“I don’t know what you’re talking about,” she prevaricated.
“Yes you do,” he blaxtophosed.
As I was writing that last episode, I got an idea. Ideas come in a wide range of flavors, and many of them are undercooked. I’m counting on you guys to make this idea fully-baked. I think there are enough regulars now to make something like this work. Group fiction. Silly group fiction, anchored on a bit of patently bad advice every writer hears at one point or another.
I propose two chapters of a novel, chapters five and ten. The writing should be reasonable but for one rule: no word for verbal utterance can be used more than once. By chapter five our otherwise-talented author, Edgar Pildrot, will be scraping the bottom of the barrel. By chapter ten he’ll be reduced to wild invention to paraphrase ‘said’. Wild invention, I think, is something this crowd could do well. Perhaps also we should include a rule that no character can be described the same way twice. Forget names, they would have been used up in chapter one. Just a thought.
I imagine this would be a perfect application of some sort of wiki thing. I’ll try to figure out how to host one of them (I welcome any guidance), but there’s also the question of the story. What do you guys think? Would you play? How much structure should be there at the start? An outline of the novel with a little more detail for the relevant chapters, or is that too much? There must be some structure; I wouldn’t want a bunch of fun sentences that didn’t follow. Or is continuity part of the challenge? I wouldn’t want to stifle you guys too much. Where’s the balance? I’m figuring the group would write chapter five first, then chapter 10. Kind of a vegetables-before-desert thing, only in this case the veggies are tasty, too.
We also need a good name for the project. My first instinct was Outrageous Dialog Project, but that misses the import of the dialog markers.
So four (wait, five) questions:
Do you want to join us and write silly dialog?
Do you have any idea how to make the project work?
How much of the story should be predefined?
What should the project be called?
Something else?
Please give your two cents in the comments below. I will interpret the sound of crickets chirping as an indication that the rest of you have actual “lives” and stuff, and don’t have time for such silliness. I’m not really sure how many participants it would take to hit that critical mass of fun.
1- Yes
2- No
3- Some, but not too much
4- It Goes Without Saying
5- Um… penguins. They’re something else. They waddle in their somethingelseness. They’re even more something else than things that aren’t.
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what she said.
for point 2 maybe a defined ‘pass-along’ as in when the baton is passed you’re on deck, then you have to pass it along. That said, too many rules spoil the soup.
“Count me in!” Bob ennumerated.
“I might as well, too.” Bill Bob’s bro added.
“I could postulate, maybe, being, well, errr, part of this.” John H. theorized.
“I’ll do it!” Keith purred.
“I love to write english well.” CA pontificated.
“I could see myself taking part.” Pat allowed.
“I’ve got you all beat.” Trumped Squirrley Joe.
“Piss on this idea,” profaned Jerk McSwede
“Look at that! Eight more takers!” Jesse helped.
The start of the beginning of a shell of a story is now at It Goes Without Saying. I have made TG and Jesse official authors, giving them the power to add to the story.
I will happily add anyone else who wants to play. You can go over there and sign up, and then I will grant you the power. If that’s too much work, I can create you account for you; just let me know that you want me to.
Oh man this is gonna be so wonderfully awful… Jesse, I believe it is now your turn.
Jer always gets busy and creative on weekends. Precisely when I shun the computer. Now it is mondayy and I am finding out all sorts of fun things have happened. Reckon I best go check out Jer’s and TG’s new story.
OK, we’re up to 4 characters, two moving vehicles, one Styrofoam Buddha and a secret thing written on a cocktail napkin. Next…?
Jesse, ‘sarcastigated’ is my new favorite word ever. That word happies my brain. Usually it takes at least a whole sentence to happy my brain. You did it with one word.
aw shucks…
But necessity is a mother, and Jerry created the necessity. All praise and blessings be upon him the most high instigator of It goes without saying. Jerry al salam.
Grealb. Rhymes with Wealth.
I was playing word jumble in the Sunday paper and had to unscramble: RAGBEL. The answer is GARBLE, but the first thing that I cameup with was ‘grealb.’ It looks so…english. I love it. I’m gonna use it. Problem is that it doesn’t have a definition yet (tho with the web one click away I oughta check and be sure). Anyboidy gotta a good definition for grealb?