Good morning, Ladies and Gentlemen.
This topic is my attempt to gather all of our minds together and get this forum somewhat rolling again. Its been in quite...dismal shape for quite some time but I believe if we put our heads together we could start something beautiful again.

Do you guys have any suggestions that would help liven the forum up? There are all sorts of things we could do, from contests to collaborative projects. I'd like to get your guy's opinions and suggestions and get the ball rolling again. Even if you're remotely interested in reviving this board but have no idea where to start, make a post anyways.

I guess you can call it memories from when this board was active as all hell, when Tim was writing Dreamers High and practically everyone on the board was involved. Probably won't ever see anything like that again, but lets try and do something. Is anyone up for anything?

(and as an added note, I do realize my presence here has been rather limited. I've finally gotten settled into my new home and I have been checking this board, mainly because denim keeps asking me to read his crap. I apologize for my limited activity, but I'm going to put quite a bit of effort into doing something. I have a couple story ideas in my head that would actually be safe to post here, a sort of novel-type idea formed from the ashes of a failed RP, and something else entirely. I'd like to promote some kind of collaborate projects moreso than contests, since those don't seem to work as well here.)

Speaking of me, I'm lurking here at the moment. Something I've really only been possessed to do once every 6 months, but anyway...

So, I don't know how the writing forum is going these days since I stopped modding/writing/etc but I'm very curious. Also very curious as to how this discussion is going to play out, so I'll be happy to offer some input later when I can think of anything worthy enough.

In the meantime, there is a lot here for me to read and no direction to go in, so if people want, feel free to reply to me asking me to read your stuff. I want to be able to see where everyone's at when it comes to writing. Don't be shy.

- Tim

Meh I might write something collaborative, but last I recall my writing was terrible.

Well. I am very interested in a...

Medieval Science Fiction Historical Biographic Romance Comedic Fantasy Spiritual Thriller Mystery Action Pack Modern Horror Novella

xDDDD If anyone is interested in writing it that is =p

Seriously not joking. I do want to hear about it Hehe.

I think Dookie has a good idea about that novella. =p. Seriously.

Don't really have any of my own ideas to throw out. If you guys can think of something, I'll try to contribute. =).

So, people are interested in some kind of collaborative work? That might be an idea worth exploring.

What if a bunch of writers here all made a collaborative novella? Not in the same way you would an RP, with people taking different characters, but rather by people adding different chapters, etc. May be something worth thinking about.

Though I still miss Darty's Dreamers High Though. It was a hit back then.

Do we still have the thread or the back up copy of Dreamers High? We can post it to show to the newer members. =p

Do we?

We can do a story, with someone to start then we change the genre of the story anytime you know. So it will be a little bizarre and unique. So yeah. It will be fun =p Just a suggestion =x

Unfortunately, we do still have the topic for Dreamers High.

http://www.rpgdreamersforum.com/index.php?showtopic=36539

Of course, that was a long time ago (and I was pretty young). It's kinda funny the last post I made was saying how I had all these new ideas I didn't follow through with (so I deleted it lol).

Anyways, what does everyone else think about exploring different genres in some kind of collaborative work?

I don't mind. I haven't been writing all that much lately though (except for codes T-T), so this should help jump-start my writing spree.

That project it STILL around?! wow...
Considering the amount of work we put into that it'd almost be worth reviving it in some form...maybe not.
Collaborative work you think? So much like Dreamers high only with more writers? I'd be interested methinks, i've been looking for something to post on the forums lately anyway.

Edit: fear grips me now, i've found my first couple of fanfics from here and the writting is terrible, funny but terrible!!!

Lol, Whippy. My first few fanfics make me want to bang my head against a concrete wall. They were appalling.

Whatever you guys are going to do, I'm in. Come what may, Medieval Science Fiction Historical Biographic Romance Comedic Fantasy Spiritual Thriller Mystery Action Pack Modern Horror Novella.

