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Message: <blockquote data-quote="uberkitty" data-source="post: 255437" data-attributes="member: 5185">I like the idea of a generally D&D world which we get to define as we go along, rather than an established world.  And I really like delemental's idea of each contributing an area.As well as a central quest, the story will need a larger conflict for context.  This could also be something we each suggest and then vote on.  My experience is that serial stories can get kind of plodding and unfocused when the writers don't all share some sense of a larger structure.  But I think there are ways to avoid that.  A balance of elements help move a story forward, and varying them helps keep a reader's interest.  If we identified some of these elements, we could arrange some kind of pre-set formula.  Bear with me, here.  Let's say we decided that the elements we wanted to focus on werea. advancement of characterb. advancement of plotc. plot twistd. obstaclee. change of locationWe might then decide, for instance, that a chapter (say, 15 submissions per chapter, each submission about 1000 words?) should comprise3 x a,6 x b,2 x c,3 x d, and1 x e.The writers at the beginning of the chapter would be pretty free to choose whichever element they felt like writing.  But as the chapter went along, writers would start having to consider which elements hadn't yet been covered.  Of course, your place in the line-up would change from chapter to chapter (so long as we chose a number of submissions per chapter that was different from the total number of writers).  It would also be a challenge to us as writers.  Those of us who are great with character development would be forced to come up with plot twists once in a while, and those of us who are great at cliffhangers would have to sit back and think about what makes a given character tick.  And of course your submission wouldn't have to be wholly devoted to its given element--it's easy to imagine a plot-intensive scene which also helps to define a character.  As long as you accomplish the primary elemental goal, you're free to write whatever you like.  Defining chapters would help to set a good pace.  You'd know that if you're writing the beginning part of a chapter, it has to feel like a beginning; and if you're writing something in the middle, you know you should be building to some kind of climax; and if you're the last, then you're going to need some resolution and a whizz-bang teaser for the next chapter.  Each chapter ups the stakes--chapters might even be roughly analagous to character levels.Shew, I kind of got carried away there.  I am only offering this as a possibility to consider.  But I think this kind of system might have the benefit of helping us, as writers, learn to manipulate the balance of fiction elements and work with our stories on a structural as well as an imaginative level.</blockquote>

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