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Instructions for Use

Posted by crows on January 15th, 2009 filed in
1 Comment »

Welcome to the Carousel. Hosted by Halflit.net, Carousel is an open ended collaborative story project. All are invited to participate while keeping the following project guidelines in mind.

1. Read prior material. You aren’t starting your own story, here… you are adding to the one that is already in progress. Previous material and posted information about existing characters is relevant to what you are about to write; read up to help yourself get some ideas.
2. Respect what has already been written. You’re not re-writing this story, you’re adding to it.\
3. Give yourself a proofread. Spelling and grammar errors are unbecoming to everyone.
4. Let everyone have room to play. If you have posted recently and your post is replied to, give others a few days before you post again so that everyone has a chance to write.

Needless to say, the rules of basic decency apply here as well. If I find myself in a position to have to remind anyone of what these are, there is an extremely high likelihood that I will simply dismiss that account from the project and the offending individual will not be welcome back.

Parameters for posting:

1. Posts will run between 500 and 1,000 words in length.
2. You may use pre-existing characters or create your own, keeping in mind the scene that is presently unfolding.
3. Each post will include instructions for the next poster. Instructions may include some or all of the following:
   1. An exact word count (if there is one posted, stick to it, next-guy!).
   2. A list of words that must be used somewhere in the post.
   3. Minor prompts (eg. ‘a character must drop something’ or ‘someone inquires about the weather’)
   4. Other creative things you can think of without boxing the next contributor in to how you want things to go.
   5. Post your instructions as the first comment on your own post, as soon as you post.

1. If you want to write the next section of story, you must call that section. Create a blog post (a new post, not a comment)  declaring that you will write the next section of text. From that entry, you have 24 hours to write your segment and then post it by editing your call post to include your writing and your instructions for the next entry.5. You must use the instructions left by the last poster.  Be creative!

 

Characters

As the project grows, so will the cast of characters involved and the details of each of these individuals. Characters persistent to the story will have their own pages with as much information as is available on that person at any given time so that they may be referenced when authors are writing about those characters. If you would like to bring a new character into the story, you may include them in your post, and if you would like to supply information so that a page may be made for them and other people can use details that you might not have included in your post, you may email me [crows] with the information. Alternatively, you may request to have your account upgraded to the Editor role which will allow you to create pages, and edit to add to existing character pages. Participants who will be bumped up to the Editor role will be done so solely at my discretion.

Remember, this is a cooperative, collaborative fiction endeavor. It is meant to be enjoyable and easy-going as well as stimulating to the creative mind. People will, and are encouraged to, take things in the story in unexpected directions. Don’t become too attached to what you ‘had in mind’ when you posted or created a character. As well, make what you write your own and use your imagination. Happy writing!