New Chain Story?

[Weird Harold]

How about this?

Adam is at a party. He goes up to a girl and tries to pick her up.

She says, "Sorry baby, but I'm in love." Kisses her friend.
...
"What the hell?" Adam makes like a tree and leaves. He goes home and goes to bed. When he wakes back up, he's in front of the mirror, saying "God, I wish I could find someone who loves me."

"Done," the mirror says.

So starts his adventures until he finds someone who loves him.

Isn't that a bit backwards, plotwise? It sort of implies a promise that Adam will find love in EACH episode, doesn't it?

In order to fuel a loop, wouldn't the "wish" have to come at the END of each episode instead of the beginning?

Chiklet:
I feel like, in that situation, I would want the character to remember each reality. I would rather start out with a blank slate, with my character untainted by the other stories, and able to mold him in whatever form I wanted.

A character wouldn't have to "remember" past loops other than a feeling of Dejavu at the decision point -- that little voice that says, "if you go that way, you'll regret it."

You initally described your concept as "a choose your own adventure" story, but that literally can't be done as a "chain story" because a "CYOA" story leaves (at lest) two loose ends with each episode -- four with the second episode, eight with the third, etc. Of course some branches turn out to be dead ends -- literally in many CYOAs.

A Chain Story, OTOH, needs to leave only one loose end at a time and a single overall plot -- similar to "the book" for a TV series that lays out where the series is going and what each character has to do to get there, or the framework I posted earlier.

The main difference between the chain story we've been trying to set up here and a traditional "linear" chain story, is that all of the "loose ends" need to be set up in the first episode so each following author can loop back and take a different turn. At least that's how I understand the general trend of the conversation so far.

DJ_Maximus:
Here's a partial list so far...

Chicklet -- nonconsent and lesbian
Svenskaflicka -- interracial/gay guy (ROFL), group, nonhuman
DJ Max -- Celeb, Exhibition, Audio
Willow Puss -- BDSM
and PLS is gonna fill in where neccessary.

Hope that helps

Does this imply that Chicklet, Svenskaflicka, and you are going to write more than one episode each? There isn't anything wrong with writing more than one chapter and it would certainly ease the probable wierdness factor of trying to combine Ir/Gay Male/Group/ and non-human into one coherent episode.

PLS:
Chicklet and I discussed it and we are working on an introduction story (a first chapter). That way everyone can read that and start from where it leads off.

I think the discussion has reached the point where we really need at least an outline of the first chapter so people can choose the decison points they want to break away at -- what episode(s) they want to write. The outline of the first chapter will pretty much decide how the "loopback" is triggered -- I think that it logically should come at the end of the story, but this is Chicklet's baby and I'll leave the final word to her.

 

[WillowPuss]

Have we decided on what age Adam is to be?

I wouldn't mind having a stab at the mature category, if that's OK?

 

[Weird Harold]

Have we decided on what age Adam is to be?

I wouldn't mind having a stab at the mature category, if that's OK?

I don't think anyone has ventured an opinion on a specific age -- I've been picturing Adam as an "average male literotican" of about 25 or so. (I have no idea if that's an accurate average age for male literoticans, it's just the impression I get from the posts that interest me.)

In fact, I've pictured Adam as "Mr. Average" in all respects -- brown hair, brown eyes, medium build, some college or a BA degree, middle income, etc. He's not the sort of guy that you'd be able to pick out of a crowd as being "special" in any way -- he'd fit in at the edges of just about any group but would never be found at the center of things -- "A follower with initiative."

I somehow can't picture Adonis or Quasimodo fitting into a plotline that implies a man who is neither happy with his life or overly despondant about it -- someone who wonders "what if" about the possibilities presented by a walk through the city without (normally) acting on them.

 

[Couture]

It would repeat until he found true love. Kind of corny, but it would be hard to do in a night. Hard, but no impossible.

He would go back to the party and start with the pretty girls first and keep trying to he finds a way into their pants. Then he would take a ride home with the guys per Svensa.

Finally, he remembers a girl leaving just as he went into the coat room. He dashes out and catches her as she's leaving. Da-dum, they have sex and fall in love or maybe she just falls in love with him.

 

[Don K Dyck]

Count Me

Here's a partial list so far...

Chicklet -- nonconsent and lesbian
Svenskaflicka -- interracial/gay guy (ROFL), group, nonhuman
DJ Max -- Celeb, Exhibition, Audio
Willow Puss -- BDSM
and PLS is gonna fill in where neccessary.
Hope that helps

Don will do consentual coupling . . . anywhere, anytime (oh, the story??) yes, of course I mean in the story! . . . did you have any other ideas?? (I'm being mischievous tonight ).

Have we reached a soltion yet?