I guess I don't really have much to put in myself. I've been intending to continue on with the long term story I'm writing. Maybe other's can do it better, but I have a hard time consistently writing more than one thing. I've had a hard enough time with just one. Seems when I try to do something constructive my life dynamic has a miniature meltdown and everything goes to hell.

Anyway, I can try to be more consistent with the thing I have on the forum. So I try and rely on myself anyway. It's gotten a slightly abnormal amount of views, so I guess its the least I can do. Unless DB REALLY likes to read things over XD. But I can't say for much else, like with the collaboration thing. I don't really work well with others.

Is there even any safe way for me to answer that? =p.

xD Surprised! You all wanted to write that Genre??? XD

I mean... *ehem* cool.



Yeah there is... Something like.

"I Like to read things generally. Most of the things. Almost Everything. Yet not everything. Yeah lets stick to that." XD

Well that was going to be my suggestion, as from my own point of view that was one of the things I was interested of in this section of the forum.

Well to me, it sounds like the general idea from everyone is they'd like to all write in a collaborative way. Well, I'm down for something like that, so lets think. Where to begin?

Let's say the format is that we all take different chapters and perspectives. Well, that lends itself pretty nicely to something along the same lines of Sin City or other types of gritty noir styles. But, people are interested in different genres, so we can also allow people to do that, too.

I guess the challenge can be something like this:

"Let's all write a short novel; where we take different perspectives AND different genres to all talk about the one thing/setting/idea/story. We have to actually progress the story logically while doing this, WITHOUT having one person in control of the plot. Where it goes, we don't know."

Thoughts?

Mmm yessss. But we should make sure each piece is connected, even if not immediately, but eventually. And let's be careful not to create one character per person, that's going to be way too much like roleplaying instead of collaborative writing.

Together, hand in hand, we shall advance towards the path of a Medieval Science Fiction Historical Biographic Romance Comedic Fantasy Spiritual Thriller Mystery Action Pack Modern Horror Novella. (god i love this long phrase! <3)

Sounds good to me.

To be honest, I was thinking something like that, however...basically someone can create a "basis" or a world (similar to an RP, I suppose), and we all can write short stories based around that world.

Its a bit more in detail than a short story contest, plus we could pair up and connect stories as well. Like a fieldpiece but in writing form *cackles* Thats a bit of a hassle though. Any brains want to get together to decide the setting and whatnot, if we want to take this forward?

This is a good start, however I'm sure theres a lot more we could do. Of course I'd like to get some kind of organization going on with threads (because I'm a na~a~a~azi) but thats hard to do with this kind of board. I don't quite know. And of course, this is the literature board as well, not only reserved for writing. We could do some kind of "Book of the month" thing here, assuming everyone has either a public library or something available to them.

There's all sorts of options here, but I guess my after-work mind is rather inadequate. Thanks for the reply.

If no one minds I'd like to take part in this whenever it starts. I haven't written anything in awhile and this looks interesting. All of the ideas so far sound good, I'd be fine with any of them.

I don't know whether the theme should be really broad for more people, or really narrow for a bigger connection...

im keen on getting active again, although ive never been a super active person here.

to be honest, the biggest difference i've noticed in the rp dreamers forums, is the role-playing section, i liked it when each roleplay was a well thought-out, creative, innovative and interesting story, each one a world to its own. nowadays i can only see one for every average/boring one. i liked the days where it took a couple days for an rp to be approved, it kept the writers serious, well not so much serious, but a bit more professional.

The best thing about the more serious style rpérs, was that when you invest a great deal of time into your character, you begin to feel more responsible, more like you should be posting regularly keeping it going, when your post is a paragraph or two long, you feel no real attachment, it's all off the top of your head, you don't really care that much.

Dart, your idea is awesome, i can just see it already, just picturing a dark and tense noir style of story, then a fun and comedic story following it, all being linked by a common story plot.

and dart, your awesome, i'm not sure if i ever said that.

