Welcome to the Mystery Chain story. Thanks to all those who signed up.
This is how things are going to work:
Each author will be placed into one of two teams of 6 or 7 people â€" Team A and Team B.
There are two phases. Phase 1 is the ‘chain’ phase and phase 2 is the ‘endings’ phase. Each author will take part in both phases.
Phase 1 â€" The Chain
Each team will create a chain story in the usual way. I will supply the first author in each team with a selection of starting sentences taken from a range of well-known novels. He or she must write 200-250 words on top of that and each subsequent author must write 200-250 words on top of what has already been written. There is, however, one requirement â€" in your entry you must introduce one prominent new question or mystery, without attempting to answer any of the previous authors’ mysteries. Use your imagination. The final author will also be asked to leave the story unfinished and pose one final mystery to be solved...
On your turn I will send you the story so far and you have 48 hours to send me your entry. Please acknowledge your receipt of this email within 24 hours to help me keep track of things.
Phase 2 â€" The Endings
Once all entries of Phase 1 are returned to me, I will send Team A’s story to each member of Team B and I’ll send Team B’s story to each member of team A. Each author’s task is to come up with an ending to the story (anything up to 1000 words) which solves all of the mysteries (or as many as you can) posed by the previous authors in Phase 1.
You will have one week to get your entries back to me.
Voting
Once all of the entries are in, the stories will be made public and voting will commence.
Prizes of bronze, silver and gold will be given to the three entries voted ‘best mystery’ for each story in Phase 1.
Prizes of bronze, silver and gold will be given to the three entries voted ‘best ending’ for each story in Phase 2.
Thanks again for participating.
Enjoy the game :-)
-Stu
Progress
Phase 1
Team A - 6/6
Team B - 7/7
Phase 2
Team B (Story A) - 0/7
Team A (Story B) - 0/6
Hey All.
We're about 1/3 of the way through phase 1.
Team B is a bit behind, so what I might do is put their extra 7th man at the end of Team A so that both teams might finish at a more similar time.
Keep up the good work. :)
Man, the buzz surrounding this game is incredible! :o
We've had our first dropper-outer, which isn't bad going, but it means I've put the original 7th man of Team B back into Team B and he is now the 6th (but still final) man. So there are now 6 authors per team, which is nice and tidy, but I'm a bit concerned about DanielHs lack of activity since June 9th, so if anyone happens to know him outside of AGS, give him a wake-up call for me. :)
Phase 2 is nearly upon us.
I'm looking forward to reading and ending the stories! :)
These look really fun, can i sign up for the next one?
When it comes 'round, please do!
Man, it's so much more frustrating to be a participant than a host and not get to see each story at each stage. I can't wait to see them.
We've had another dropper-outer (or in this case a complete lack of response), so Story A is now ready to be wrapped up. Story B is very nearly there, so Phase 2 should begin in the next 36 hours.
There are some great mysteries to be solved. I'm thinking of having a go myself. One author so far has thrown a particularly nasty spanner in the works - exactly what I was looking for - and I can't wait to see how people manage to explain that off... Mwahahahaaa ;D
If you want to bring group A up to six, you could just have a go yourself. I always inserted myself the first time someone vanished in the interest of time, but you could do it here to round the story out.
Not that you would need to since these are meant to be open ended. But just to really stick it to the people who will attempt finishing A... you could really nail them! :=
Personally, I think we shouldn't cut the stories short at this point (even if works for open-ended stories). It would be sad somehow. Better have someone replace the late drop-out.
Yeah, you could get blobby 101 from a few posts ago to jump in there!
Yeah, good plan. You want in Blobby? I'll PM you.
If Blobby can't do it, i'd be more than happy to have a go since I was also waiting for this to come round again. Otherwise, no worries, looking forward to the end result=)
great, PM'd back ;)
Quote from: straydogstrut on Tue 22/06/2010 18:48:20
If Blobby can't do it, i'd be more than happy to have a go since I was also waiting for this to come round again. Otherwise, no worries, looking forward to the end result=)
@Straydog.
Do you want in on the Chain Story? I don't mind putting you at the end of one of the teams. We're now on the 6th man in each story, so whoever get's back to me first, I can make you the 7th (and then I might make myself the 7th man of the other story :-)
PM me your email addy.
I'd love to take part if it's no inconvenience!=)
I've PM'd you Stupot, but my email addy is on my profile for anyone who needs it.
Cheers
Stupot was kind enough to let me have a go so i've emailed him my part just now.
Interesting stuff so far people;-)
Right-o!
Phase 2 is underway!
Anyone who has taken part in Phase 1 sould now have an email from me with an attachment of the their opposing team's chain story.
If you haven't worked it out by now, your job is to write an ending to that story (up to 1000 words), trying to solve all of the mysteries that have been posed over the past couple of weeks.
If you don't have such an email and think you should, please let me know.
I'm also gonna open Phase 2 up to anyone who who missed out on phase 1.
If you're interested, PM me with or email Address. I will then send you either Story A or Story B, to decided by a complex algorthm involving a coin. But the deadline still applies to everyone, so the sooner you show your interest, the more time you've got.
You have one week.. starting... froooooom...
