so there’s a couple people in the world that know that i’m writing again. something big. and something that won’t end up another unfinished project that sits in my sidebar and stares at me. it goes like this:
erin reads the twilight series. we netflix the first movie. i am reminded of what i like about vampire fiction and various fictional places and settings that i’ve invented and/or written in for stories or role playing games i’ve run or played in. i think about how aweome said settings are and what a waste it is to not use them, and to not add my voice to the stream of vamp fiction. so i declare: “i want to write vampire fiction.” to which, erin says something along the lines of: “cool, i want to be involved.”
out of this comes something that i’ve never tried before but supposedly other authors do it on occasion, and that is a collaboration. don’t get me wrong, i’ve done pass poetry, and forum rpgs are a form of collaborative fiction in a very specific sense with rules and stuff. but this is a little different. see, i know what i do well, and i know my flaws. one of the things i enjoy and am pretty good at is elaborate backstory and setting. this is fine and great — create a massive, far-reaching meta-plot spanning generations and offering the possibility of an extended series of stories/books. the problem is, the books never get written, so i’ve got this elaborate backstory for…well, nothing really. also, i often write myself into a corner and use predictable behaviors in my characters which then leaves my characters stagnating, uninteresting, and the writing stops. erin has read a lot more books than me, is a more keen observer of people, has a unique, non-linear writing and visual style that expresses emotion. but she’s never written fiction. so the plan is to combine our talents and our weaknesses in a way that benefits both of us and create a unique story that we are able to encourage each other to keep up on.
so, i start writing by establishing the setting and creating a voice. this often gets long-winded and establishes criteria that i then need to work within for the rest of the story. so. this method sucks. instead we started with characters and try to get them to come together. and this is, i think, working well. she has her character and i have mine, and we each write their own narrative, slowly increasing their proximity to each other until they meet.
around this time, or while this was happening, i was asked the foolish question of if we still game. the truth is, we’ve been so busy with web design and me working at WF that we don’t even have time to play guild wars lately. with the kids, sit-down gaming is hard, but i mention that i might be convinced to run a forum game. this leads to me assembling some players for a forum game that is set inside the story that we are writing — a sort of sandbox for the setting.
i’m excited by all the developments. but i’m not going to post any actual story until it’s done. or more done anyway. so don’t ask. but i think i set up the google group so it’s readible by other people and if you want an invite to the game, let me know.
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