 

[JUDO]

Chicklet -

Going back to what WH asked - Are you doing two stories? Non-consent and Lesbian? Or is it a non-consent Lesbian story or what?


- Judo

 

[penguindance]

 

[Chicklet]

Chicklet -

Going back to what WH asked - Are you doing two stories? Non-consent and Lesbian? Or is it a non-consent Lesbian story or what?


- Judo

Well my #1 is to do a NonConsent. If I still want to do another one I will do an additional Lesbian Sex one - if someone else is dying to do Lesbian Sex, then they should go ahead.

Chicklet

 

[Chicklet]

I don't think anyone has ventured an opinion on a specific age -- I've been picturing Adam as an "average male literotican" of about 25 or so. (I have no idea if that's an accurate average age for male literoticans, it's just the impression I get from the posts that interest me.)

In fact, I've pictured Adam as "Mr. Average" in all respects -- brown hair, brown eyes, medium build, some college or a BA degree, middle income, etc. He's not the sort of guy that you'd be able to pick out of a crowd as being "special" in any way -- he'd fit in at the edges of just about any group but would never be found at the center of things -- "A follower with initiative."

I somehow can't picture Adonis or Quasimodo fitting into a plotline that implies a man who is neither happy with his life or overly despondant about it -- someone who wonders "what if" about the possibilities presented by a walk through the city without (normally) acting on them.

I once read this story where the character was described as having "dull colored eyes and hair colored hair" which i thought was awesome. In my stories I hardly ever make referense to appearance or age for that matter, but I picture Adam as a brown kinda guy (brown hair, brown eyes, tan skin) about 5 11 and approximately mid thirties. personally.

chicklet

 

[Weird Harold]

I once read this story where the character was described as having "dull colored eyes and hair colored hair" which i thought was awesome. In my stories I hardly ever make referense to appearance or age for that matter, but I picture Adam as a brown kinda guy (brown hair, brown eyes, tan skin) about 5 11 and approximately mid thirties. personally.

chicklet

Mid-thirties works for me. I like the "dull colored eyes and hair colored hair" line. It sort of confirms my everyman or Mr. Average Guy impression.

 

[Weird Harold]

It would repeat until he found true love. Kind of corny, but it would be hard to do in a night. Hard, but no impossible.

My only real objection to your magic mirror scenario is the "done" response from the mirror that would imply that true love should be found in THAT episode. If it happens at the end of each episode in repsonse to a comment or wish, then it doesn't raise expectations like it would at the beginning.

Encountering a magic mirror , or just a bodiless voice granting the "do-over" wish, would be a good device to explain the loop back to the beginning But I really do think it has to come at the end of an episode, or in the next author's recap of the previous ending, rather at the party where everything starts out.

 

[Couture]

It would. There isn't an instruction manual and if something like that happened to me, I would leave. Then when I found myself back at the party again, I would start thinking long and hard about what I said in front of the mirror.

Of course love wouldn't be found until the last short-story in the chain.

 

[Weird Harold]

Of course love wouldn't be found until the last short-story in the chain.

I take it you're in favor of holding the "Romance" chapter until the end, then?

Speaking of which, there is one other chapter that probably needs to be either first or second -- "First Time" Only Exhibition/Voyeur could logically come before Adam's First Time.

Of course,that presumes the story would be Adam's first time and not him deflowering someone else.

 

[Chicklet]

The Order Of The Stories

Should there be an order? When I was thinking of my choose your own adventure I was thinking it could more or less be in any order, rather than a formulated one. But we could do it this way:

In the first, intruductory chapter, we could introduce a line of characters. We could then go through the characters in that order, and the adventures Adam has with them.

Should we work out what's going to be first, second, third right now or wait until Stranger is finished with her first chapter?

Second: Length. Do we want the length of the chapters to be similar, or does it not matter to anyone? It doesn't matter to me, but then, nearly all of my stories average out at 10 MS word pages.

Chicklet

 

[WillowPuss]

It might be helpful to have the order of the stories mapped out. That way, Adam would be able to perhaps draw experiences from the earlier encounters in the latter?

Chicklet - most of my stories run to between 4 and 6 pages in word (typing at size 12). 10 would challenge me to be a little more verbose in my descriptions ...

 

[Chicklet]

Willow, do you think we should all write about 5 pages or do you think we should just write what we write?

in my opinion a story is done when it's done. there's no way around that. if it's done at page three, then it's done...just so long as it has a begining middle and end.

Chicklet

 

[WillowPuss]

I'm with you ... a story is done when it is done.

Personally, I would like to leave the length of each chapeter/episode up to the indiviual author. I am sure my BDSM will be lots longer than the mature. (But then who knows until it flows )

One question ... if we are writing more than one chapter, and therfore possibly tackling an as yet unfilled category in our own survivor challenge - hoe do we score it. A 3+1 in chain or a 3+3 in chain and another?