NOW!
Hokay... first draft: WAY over the word limit... Anyone else having trouble wrapping these things up in 1000 words? There are a lot of strings to tie together. :P
The word limit is just a guideline. If you want to write a bit more you won't be penalised. Let your creative juices gush... but remember, voters are busy people. :)
Quote from: Vince Twelve on Sat 26/06/2010 18:14:10
Hokay... first draft: WAY over the word limit... Anyone else having trouble wrapping these things up in 1000 words? There are a lot of strings to tie together. :P
Heh, I ended up with 762 words and felt like I should try to pad it out a bit :) I have a feeling you got the other story.
A little over 48 hours left until deadline day... (http://www.timeanddate.com/counters/fullscreen.html?mode=a&year=2010&month=7&day=2&hour=1&min=20&sec=0&p0=136)
Tomorrow will be the day I write mine! Hopefully.
Quote from: Stupot on Tue 29/06/2010 21:49:16
A little over 48 hours left until deadline day... (http://www.timeanddate.com/counters/fullscreen.html?mode=a&year=2010&month=7&day=2&hour=1&min=20&sec=0&p0=136)
Then I'd better get to work!
Mine's done! Can't wait to read these and to see how the other story turned out!
Still struggling to tie all these plot points together, Team B you REALLY did add a lot of mysteries to this one :P
So is mine! It's the really terrible one.
Quote from: Blobby 101 on Wed 30/06/2010 17:28:15
Still struggling to tie all these plot points together, Team B you REALLY did add a lot of mysteries to this one :P
Well, it was supposed to have an all new mystery in each segment. :)
1 day and 3 hours?
I'd better start :P
Just 24 of your Earth hours remaining (http://www.timeanddate.com/counters/fullscreen.html?mode=a&year=2010&month=7&day=2&hour=1&min=20&sec=0&p0=136)
Quite a lot of people haven't sent me anything yet. A week is plenty, but I'm a nice guy so I'll grant a 12 hour extention to anyone who requests one before I wake up in the morning and check my PMs and emails... :)
[Edit]
Well, I'm up and awake and no-one has requested an extension, so the deadlne stands.
15 and a half hours remaining (http://www.timeanddate.com/counters/fullscreen.html?mode=a&year=2010&month=7&day=2&hour=1&min=20&sec=0&p0=136)
I'm done, sent it in. All good.
There's been an accident involving quite a close relation and I have to leave in a couple of minutes to find out what's happening. It's all a bit confusing at the moment but I'm probably going to be away for a few days and won't be able to complete my chain story ending. Sorry for the people I'll be letting down, but this is quite urgent. Hope you'll understand.
Won't be able to finish :-[ :'(
I think I might be able to contribute if you're short-handed. Speed writing got me through two dreadful semesters of honors literature.
Just to let you know I haven't forgotten.
Sorry I haven't submitted my entry sooner, I will get it to you before the deadline though.
Luckily, at this stage, it doesn't matter how many people turn in endings. If you don't turn one in, you can't win. But winning isn't really the point of the exercise anyway. So, if you don't write an ending, the only real punishment is that you didn't get to challenge yourself, practice writing a bit, and have a bit of fun! (Though there's nothing stopping you from writing your own ending after the deadline!)
I do hope, however, that enough people turn in endings so we have a good field to vote on!
ddq, anyone can join at this stage, though there's only about five hours left minus however long it takes for Stu to send you one of the stories. Just PM Stu and he'll send you one of the two chain stories for you to attempt to complete!
I guess if Stu isn't around I could send one of the stories, too.
I'm starting now, well yes, it's just that I work best under pressure. :)
edit:
1 hour and 17 minutes on the clock, I'm done! :D
Less than four hours to go, eek!
Edit: Phewww, just barely made it...
ddq, check your inbox.
To those people who are unable to come up with anything just now, no hard feelings :P
As Vince says, theres nothing to stop anyone from having a go at writing their own endings long after the game is officially over. Infact I'd love it if people did.
Also, if anyone else wants to join in, let me know ASAP. There's just 4 hours (http://www.timeanddate.com/counters/fullscreen.html?mode=a&year=2010&month=7&day=2&hour=1&min=20&sec=0&p0=136) to go
Written and sent.
Ah it's so not gonna happen, sorry. I think i've let this story run away with me, never going to wrap it up properly in time for the deadline=S
Not concerned about winning though,lol, i'm just happy to take part. I'll post it up here anyway when it's done.
Submitted after Stupot relaxed the rules. Up to him if he wants to count it.
1,475 words
Right-o
Deadline is officially reached. I'm not officially taking any new entries.
(although, unofficially, I'm going to bed now, and I'm busy in the morning, so if you happen to send me your entries before midday tomorrow (BST) I might turn a blind eye).
Voting will commence sometime tomorrow :-)
By the way, during the voting process, I'm also going to invite everyone to suggest titles for each of the stories, just as a bit of fun, so feel free to start thinking about that now.
Goodnight :-)
My resolution has been sent. Not necessarily just now or anything, but it's done. I have to say, group B had some seriously good stuff to work on, I just hope I didn't screw up anyone's vision.