Katia" would change direction so radically, and much to the disappointment of my readers, it took a year and half! Another one of my recent stories started out as a zanny space comedy, but ended very seriously. Gee, I wish I had some control over where my stories go, but all to often I feel like I am on the end of a fire hose.
Who knows you won't get a new idea and work on your old stories? I've got one sitting in the dungeon since the late 80's and now I am suddenly wanting to work on it. ?? :)??
G
It's funny you should mention that...
A few years back I was writing a story and had gotten stuck and that story sat for almost two years...then while working on a totally separate story, I happened across that first 'idle' story and realized that they almost fit together like a long forgotten puzzle. That story ended up becoming my story, 'The Yankee Belle'.
Anon Allsop
Well...
It does happen that someone writes a bit and doesn't want to go on, and offers it to others. Kristina L S did this once with a great starting chapter she'd written, and Nick B and I each took it up.
And so, if someone was really REALLY sure that they weren't going to go on, they could put a post in the writer's challenge forum.
It is a lot of fun, but you have to be ready to see your child go running off in a direction you never meant. I think it takes a lot of courage to offer up an incomplete work in that way.