Chain Novel

[BWFoster78]

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

 

[Ban]

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]

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]

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]

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]

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]

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]

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]

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]

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]

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]

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]

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]

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]

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]

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