Chain Stories Category

[deathlynx]

So, it was mentioned to me that the Chain Stories cat is basically dead. My first thought was that's too bad, as I've had quite a bit of fun playing around there, both alone and with others. My second was to wonder why? Now, back a decade or two ago, a lot of the chains were being set up by a couple of prominent AHers. Maybe as they stopped posting the cat dried up? Some of the concepts have morphed into the Challenges (as opposed to Contests) so part of it is probably legacy, as the site has added new features (in the same manner that Non-English is redundant). Maybe there are misconceptions about the category?

There were generally three basic types of Chain Stories that I remember.
1) Serial plot: (Collaborative, Continuity) This is probably what most people think of when they here Chain Stories. You have a group of authors get together, each writing their own chapters which are (usually) stand-alone stories focused around a single (or small group of) character(s). The authors have to work closely to make sure they're not stepping on each other's toes since the order of the story can matter.
Example: Laresa's World an ongoing story about a genie and her masters as her ring is tossed around in time.

2) Common Story: (Collaborative, No Continuity) Similar to above, except that the authors are responsible for their own characters and there's limited cross pollination. It's a good way to work in collabs without having to be reliant on other authors plot points. In these, the characters are most often part of the same world, or even town, and share similarities. It was recently noted (in Sword & Sorcery Appreciation Thread) that a town/world could be created for authors to work together in.
Example: Enchanted Twelve about the fairy tail of twelve princesses cursed to "dance" all night long, wearing out their shoes

3) Common Theme: (No Collaboration, No Continuity) This is the type that seems to have become taken over by Challenges. Someone would propose a theme, and every author would join in with their own take on it. Stories have no connection (though they may or may not be serial based on each author's choices).
Example: Virtual Realities where the MC is isekied

 

[Voboy]

It was recently noted (in Sword & Sorcery Appreciation Thread) that a town/world could be created for authors to work together in.

This happened. It was called Leinyere. A writer called @Nouh_Bdee was the guiding force behind it.

We had a master document which harmonized things like religion and money. We had a map with enough breadth to give several writers a place to play. We had good communication and several of us had a great deal of fun with it. The stories were generally excellent (if I do say so myself).

It worked well for a couple years, then it just... stopped. You need someone who'll take charge and harmonize everything, and then you also need people willing to put their egos aside a bit. That's a difficult thing to sustain.

 

[IWroteThis]

I've never been fond of them, and I didn't read them here, but the chain stories I'm most familiar with are the fourth type: No Collaboration, Continuity

Granted, they were mostly outside of erotica, but I thought that was the definitive structure of chain stories. Somebody posts a chapter. Somebody else posts the next chapter. Lather. Rinse. Repeat. It's the continuity between "links" that makes it a chain rather than an anthology, and the diverse staff of writers makes for quite the roller coaster ride as you try to follow it.

 

[StillStunned]

There were generally three basic types of Chain Stories that I remember.

I've done all three. Besides the Challenges as Type 3, I also did Lights, Camera, Blood and the City of Scum. Scum is dormant at the moment, but I believe there are still several stories in the works.

 

[deathlynx]

This happened. It was called Leinyere. A writer called @Nouh_Bdee was the guiding force behind it.

We had a master document which harmonized things like religion and money. We had a map with enough breadth to give several writers a place to play. We had good communication and several of us had a great deal of fun with it. The stories were generally excellent (if I do say so myself).

It worked well for a couple years, then it just... stopped. You need someone who'll take charge and harmonize everything, and then you also need people willing to put their egos aside a bit. That's a difficult thing to sustain.

That was largely how most of the continuity ones worked for us. You're right, having someone devoted to the project is the central foundation. That's why I suspected that part of the problem is that the people who ran quite a few of these stopped writing/posting to Lit. (RedHairedandFriendly was a prime motivator for quite a few)

@IWroteThis , you're right in that that's the most common concept behind chain stories in general. The irony behind those stories is that the lack of collaboration tends to create its own discontinuity as each author tries to pull the story in their own desired direction, only to have the next pull it back, or in another direction entirely.
That's why I listed the types which tended to get put in the Lit category. It kind of falls into "misconceptions" reason things don't get posted there these days. You're also not wrong that some (maybe even most) of what's there would actually be considered anthologies more than actual chain stories, however Lit doesn't have a category for that, and not everybody (reader or author alike) uses tags, so it was an easy way to show the connection.


At the same time, there have been a fair few threads recently asking about collaboration, so is there the potential interest in dredging the category back up from "dead" status?

