# Chain Novel



## Garren Jacobsen (Nov 10, 2015)

So, for a class we read about the concept of the "chain novel" (the class discussed how the law is like a chain novel so it was not really about writing). Well it got me thinking what if we wrote a chain novel, just for kicks and giggles.

To be clear a chain novel is where one writer writes a chapter, gives that chapter to the next person, that person then writes a chapter and gives it to the next person, the next person reads the two prior chapters and then writes the third chapter, and so on until the book is finished. 

Of course, this concept needs some refinement, but I think this could be a fun challenge of some sort. We'd have to create characters first and decide genre, but I think this could be doable.

What do you all think?


----------



## Helen (Nov 10, 2015)

I and a bunch of writers wrote a sitcom, in a similar way. You certainly do get some novel stories!

Worked better deciding what the overall arcs and acts were all about and then parceling them out.


----------



## BWFoster78 (Nov 10, 2015)

It could be interesting.

What would your ultimate goal be for the work?  Just let it sit in a drawer or publish it (presumably after polishing and editing)?


----------



## Garren Jacobsen (Nov 10, 2015)

I dunno, I suppose the goal would depend on the group, but whenever I write something it is to get the thing published.


----------



## BWFoster78 (Nov 10, 2015)

Brian Scott Allen said:


> I dunno, I suppose the goal would depend on the group, but whenever I write something it is to get the thing published.



If that's the case, I'd be in for a chapter.

EDIT: And would help with part of the $ for editing.


----------



## Heliotrope (Nov 10, 2015)

I would participate for fun, because it sounds like a good writing exercise, but I would not want my name published.


----------



## Garren Jacobsen (Nov 10, 2015)

We can always add your Mythic Scribes name Helio.


----------



## evolution_rex (Nov 10, 2015)

I'm interested. Sounds like it could be fun.


----------



## Heliotrope (Nov 10, 2015)

Cool. I'd be fine with that.


----------



## Russ (Nov 11, 2015)

It sounds like an interesting idea.

Let me ask a dumb question though.

How do you avoid a clash of styles/visions between chapters?  Or is the clash of styles/visions the whole idea?


----------



## Garren Jacobsen (Nov 11, 2015)

Good question, I think in the beginning visions would rub against each other, but as the book progresses we'll get an idea for each character and the plot and we'll be able to establish a clearer vision, which could be applied to earlier chapters via revisions. 

However to mitigate this we should at least have a clear understanding of what the end of the book should be. By that I mean what event when written signals this is the end of the book. However, I think we should allow the story character and visions to grow organically up to that point.


----------



## BWFoster78 (Nov 11, 2015)

I've always thought that the fun part of this kind of project is to end your chapter by writing the character into an inescapable situation/twist and the next author has to figure out how to resolve it.


----------



## ThinkerX (Nov 11, 2015)

Depending on what else I got going on, I might be in for this.  Doing NaNoWriMo at the moment; couple other projects I want to polish off before the new year.


----------



## Ban (Nov 16, 2015)

Hope i am not late to the party but this sounds like a lot of fun!  Admittedly i am still a beginner and university has me occupied quite a bit so that might get in the way.


----------



## Miskatonic (Nov 16, 2015)

I'll keep an eye on the thread to see what kind of story you are thinking of writing.


----------



## Garren Jacobsen (Nov 16, 2015)

I too am busy with school as of right now, and it is starting to ramp up for me. However, this has haunted my thoughts for a little bit and I was thinking I think with so many wanting to do it we could at least start spitballing. I was thinking the story needed to be something epic, with so many minds and stuff all coming together I think that we should have some room to play and epic fantasy provides exactly that. Thoughts?


----------



## Ban (Nov 17, 2015)

Epics are universally beloved, so no problem with that. I am mostly thinking about how we should write this. Is there a single protagonist who we all project our ideas onto. Or are there multiple POV's and we all choose one to be our protagonist. Or we could all write third person. Might be early for that, though. Maybe we should start with choosing a genre and doing some minor worldbuilding.


