Hello there! A few months ago, I started a writing experiment: everyone takes turns writing the same story with the same characters by adding their own content, ideas, and so on - what results is a cohesive and interesting story. The end result of this experiment has been [i]The Adventures of Caleb Crowsnest[/i], which has been a great deal of fun to write. So why is this thread here? Because I’ve had fun writing about Caleb and his friends, but the post rate has slowed down, so since I have more time on my hands now I thought it’d be fun to start writing another story! 

If you’re interested in getting an idea of what the structure would look like (not the genre or topic of the story), you can read it [url=https://www.roleplayerguild.com/topics/182175-the-adventures-of-caleb-crowsnest/ic]here[/url] or you can read the much shorter example below:

[hider=Short Post Style Example]Poster A:

"Frank was walking down the street on his way to work. It was his last day on the job; he was proud of his 43 years at the Wonderful Wheel Company, but he was looking forward to retirement. He arrived at the old factory, same as ever, except he was surprised to see..."

Poster B:

"that it was decorated with banners! The old factory worker saw banners, balloons and homemade posters celebrating his last day and wishing him well. A hint of a smile showed on the man's face. But the biggest surprise was when he walked into the place..."

Poster C:

"a huge array of tires spelling out "BEST WISHES FRANK" right on the factory floor! What was previously a hint evolved into a full-on grin; the man never expected his coworkers to go through all this trouble. Honestly, he thought they didn't even like him. However..."

(Please note that these posts are shorter than a normal post because this is just an example of the concept.)[/hider]

I’ve found that this writing style has big advantages over a more conventional RP structure, the biggest one being that people dropping out of the story doesn’t grind it to a halt. Plus, multiple authors can provide multiple perspectives, making the story more interesting. I’m hoping that I can take what I’ve learned running the aforementioned story and use that knowledge to run this new idea even more effectively.

So what would this new story be about, you might be asking? I don’t know yet! Part of the fun is collaborating with other writers on the story. I’ve learned from [i]Caleb Crowsnest[/i] that establishing a plot structure/starting goal (at least a loose one) can help a great deal; at the start of the aforementioned story, there was no real idea of what the plot was, so everyone was trying to add ideas and pulled the story in unpredictable directions. I'd like to collaborate with everyone on what sort of story to write. What genres or sorts of characters do you want to write about? What ideas have perhaps been lurking in your brain until now? I know that smut, torture, gore and real life politics are things that I am not interested in here, but beyond that (and, if [i]all[/i] else fails, a silly Pokemon idea I have) I don’t really have an idea of what the actual plot will be.

The length of writing is “whatever makes sense for your post” which is usually a few paragraphs but can be much more if you want it to be. I’ve written in the past with writers who can say more three paragraphs than some people could with three pages, but at the same time I’ve written with people who took three pages for a single post and every word was worth reading. Quality matters, not quantity; in other words, I don’t want to read a gargantuan post if it’s really difficult to follow what’s going on. (L i k e t h i s f o r e x a m p l e.)

If you have any questions, thoughts or comments, let me know. I look forward to writing with you!