Heh, thanks Tsukasa. Noir is one of my favourite genres.

Well, unless Vins wants to take reigns, I'll start up a topic soonish.

Someone give me suggestions on Setting/Topic/Idea/Place and I'll write a first chapter soonish.

Well, if you like the noir, you might as well start it off as such. As for ideas of what to write in that particular genre? I dunno...For me, sometimes if I just start writing anything (even if it starts out stupid. You can edit it later), I can just keep going and finally something will start to form.

Sorry, I don't really have any ready ideas that would be really helpful. >.>.

Cyberpunk, car accident.

That'll be a challenge. Since I won't know how to do it either.

Actually, I was having a discussion on noir with a friend, and I was saying something about space opera/sci fi genre, and she said "Don't make it in space. I'm sick of space. It should be in a cave."

Now, I thought about that.

Noir fiction, pulp novels, were described by people at the time as "set in a sunless world," which a sci fi scenario would work for, as well as the cave thing. Not saying it has to be a cave.

But say, noir taking place on a mining asteroid with only artificial life support, no sun or home planet for a lightyear or something. It would create a feeling of claustrophobic helplessness that the noir genre strives for simply because of it's isolation.

Another possibility to consider is vignettes, or sort of the way a recent movie was done with a single scene as seen and reacted to by several people - though the problem with that is its similar to a roleplay*. Either way, noir idea is nice, and I'm asking you guys to consider the isolated asteroid mining colony for a bit. Could explore the concept of languistic mutations a la Blade Runner when many cultures are smashed except into an even smaller place, far away from much rules and laws of many kinds.







*On a side note: Dreamers RPs have this problem of having stupid length requirements that really just make me write a ton of purple instead of getting to the point, they're not really roleplays in that way, but collabs of a story, it's just that it doesn't work for this because of their lack of space for freeforming without ruining the flow of the preset story.

I lowered the length requirement. I hope you did notice it, because the change probably took place months ago. It's now two paragraphs, or anything else the roleplay creator says.

I agree with the 'sick of space' comment. I'm kinda over it for now, more definitive boundaries need to be put in because it forces originality in your concept creation. With space you can have other dimensions and wormholes and aliens, etc all the time - makes for boring story telling. That all said the story could obviously be on another planet at least.
The Sin City reference I thought was a great idea (especially since i've never really watched Noir, watched a few episodes...didn't do much for me), Whilst restricted to a heavily corrupted city, it had all these original and interesting characters in it.
But then the whole 'evil slash gothic' thing is getting just a bit old too, seems everyone is doing it now days - as has light and goodness and the like. How about an ancient feel to it? for lack of a better example, an Atlantian civilization (and again, I don't say futuristic cus it's a bit overdone).
I dunno, I guess what i'm trying to say is I think more people would be interested if the setting was original and creative in some way - something that hasn't been done a million times.

EDIT - Well ok I didn't really help progress anything there so I'll throw in a random idea I had and maybe people can see what they think and develop it if they like.

---

The world ran out of oil a little while ago and government powers weren't able to use their renewable energy ideas in time to avoid major infrastructure break down. Small towns are a thing of the past and bigger cities (down to under a hundred) remain in the world. Oddly, not long after the oil ran out, an odd substance come to be known as dark dust started pushing its way to the surface from inside the earth. Effectively a black glittery sand, it started forming small fountains of itself everywhere. Deserts became consumed by it, but even green landscapes now have large areas with heavy quantities of it in the soil. What is odd about the sand is it doesn't appear to have much effect on the environment.

