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Hi guys.
So presumably as authors we are all creative. Just the same, a problem I have had is writing something creative, that my intended readers will enjoy.
I got this idea from a sort of corollary idea. So you may have heard about some websites where entrepreneurs present their ideas, but as they lack money, they can’t really afford to develop their ideas without funding. People with money then provide some money to have the product actually produced.
Introducing “Crowd Writing.” So, you as the author have the theoretical skill to come up with a story. However, you are not necessarily equipped with enjoyable/marketable ideas. Solution; find a group of persons and request say three ideas from each of them. Then construct story from there.
I just tried this with one group and it is admittedly kind of hard to get all the ideas to stick together and work together and not seem disjointed, but it is better to think of this as a challenge then a difficulty. 🙂
So in other words kind of a different sort of writer’s prompt, except from your immediate friends or readers.
This sounds like a very interesting idea, Timothy. The only problem I would see (which you have already pointed out) is making the ideas go together. Like you said, see it as a challenge, but challenge or no, sometimes two ideas just don’t make sense together. (A way to try and avoid this could be specifying the genre/theme/audience you might have in mind?) Plus there’s the point that people might want credit for the idea, even though they didn’t write the actual story (not that I’d think that would be an issue on this site!)
So, your idea is you ask people to give you story prompts to get you going. You said three; does this mean you use all three ideas from each person (9 ideas), one idea from each person, or all the ideas from one person? (does that make any sense??? XD)
If I may make a suggestion that could go along with this, why not team-writing? (possibly the same idea of ghost-writing, I dunno 😛 ) Where a group people (possibly three, maybe four – too many cooks spoil the broth otherwise 😉 ) each come up with the ideas and team up to write the story together, possibly a chapter each and kind of rotate between them. My brother and a friend and I have been wanting to write a novel together (been wanting – it hasn’t happened yet 😉 ), and I think what we were thinking of doing was each write a sample chapter and see whose style we liked the best and they’d be the main writer, but it could also work with three different writers.
Again, this is only a suggestion (it could be a terrible idea XD), but it could be something that could go along with your great idea, too. 🙂
Currently reading Les Miserables
@timothy-young. I’ve heard of people doing something like this with their email list. They’ll send out a survey to see what types of books people like the most, and then they’ll write that.
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The ideas are definitely hard to treat fairly… But then not all ideas are equal. 🙂
I just tried it with a short story with a group of seven people each one offering three things they wanted in the story. I would say it is nearly impossible to come to twenty-one things that are quite that random, with a pre-existing story in mind, but that’s just me.
Team writing is really fun! This year I wrote two satires with friends (four in each group, a bit of overlap) and it was really fun. I do suggest that you decide beforehand, who exactly will edit everything in the end to make more of one substance and not sound like it had four different authors. Also be very meek… It is a “good” way to ruin friendships.
Warnings aside, with a good team, team writing is really fun.
As Solomon says there is nothing new under the sun… Oh well, so the chief difference would be that I asked people over WhatsApp instead of letters… Not really anything to brag about…
Me desperate for ideas, hahahahah… Well come to think of it yes. At least ones that
people like… 🙂@Timothy-Young well good for you, because now that I think of it I couldn’t really care less what people think so long as I was happy with it. 😛 Guess I won’t get much business that way, will I? 😉
@timothy-young Haha, yes, like I said, we were thinking of selecting one “main” author so it has one “voice” and wasn’t different every chapter. But we’d all have contributed ideas and suggestions.
Currently reading Les Miserables
This just gave me an idea for a website. What if there were a site where readers could go and vote on book ideas that they would like to see written? Readers could create an account and then select different types of writing they like. Writers could then log in with their story ideas and categorize them under the reader groups they think their book would appeal to. Readers would then be able to browse through all the story ideas that appeal to their tastes and vote on which one they like best. The winners (those who get the most votes every month or so) would then be able to push an announcement of their book’s publication to the reader group that chose them when their book comes out.
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Really now? I should keep coming up with ideas then. Just think, if I came up with ideas like this one every day until I was eighty, imagine how rich I’d be when I turned eighty-one!
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