 

[anthrodisiac]

Easiest is certainly established locale/world, maybe shared characters, but mostly siloed stories. I've been involved in long-form stories with chapters and characters written by up to 8 people, with almost no coordination, and almost everyone having main character syndrome, and it's just dreadful. Someone finally wrested "nope, it's my story, the rest of you are just support" and we kinda went along with it, but it petered out because most of us didn't really like being more and more cut out, and having more of the boring grunt work put on us, while the main guy was trying to hide the Big Plot Twists from us for some reason. So that kinda thing requires a good deal of plotting and planning, coordination, and agreement and good working relationships between all the participants. It just takes one bad apple to spoil the whole thing, so you need a handler.

The main thing is that, if you write serially, you have bottlenecks where somebody is supposed to write the next chapter, but they have their own projects they want to do or are in the middle of or are just more interesting to them, or other obligations, so you have to try to rearrange things to make it work. Lotta balls in the air, but doable, you just need a shared vision and passion, or at least a main person who can kinda step up and take the load if someone else is unable. But if you can get the people who really like the core project and work well together, you can have some really nifty art come out of it.

 

[StillStunned]

Easiest is certainly established locale/world, maybe shared characters, but mostly siloed stories. I've been involved in long-form stories with chapters and characters written by up to 8 people, with almost no coordination, and almost everyone having main character syndrome, and it's just dreadful. Someone finally wrested "nope, it's my story, the rest of you are just support" and we kinda went along with it, but it petered out because most of us didn't really like being more and more cut out, and having more of the boring grunt work put on us, while the main guy was trying to hide the Big Plot Twists from us for some reason. So that kinda thing requires a good deal of plotting and planning, coordination, and agreement and good working relationships between all the participants. It just takes one bad apple to spoil the whole thing, so you need a handler.

One of the principles of the City of Scum is that nobody gets to change the status quo. So someone might write about clearing the ghouls from the City, but they won't succeed. There could be a fire, but it won't destroy the City, or even the Neckless Nag. An attack on the Waterfront Widows won't wipe out the gang, and the Widow Queen at least will survive - or someone will take her place who's largely the same. And so on. No lasting upheavals.

 

[deathlynx]

One of the principles of the City of Scum is that nobody gets to change the status quo. So someone might write about clearing the ghouls from the City, but they won't succeed. There could be a fire, but it won't destroy the City, or even the Neckless Nag. An attack on the Waterfront Widows won't wipe out the gang, and the Widow Queen at least will survive - or someone will take her place who's largely the same. And so on. No lasting upheavals.

I believe this was actually what I was referring to when I mentioned the S&S thread. Did it actually get off the ground? I read the response in there about the one that @Voboy mentioned, but as it was dead it wasn't viable.

Type 2, common locale, is what I have an idea for. Like with City of Scum it would be a no-change the status quo in a single location. But that still lends for lots of diversity, which allows so many different author styles to participate, and get their feet wet in collab, if they've never done it before.

 

[StillStunned]

I believe this was actually what I was referring to when I mentioned the S&S thread. Did it actually get off the ground? I read the response in there about the one that @Voboy mentioned, but as it was dead it wasn't viable.

Type 2, common locale, is what I have an idea for. Like with City of Scum it would be a no-change the status quo in a single location. But that still lends for lots of diversity, which allows so many different author styles to participate, and get their feet wet in collab, if they've never done it before.

This is the thread discussing the City of Scum: A shared sword & sorcery setting: City of Scum. The stories are here.

I have a few WIPs that I still want to finish, and I know that @Areala-chan and @ShelbyDawn57 have unfinished stories still.

 

[Kumquatqueen]

This same question was mooted a couple years ago, and resulted in two groups of six brave authors each producing a story. One was more fantasy, the other mildly-kinky realism (Matchmaking for the Shy) - I wrote the end chapter of that one.

Our group discussed a general plot and where we would and wouldn't be happy for the story to go, and agreed an order,but mostly left it to the next writers to do what they wanted. Tying up as many loose ends as possible was a fascinating intellectual exercise and I'm glad I did it, even though Chain Stories doesn't get many readers.

 

[RejectReality]

I've had an idea kicking around for one for quite some time. But there's honestly not enough people I know or who know me nowadays who are into fantasy to even bother starting a thread. LOL

"Charmed" style witches with one central witch that ties everything together. Basically designed to work like Laresa where everyone has a lot of freedom early on, and we start really tying in the larger story later.

 

[deathlynx]

I've had an idea kicking around for one for quite some time. But there's honestly not enough people I know or who know me nowadays who are into fantasy to even bother starting a thread. LOL

"Charmed" style witches with one central witch that ties everything together. Basically designed to work like Laresa where everyone has a lot of freedom early on, and we start really tying in the larger story later.

Not everyone in Laresa were established, known, writers. And we frequently shifted things around a little in order to accommodate writers who discovered they weren't going to make it in time to fit there originally scheduled slot. Some of the writers had ideas which could slide around a bit to fill in gaps like that.