Continuing Story

[meriadoc]

The basic idea of a continuing story is that anyone can join in to write a piece of the story. This concept originally came about on Freenet when the Internet was all text based and newsgroups started taking off. Anyone that wanted to could contribute to the newsgroup and keep the story moving and taking shape. I'm going to borrow some of the setup material from one of the original stories to get us started.

 

The story can be a combination of Comedy, Mystery, Romance, Action, etc. Each author should develop there own character and use that character as the focus of their action while writing for the story.

 

Here is the setting:

The principal setting for our story writing free-for-all will be Castle Kernehaven, a picturesque and HUGE castle set well back in the Scottish highlands. Castle Kernhaven (whose name means something like "Altered Home") is built on the side of a mountain known locally as the Punwa and overlooks the valley of the river Kerne besides whose banks sits the village of Punwa-an-Kerne. This castle is distinguished for several reasons:

 

1) It's big. I mean "really" big. If you have ever read Mervyn Peake's "Gormenghast" trilogy, we're talking that kind of big. If you haven't, trust me - this is one BIG castle. The advantage of this is that you (as authors) have a great many locale's available to you for settings, etc, within the confines of the castle, and can probably manage to arrange things so that your characters never have to bump into each other.

 

2) It's also very old. Therefore you can use just about any period in history you want to use as long as you're willing to adjust the use of the castle to the period you're dealing with. For example, in the 13th century the castle would probably be used for the defense of the surrounding countryside. In times of war the local population would retreat to the castle along with their livestock, etc, to seek protection from the invaders. In later times (late 18th century, for example) it may have been turned into a hotel where the activities of the guests might lead to a lot of interesting situations.

 

Here are a few general guidelines:

1) Invent your own characters so as to avoid conflicts. It is actually fun to interact with other peoples characters, but you should refrain from putting too many words into their mouths or put them in awkward situations like knocking them off in a back room.

 

2) Pay attention to what others have written, and try to avoid writing things which directly conflict with or contradict what others have already said.

 

3) Try to be historically plausible. Machine guns in the eighteenth century would be implausible, since the technology didn't exist. Mini skirts in the sixteenth century would probably get you burned at the stake.

 

4) Be original. Think. Be creative.

 

5) Have Fun!