This project is for absolute fun, take the writing seriously, but not the assignment :)
The main idea of this activity is to have fun and share your writing skills with everyone; practice working with people of different writing styles and create wonderful storylines for the enjoyment of everyone!
How this one works:
We will start by planning the main character. Everyone is going to give him/her characteristics which can include appearances, personalities, abilities, likes/dislikes; things both external and internal. We will set the maximum characteristics one person can put down to be two. Put your name in parentheses after the line that you wrote. Example:
Julia Barren (Female) 15 years old.
(Now everyone will be putting down the characteristics of this character)
She has shoulder-length silvery hair with green eyes. (Liam)
She hated Math since fourth grade but is a genius at biology. (Hannah)
She dislikes all people who wear round glasses. (Jeff)
She adores her pet dove Dianna, whom she saved from a cat three years ago. (Jeff)
She loves to eat Lemon cake, and will only eat the one baked either by Gramma or herself. (Stella)
. . .
We will plan out a setting by answering the following questions: Who(this will be our main character), When(what era is he/she in), Where(what is the location that he/she is in), What(at the start of the story what was he/she trying to do). All the above can be realistic or nonrealistic, we can choose anything from real life, history, literature, or just imagination; to have the setting based on something people can relate to could be very neat!
To start with the writing, we will have someone use the information gathered above to write a prologue, Which will introduce our character's background and situation.
After the prologue, it is time for everyone to join in the writing! Each of us will choose a color for our writing so we can identify who wrote which lines.
The rule for writing will be:
First, do not write more than 50-200 words each time.
Second, Do not put in any aspects that might make other people uncomfortable, such as racial, political, sexual, violent, or abnormal aspects; it is not saying there can’t be anyone dying or getting killed in the story, just don’t make it gruesome.
Third, try your best to make the end of your part a cliffhanger so it is easier for the next writer to continue and open up their mind for the following story. To do that, you can even end your writing without finishing the sentence that you are on. An example will be the following:
“...Aaron thought he saw a dark shade moving in the backyard but now it is gone. He rubbed his eyes and tried the flashlight again; it works this time! As he crept down the stairs to the first floor, he suddenly…”
A jump-in setting is allowed! Let us say, previously the setting is in Paris at the moment that Louis XVI was going to be guillotined, now you are writing, you can decide to create a transition between the setting and move the main character to Australia on a rabbit hunt. It still would be great to keep the setting connected so we “have” a storyline, not a broken chain of incidents. The transition should be realistic and understandable, please do not use a time traveler every time. Remember to keep the focus of the story on the plot and theme.
A shared Google Doc will be pinned in the channel so everyone has access to it.
There is no rule on how frequently you need to write, just drop in whenever you are free. I wish that we could at least have a developed story in a month.
These are my thoughts, feel free to give me ideas!
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Try clicking the ⋯ next to your doc name or using a keyboard shortcut (
Project Storyteller