 

[Chicklet]

scoring

it's my understanding that it would ONLY be the "chain story" category. You'll get the 3 points for the chain story but if you submit it under chain story you won't be able to score it under "mature" as well.

I think you should probably just write a different one for mature, or else you'll have to write two. Every chapter of Adam's story I write I plan to only put under "Chain Story" since that will be the category on Literotica it will be found under.

Chicklet

Ps - I think the only acceptions to this rule are the Non-English stories, where I have heard that you get the points for it being Non-English but since you *Have* to submit it under the normal category as well, you get points for that as well. Possible points for non-english = 6.

 

[Weird Harold]

Re: The Order Of The Stories

Should there be an order?

When all the ducks are in a row and the authors have committed to participating, Laurel needs a posting schedule. So in that respect, there has tobe an "ordering" of the episodes.

In the first, intruductory chapter, we could introduce a line of characters. We could then go through the characters in that order, and the adventures Adam has with them.

I think everyone has pretty much agreed to essentially this format. Each episode will "repeat" or "summarize" the story up to the point where they break away onto their branch of reality.

Should we work out what's going to be first, second, third right now or wait until Stranger is finished with her first chapter?

I think we need at least an outline of the first chapter so people know what decision points are available to choose from -- an ordered list of who he meets on his way home and a rough timeline of when he meets them.

There are probably a couple of authors who will join in when they have a clearer picture of how this is going to be structured.

Have we decided whether the decision points will be taken from first to last or last to first? Or should where each episode branches just be based on when the author thinks the story can be finished?

I think I've said before I think last to first would be better, but whatever is agreeable will work as long as everyone knows when their story is due. Since the first episode will finish with the last possible encounter, it just seems logical (to me) to take the decision points in reverse order -- changing his mind at the last possible point to avoid repeating the entire evening.

Second: Length. Do we want the length of the chapters to be similar, or does it not matter to anyone? It doesn't matter to me, but then, nearly all of my stories average out at 10 MS word pages.

Stories are done when they're done, but each episode should be close to the same length or within a specified range. Episodes that branch from the timeline later than others are going to naturally be longer than those that only repeat the first few encounters.

Previous Chain stories have ranged from two lit pages (about 4000-7000 words) to eight lit pages (about 27,000-30,000 words) so Lit isn't going to impose anything exept the normal minimum word count.

I would suggest that everyone aim for a word count of 7,000 to 12,000 words, or 2-4 lit pages. That would make the episodes at least some what consistent in length, while not forcing too much conformity on those prone to short-short stories or novellas.

 

[Dj_Maximus]

Story length...

I have only posted one story so far to Lit, and it was 2551 words, on 6 MS pages.

A good start for me I think, but with practice it will get better...

 

[Weird Harold]

Re: Story length...

I have only posted one story so far to Lit, and it was 2551 words, on 6 MS pages.

A good start for me I think, but with practice it will get better...

I think with a recap or repeat of the basic story line, there shouldn't be anyone who has trouble reaching one full Lit page or about 3500-4000 words.

On the other hand, I don't think any one author should monopolize the combined story with a "magnum Opus" in the 100,000 word range either.

Are there any potential authors who would have a problem staying between 4,000 and 16,000 words? (That's just over one Lit page to about four lit pages -- in round numbers.) It wouldn't necessarily be a hard limit -- more of a target really -- but it would keep the episodes more or less equal in importance to the overall story.

 

[Chicklet]

personally

I never read a story unless I see that it is a good length <at *least* one full lit page> because I want some story. However since I've been writing a lot I have found that sometimes it's hard for me to aim for a larger word count. Sometimes I have to keep it shorter or I go a little crazy.

I think everyone should *aim* for 8,000 words or thereabouts, but if you can't reach it please don't worry! I don't want people to think to themselves "i've never written this much and now I can't be part of this chain!" go ahead, give it a try, and if you can you can.

Chicklet

 

[Weird Harold]

Re: personally

I think everyone should *aim* for 8,000 words or thereabouts, but if you can't reach it please don't worry! I don't want people to think to themselves "i've never written this much and now I can't be part of this chain!" go ahead, give it a try, and if you can you can.

8,000 words is a good "target number."

One of the attractions of chain stories is that fitting your work into a larger work usually stretches an Author's abilities just a bit. Participation in chain stories (and story challenges, where you have to work challenge elements into a story,) are a good way for authors to improve their skills.

 

[Dj_Maximus]

A target indeed...

...

This is per topic, correct?

 

[Chicklet]

Re: A target indeed...

...

This is per topic, correct?

Quite right = )

Harold - I agree = ) I'm always *trying* to improve. Keyword "trying"