[Leader Desslock]

I apologize for taking so long to post the rules to our little writing game. It's been a crazy month for me, and this is pretty much the first complete day off I've had in a month. A word of advice to any writers out there who might be thinking about starting their own coffee shop and writing on the side -there is no 'side' on which to write. Just an FYI.


Okay! <claps hands and rubs them together>

The name of this game is Author Showdown, there are no prizes, there's no winning or losing, there's just a lot of fun to be had and hopefully some things to be learned about fiction along the way.

Before I list the rules, I'll simply remind everyone about the concept behind this little game. The central idea is that two writers must cooperate to write a piece of fiction. The two authors will have very different ideas about the tone/direction of the story being written, and each author will try to push the story in their own direction.

This contest will be very unlikely to produce serious works of dramatic fiction, so I'll just advise everyone to treat this as a lighthearted little exercise and have fun. Take it all with a grain of salt, treat your fellow authors with respect and we can all have a bit of fun. If you start taking this exercise seriously or take offense to what has been done to your story concept, then you're missing the whole point.

THE RULES:

1) Any author who wishes to participate may enter the contest. We're not leaving anyone out.

2) To enter the contest, an author must create a thread containing the first chapter/snippet of his own story. You don't get to derail someone else's story without submitting your own story to be derailed.

3) Each story entry in the contest will be named "[Contest1] Title Of Story". So if I wanted to enter a story named "The Greatest Challenger (Ranma 1/2)", my thread title would be "[Contest1] The Greatest Challenge (Ranma 1/2)". This will help us keep track of the fiction entries for this contest. As stories pop up, I'll index them in this thread.

4) The original author's post containing the first chapter will obviously be Post #1 in his/her story thread. The way we will 'pair off' is as follows:

4a) Any author that wants to pair up with an original author should simply make a very short post (i.e.: "I'm taking this one!") in Post #2 of the author's thread. It's first-come, first-serve. Whoever makes the first post after the original author's first snippet/chapter is the author officially teamed with the original author.

4b) Once a writing pair is determined, all other authors have to respect that pairing and find another story to join.

5) The author (referred to as The Instigator) who successfully joins an original author will then write their continuation of the original story, pushing the narrative in the direction of his choosing.

6) The original author will then add his snippet/chapter, trying to push the narrative back to his original vision for the story. The Instigator and The Author will take turns adding to the story until the story reaches some sort of logical conclusion or falls apart altogether.

7) We've all listed the stories with which we're familiar, so it's reasonable to advise everyone that the more recognizable your story, the easier it will be for another author to join you. So while you might really want to write a fanfic about your favorite arcane series, don't be surprised if that cuts down on the people willing to pair up with you. We don't all watch fansubs or read scanlations, either. Bear in mind that what may be a common series to you might be something that others of us have never seen.

8) There's really no restrictions on what can be written, with the exception of explicit sexual scenes. Keep it PG-13 and we'll all be better off. It's quite possible to write about even something as extreme as tentacle rape without an Ikea Sex Scene explicit description of Tab A being inserted into Slot B. Imply all you want, but keep it clean.

9) My original idea was that two authors with opposing stories would team up, but there's no reason that two separate stories (Ah! My Goddess and Mobile Suit Gundam) need to be combined into a crossover. All that's really required is that The Instigator should try to take the story in a different direction than The Original Author intended. If this happens to be within the same narrative continuity, that's fine.

9a) For example, let's say I try to write a perfectly canon Ranma 1/2 story pairing Ranma x Akane. The Instigator in my story might very well choose to write about Ranma 1/2 as well - but with a decidedly non-canon pairing like onna-Ranma x Ryoga. That would be something I'd try to fix in my 'rebuttal chapter' and the fight between me and the Instigator would be a fight to write a canon fanfic versus an OOC lemon fanfic.

9b) Of course, the same works in reverse. I could join an OOC Ranma fanfic as an Instigator determined to set the story 'right' with regards to canon pairings.

10) To take this idea even further, there's really no reason that an Original Author couldn't post original fiction, rather than a fanfic. There'd just be less of an established narrative framework restricting the Instigator, really. The Original Author would also have to do a fair job of establishing the situations and characters in the first chapter, in order for the Instigator to have something to work with.

11) Many of us are at different levels in regards to our usage of the English language. That's just a fact, and because of that fact, I'm going to say that the grammar nazis among us should take a holiday on this one. I don't want anyone holding back because they're afraid they're going to be crucified on a copy of the Little, Brown Handbook.

... BUT!

11a) By the same token, it is an absolute truth that the better your spelling and grammar, the more readable your fiction will be. The more the humor will be evident, and the more people will enjoy reading it. Therefore, while I'm advising the grammar nazis to go easy, I am ALSO advising all authors to make a sincere effort to adhere to proper grammar, watch their tenses, spell-check their work before posting it, etc. If you're not sure how to correctly punctuate a particular passage, then pick up a well-regarded fiction novel in your own home to use as a guideline. There are lots of little tricks you can use to check your own work. Use them.

12) To specifically address a question about Choose Your Own Adventure Novels - a CYOA novel is certainly a possibility. Instead of "Turn To Page #5", you'd simply have to write "If You Walk Through The Left Door, Skip To Post #3". It might make it a bit tricky for authors to figure out whose turn it is to write a particular chapter, but in general, I'd say that the whenever a given author writes a "Skip To" link, it's up to the other author to write the linked post.

12a) This means that if the Original Author, in his original post, puts "Skip To Post #2" and "Skip To Post #3", then the Instigator should create a dummy Post #2 and Post #3, then edit those posts later to add the appropriate fiction passages in those posts, with links to further (or previously written) posts. The original author should then make as many dummy posts as required to fill in for the Instigator's links, and so forth.

12b) The above procedure will be nearly impossible for the authors if other people are posting in their thread, since any comments made will take up posts designated as link targets. So I'd advise any CYOA author pairs to make a bright red note at the top of their story reminding people not to comment in their thread. I'd also advise folks reading the story to keep their comments limited to another thread.

12c) Once your writing partner has actually finished a passage to which your passage links, authors are advised to edit their original linking post to include an HTML link to the target passage. This will make it much easier for people to read.

12d) Outside of the additional logistical concerns that CYOA entries will have, all other rules apply. The two authors should be trying to implement very different ideas in the CYOA novel.

13) CONTINUITY IS IMPORTANT. Once something has been added to a story, all subsequent entries in the story should respect what's come before. So if two characters kiss in Entry #5, then Entry #8 can't write that the two characters never kissed. Once it's been written, it happened, and it's up to authors to respect everything that's come before in the narrative.

13a) This goes for narrative tense and perspective, etc. If the Original Author starts the story in the Third Person Omniscient Past perspective/tense, then the Instigator must continue using that perspective. CYOA novels are usually written with a Second Person Subjective Present perspective (i.e.: "As you walk through the door, the smell of butterscotch is overwhelming.") It would be highly confusing for the reader if the subsequent chapter switched to the First Person perspective.


That should be enough to get us started, but if anyone has any questions before we begin, feel free to ask 'em. I'll do my best to answer any questions anyone has, and if I have to amend the rules, I'll do it.

Fairly clear?

Anyone wanting to join - go ahead and write your initial entries, post 'em as described, and we'll go from there. And remember that this is all meant in good fun.