Open-World Fiction: a writer's introduction
Choose your next main character.
We have our author volunteers for this round, including as first alternative, but people might back out and, if you’re interested, understanding the concept will help speed up the second round.
Welcome to shared-universe, open-world fiction.
Rule 1: The unifying factor among the stories will be its location, an American city by a river. The place is fictional, but loosely based on St. Louis so writers can consult maps as needed. Its name is Franklin, and the state is intentionally unknown. (Franklin is the most common city name in the United States. There are 31.)
Rule 2: The time is present day.
Rule 3: Each story will be roughly 500-1000 words.
Rule 4: Your story can be any genre, but at the end, we return to the present-day city of Franklin, a city that has gone largely untouched by the events of your tale.
Flash fiction, by necessity, tells a story with few characters.
Rule 5: Each story will have at least two identifiable characters, and after the story’s end, the reader will have two choices of whose story they follow next.
In a recent story of mine, the second character was only identified as “the old woman”, and she would be a logical option to write about. The author of her followup story would give her a name.
Rule 6: No politics. No erotica. No slurs. No extreme gore. Nothing that undermines a group effort, not matter how justified it might be in a standalone story.
Let’s talk about how we’ll write our open-world story.
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Now, let’s discuss:
Open-World Fiction
From the Note that introduced the idea, we currently have 17 possible authors including myself. For this first effort, I would like to go 5 levels deep, which leaves us with 31 stories to write.
Not including myself, we have 16 authors and 16 final stories on the fifth level, and that’s where we’ll start. Because this is the last level, you have freedom to tell your story. The first four rules still apply, but your only character requirement is that we have a named character for whom another author can write the prequel story.
Each of you will write one story. Do not publish it. You’ll message me the draft link and let me know if you’re available to write another story. When all the stories are ready, I’ll post the links for all of you to read.
You’ll send me your votes for your top 8 stories. I’ll compile those votes, and the top 8 authors (who are also willing to write another story) will compose the stories for the next level up. You’ll each pick two stories and write a single story that features the main character from each; we’ll have to work through the story-picking process so there’s no duplication.
We’ll repeat that with all 16 authors qualifying for a vote at each level. This time we’ll pick our top 4.
And then our top two—building backwards the entire way.
I’ll write the prime story based on the main characters of those final two tales.
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Traffic and Other Considerations
The better your story, the more likely readers will be to subscribe, but in sales they say the customer has to come across a product seven times before they make the purchase. If you’re selected to write another story, not only is it bringing you close to that seventh exposure, but the higher up the chain you go, the more traffic the story gets.
Before readers come back to read paths they didn’t take, each story should receive half of the traffic from the story before it.
You don’t have to write additional stories if you don’t want to, of course.
The primary concern for each story is just writing the best story we can. Genres can be all over the place.
Remember that the concept is that the reader is choosing which character to follow next. You have limited space to tell a full story and make two characters interesting.
We’ll schedule the stories to all publish on the same day at the same time. Each story will be required to have certain links before and after.
Before: The first story and the story immediately prior.
After: The next two possible stories the reader can choose from.
Let’s discuss this further in the comments. What mistakes have I made in my planning? What did I overlook? What questions didn’t I answer? What suggestions do you have?
Is there world building we need to agree on?
I’m looking forward to what we’ll create.
First update based on questions:
We will schedule the first round of story writing once everyone is comfortable with the plan. Slow writers (like me) can tell me how long they need for the deadline, please.
All stories in all rounds we'll schedule to publish together. That way a reader can read through, all at once.
— Thaddeus Thomas
Weekly Flash Fiction for Paid Subscribers—these won’t be emailed to you, but you’ll find the link in my regular posts. Here’s one everyone can read:
I can see my house from the map in this post!
This is so cool. What are the timelines for writing? Are you planning to have all stories written before publishing? Are you doing a read with notes before publishing? I feel like that might be necessary for world-building consistency and to avoid duplications (there are too many vicars and dentists in one town). I'm not sure why I picked those professions. Happy to help with that if you need it... not going to put this on notes - feels like a closed loop thing until its locked in.