However for human uses, the sand is a miracle. It can be mixed with concrete and form super light yet super strong concrete, bricks, etc. It can be mixed with drinks to enhance and change taste, or with food for similar effect. Used with different metals enhance their conductivity, or strength, or magnetic ability - whilst with some liquids it forms a new form of efficient fuel, allowing cars to be run again. New uses are being found every day and it's beneficial properties seem limitless, even though the sand by itself seems to do nothing. So what DOES this sand do? Are there gradual changes people aren't seeing or are there combinations of the sand and objects yet to surface that have dramatic effects. Either way, the world seems to be getting darker with all the sand being used. Business has flocked to it, mining it and controlling the mining as best they can, though it is easily found everywhere.
One capital is all but consumed by it, every working of the city depends on it almost. The Dark Bowl as it is known is the third largest human city in the world, and is where this story takes place.

---

OR SOMETHING...I dunno, twas just a random idea - and yes I know parts of it contradict what I said before but i'm giving ideas here!

Lastly, I think we should all work on this real hard. Make it something that the whole forum will become well known for you know? Encourage people to add to it. Spread it across the whole forum, make topics in entertainment like "What sound track would you make for (using the idea above) The Dark Bowl, in art forum get people to draw up characters or comics or something, maybe make an RP for it, etc etc. That way people will get excited about it and the whole forum can be involved...I'd really like to push this idea too - could be what the forum needs to get a little more active.

Well, lol, when people said noir, they didn't really talk about the anime (which I think is what you were referring to in saying episodes), more like the film noir genre, or noir fiction. Think Max Payne, for something very recent in the genre.

Well, thinking about it, during an infrastructural breakdown, cities would be the last place to go. If anything major, like running out of oil, it could literally drive nations to break down into much smaller nations and thrust those smaller nations into a position where feudalism would be more efficient than anything else, again. Smaller towns would get the reins in farming, assuming enough land can be cleared for it (the midwest would certainly have a lot less problems turning to feudalism than most parts of the US as I'm thinking here).

But I donno. Magical black dust that has terrible side effects, I know it's just a rough idea, seems kind of lame to me.
Futurism being over done isn't really a problem. Every setting has been done to death. Unless you feel like describing men living on the surface of a giant's skin - in total absurdism played straight. So "futuristic" is really, really broad, but there's a million things you could do with it if you write it well.

What if scenarios of real world history, though. In whippy's case his what if was in the future, but say, we get a historical event, for mundanity's sake:

What if Nazis won World War 2?

And everyone writes their own interpretation of history, with their own characters.
Of course, it should be something less overdone. For example:
What if the US won the Vietman war?
What if Napoleon won Waterloo?
What if the Sepoys threw the British out of India?
What if Japan lost Sino-Russian war? (and as a result didn't joing WWII).

These are broad enough that someone can write something original about them, but still narrow enough that everything is set in a similar historical context.

All very interesting, and some strange, ideas. However, when I meant film noir, I was really just talking about a general feeling I wanted to (personally) tap into, and is convenient for us to use as a collective story writing group.

That said, I was struck by a lightening bolt of inspiration about an hour ago, so I'll post the first chapter tomorrow if i have the time for it. I know where to begin, I guess.

Look forward to seeing you all there, and seeing the crazy crap we create.

Collaboration and contests sound like fun, the problem is. The forum as a whole has very few members who are actually willing to participate in them. But hey since I'm out of high school, why not I'm willing to help out, besides I need to break out of this writer's block.

Yea but....what about those of use who aren't too crash hot on their history.
Course that could just be me here as well - which im willing to accept lol

Well if we were to do a collaboration on something like, say the Nazi's won WWII, it probably wouldn't be difficult to go with it even with limited education in something like that. Of course that's also depending on when the story takes place and if there is a 'leader' who moves things along more than others. I would wonder how this would really be all that different from the roleplay here. Sounds like the same thing we do in the RP, I've never tried a colaboration before, so I don't quite get the difference.

But anyway, I'm assuming you play your character, in having an understanding with the setting, you can go off of that. The other stuff doesn't matter, any history info you know would probably just be icing on the cake.

I'm not very good with history or military things either. >.>; If this one is going to be filled with it, most likely I won't be too enthusiastic.