Writing an interactive story via my blog

Slider10 · May 19, 2008

Hey everyone. I wanted to post here to let everyone know about something new I'm trying on my blog and to also get some feedback from this great wealth of information.

On my site Copious Notes, I am going to write a story that will be heavily shaped by the feedback and input from my visitors. My goal is to write a story that will be posted as I complete each chapter, and then let everyone shape the next chapter. Eventually, an entire story should be written.

Now I'm sure I'm not the first person to try this but I think it can be a great way to see how good a story can be when many people are working on it. What do you guys think? I'd love to get some feedback on this. Also, if you can, please check out my site at http://blog.aaroncrocco.com to see what I'm all about.

Thanks!

Stormhawk · May 19, 2008

Welcome to the world of serial fiction. ^_^

You should add it to the Pages Unbound directory, so that it can be among friends.

Georganna Hancock · May 19, 2008

Do you have plans to do anything with the resulting story? If so, you might run into some problems with copyrights, credits, and selling rights.

Good luck and have fun!

mjlpsu · May 19, 2008

This is an interesting idea. How exactly will use the feedback for the story? I'm sure there will be plenty of people trying to give you some stupid advice. Hope it works out with the good advice though.

Ginosion · May 19, 2008

An interesting idea may be to have the main characters have a blog. So not only is the story interactive but the characters as well.
Just throwing it out there.

Slider10 · May 20, 2008

Stormhawk, I'll do that. Thanks for the tip.

Georganna, I don't plan on selling it or anything like that. I figure I'm just going to put it 'out there' online and it may work as promotion for other books I'm working on. I figure copyrights and such could cause problems. When I decided to do this, I already knew in my mind this was not for profit.

mjlpsu, I'm hoping for feedback that will help shape the next chapter, and so on. Of course I'll discard the stupid feedback.

Ginosion, I like that idea. Thanks!

soma · May 20, 2008

Georganna Hancock said:
Do you have plans to do anything with the resulting story? If so, you might run into some problems with copyrights, credits, and selling rights.

How so? If I understand correctly, the readers would be making suggestions of where they want the story to go, and the author would continue writing based on the feedback. Nobody else would be actually writing the story, just providing general ideas, which do not constitute intellectual property. As long as actual passages from the feedback weren't used, I can't see any rights issues.

Georganna Hancock · May 20, 2008

soma said:
How so? If I understand correctly, the readers would be making suggestions of where they want the story to go, and the author would continue writing based on the feedback. Nobody else would be actually writing the story, just providing general ideas, which do not constitute intellectual property. As long as actual passages from the feedback weren't used, I can't see any rights issues.

Material that appears on the website will be published, so technically the most valuable "first right" will no longer be available for sale. The website owner will probably be the holder of the copyright for everything that appears on the site; however, anyone can sue anyone else over anything at any time. I can easily envision someone who contributed "feedback" claiming at least partial credit and copyright ownership. Far stranger, twisted entanglements have occurred.

It's better to be aware of pitfalls before plunging into them.

Slider10 · May 21, 2008

I agree that copyrights for selling and such could be a sticky situation. As I posted previously in this thread, I decided before I announced this project that I would not sell this book or really do anything with it that could be in a grey area.

I want to use this project to showcase my writing ability, gain a closer sense of community on my blog, and also use it for promoting my other works.

razibahmed · May 21, 2008

How do you plan to inform others about your venture? I would suggest you to do two things:
1. Inform your relatives, frineds etc by email about this project.
2. Leave some comments on a regular basis to some blogs. Some of them will surely come back to your blog.

Feathers · May 21, 2008

Sounds like a cool idea. I'm going to have to head over, check you out

-Feathers

soma · May 21, 2008

Georganna Hancock said:
Material that appears on the website will be published, so technically the most valuable "first right" will no longer be available for sale. The website owner will probably be the holder of the copyright for everything that appears on the site; however, anyone can sue anyone else over anything at any time. I can easily envision someone who contributed "feedback" claiming at least partial credit and copyright ownership. Far stranger, twisted entanglements have occurred.

It's better to be aware of pitfalls before plunging into them.

True. First rights would be gone, as would the possibility of selling exclusive electronic rights, unless the original site was taken down.

While the commenters could technically file legal suit, they would only have justification if the actual comments were published, or if the case was tried in England where the courts recently can't seem to tell *ahem* hind from fore where copyright is concerned. Otherwise the case would be dismissed as frivolous lawsuit. And yes, while the author would ultimately come out on top, it would be extremely troublesome in the meantime.

Of course, this is all hypothetical in the case of this particular serial story.

Ginosion · May 21, 2008

Slider10 said:
Ginosion, I like that idea. Thanks!

Lul, You're welcome.

Slider10 · May 27, 2008

I just wanted to update everyone on here that the first round of feedback / input has completed and I'm currently looking for suggestions on more details of this upcoming interactive story. Feathers, I hope you checked it out and enjoy what is to come. Your input is more than welcome!

Writing an interactive story via my blog

Slider10

Stormhawk

Angry Bunny Girl

Georganna Hancock

she's back!

mjlpsu

unidentifiable food tester

Ginosion

Slider10

soma

Georganna Hancock

she's back!

Slider10

razibahmed

AW Addict

Feathers

emerging from the writing cave

soma

Ginosion

Slider10