----------



## BWFoster78 (Nov 17, 2015)

I'm in for epic.  To get the ball rolling:

Who is our protagonist?
What is the significant situation?
What is the magic system?

Random thought: If we try to play this thing straight and serious, I think it will be way too difficult to pull off.  What if, instead, we go over the top and zany?  High tension in a high fantasy world.  Lots of just crazy, crazy stuff happening.

I vote for Zombie Unicorns and Vampire Elves.

Note: I'm cool if everyone else wants to play it more straight and serious; I just thought the other would be easier given the nature of the collaboration.


----------



## Ban (Nov 17, 2015)

I'm in for zany as long as we don't introduce a new magical creature every 5 sentences and at least try to keep the story relatively coherent.


----------



## Garren Jacobsen (Nov 17, 2015)

I don't know. Zany could be fun. I almost want to see if we can toe the line between straight and zany, but that might be asking too much of us all. Let's start with a conflict. Usually epic fantasy, at least from my understanding deals with something either world changing or world ending. So let's start with that. Of course this presents the question of how to go about doing this. I am interested in writing something that is really world changing, like perhaps the introduction of magic into a society. The MC(s) will deal with this issue by either stopping the magic or by synthesizing magic into their society. What do you all think?


----------



## BWFoster78 (Nov 17, 2015)

I love the concept of a non-magical world that has magic introduced.


----------



## Ban (Nov 17, 2015)

Sure introduction of magic sounds good to me. Are we setting it in a specific time period and/or place? I think that a prehistoric time could work well. It would allow us to do less worldbuilding than normal and take less factors into account.


----------



## Garren Jacobsen (Nov 17, 2015)

I'm not quite so sure about prehistoric, mostly because I think that will cause some problems worldbuilding-wise, but I would say Greco-Roman era or like 17-1800s ish. Mostly I don't particularly want medieval, but I am amenable to it.


----------



## Heliotrope (Nov 17, 2015)

17-1800s is my preference (because it is the era of my current WIP… lol)

Middle Ages is sort of meh for me too, only because I'm tired of taverns and thatched roof houses and large stone castles with ramparts for shooting at Dragons… but that is just me. I can do whatever.


----------



## Ban (Nov 17, 2015)

I actually chose prehistoric specifically because it would require less and more focused worldbuilding. You could still design their tribal history, interactions with other tribes and cultural identity. Later settings are fine for me too but because i am a worldbuilding afficionado the first thing i think when i hear 17-1800s or even feudalism is that i have to design centuries of state and nationbuilding, culture, history, language, interactions between peoples and states and etcetera for the world to make sense. 

If you guys want a later date i will try to put this desire aside


----------



## Garren Jacobsen (Nov 17, 2015)

Banten said:


> I actually chose prehistoric specifically because it would require less and more focused worldbuilding. You could still design their tribal history, interactions with other tribes and cultural identity. Later settings are fine for me too but because i am a worldbuilding afficionado the first thing i think when i hear 17-1800s or even feudalism is that i have to design centuries of state and nationbuilding, culture, history, language, interactions between peoples and states and etcetera for the world to make sense.
> 
> If you guys want a later date i will try to put this desire aside



Ah, see this is where we differ. I only worldbuild so far as is necessary for the story. So I hint at history, but never get too detailed. Nevertheless, I think these differing approaches could help build our own craft for our solo projects. Besides, I like shooty-shooty pew-pew guns.


----------



## Heliotrope (Nov 17, 2015)

So are we talking another world based on earth's 17th century? Or are we talking about magic brought into earth's 17th century? 

My own personal preference, if we are talking magic brought into a non-magical world, is to bring magic into earth's 17th century. That is just me though. My favourite genre is the supernatural adventure style… Pirates of the Caribbean, Indiana Jones, X-Men… you get the idea. Magic on earth stuff.

Though I could get into building an entire new world if I had too…


----------



## BWFoster78 (Nov 17, 2015)

> My own personal preference, if we are talking magic brought into a non-magical world, is to bring magic into earth's 17th century.



+1 /10char


----------



## Ban (Nov 17, 2015)

As you probably guessed my preference is normally to create a completely fictional world. Although considering that i have 2 well thought out world and about 5 lesser worlds going on at the moment, it might be better to set the story in our world. Thing is though that we then need to adhere to an already established place, which in my opinion makes it more difficult.


----------



## Heliotrope (Nov 17, 2015)

That's why I think it would be valuable to start with a log line we can all vote on or work on, and keep it to a specific place and timeline... 

Here are my four longline examples: 

Critisized for being too soft, a failed poet joins the crew of the Queen Anne in order to gain life experience and writing material. But when he accidentally discovers the secret identity of one if the other crew, this noblemans son will only have four days to save all the crew from a bloody fate. 

A drunken con-man and widower gets involved with a noble woman in order to pay his rent, but when he discovers the secrets behind her lineage only he can save London from a macabre fate. 

A dying orphan is enlisted as an errand boy for a mysterious stranger. When the boy discovers the truth behind the errands he is running he must make a terrible choice. 

A failed lawyer, desperate to escape his past joins a team who plans to colonize Roanote Island. They knew they would experience tension with the natives, but they never expected this... (Google Roanote island lost colony)...


----------



## Heliotrope (Nov 17, 2015)

Another thing that might be fun is if we choose a small community like a group of colonists, sailors, etc is that we could all write the same story with the pov of our own character... So someone would be the poet, another the captain, another the steward, etc...each with their own motives and information regarding the plot. GOT style. Each chapter would have to move the main plot forward in some way, but also give room for alternative POV and intricate sub plots.


----------



## ThinkerX (Nov 17, 2015)

Suggestion: introduce genuine magic into a contemporary or near contemporary society.  Perhaps the result of the 'mega-super-quantum-collider' project.  The MC is the equivalent of a janitor or some such at the project who notices something odd after everybody else has gone home for the night or weekend.


----------



## indonesiancat (Nov 17, 2015)

Heliotrope said:


> Another thing that might be fun is if we choose a small community like a group of colonists, sailors, etc is that we could all write the same story with the pov of our own character... So someone would be the poet, another the captain, another the steward, etc...each with their own motives and information regarding the plot. GOT style. Each chapter would have to move the main plot forward in some way, but also give room for alternative POV and intricate sub plots.



This sounds like a damn good idea. The question is, how much can you involve another author's character when you write your chapter? Because if you write other people's characters, the intended development may get strange to say the least. For instance, you are designing a character who is basically the perfect good guy but whenever I write him, he comes off as impish and petty. I guess that can be a part of the challenge, that every character basically has an impression of the next one that might be very different from someone else's and then we basically build it further from there.


----------



## Garren Jacobsen (Nov 23, 2015)

indonesiancat said:


> This sounds like a damn good idea. The question is, how much can you involve another author's character when you write your chapter? Because if you write other people's characters, the intended development may get strange to say the least. For instance, you are designing a character who is basically the perfect good guy but whenever I write him, he comes off as impish and petty. I guess that can be a part of the challenge, that every character basically has an impression of the next one that might be very different from someone else's and then we basically build it further from there.



If we were to write as heliosuggests it would behoove us to rotate characters every so often so that we can get a feel for each character and to keep us fresh. Now the question becomes who are our characters?


----------



## Ban (Nov 23, 2015)

What about a story of a group of posh nobles trapped in a castle during a siege? The siege is looooong drawn out and most of the main cast incapable of helping their troops in any way. We could make some very flawed characters who eventually cause more trouble with their backstabbing than the enemy does throughout the whole story. 

So basically a fantasy reality tv show.


----------



## indonesiancat (Nov 25, 2015)

Brian Scott Allen said:


> If we were to write as heliosuggests it would behoove us to rotate characters every so often so that we can get a feel for each character and to keep us fresh. Now the question becomes who are our characters?



Sounds really interesting.

I'm open to suggest any characters, as long as you have a setting and synopsis ready


----------

