Collaborative fiction ~ Sci Fi ~ "Infestation"

[C C]

CC..... I’m not in your league. I respectfully bow out. Where’s QQ contributions...he started this.

Heck, it's because of you and SS that I had to desperately crawl out from underneath my lazy rock. I'm a two or three shot act and then finished. Like Jimi Hendrix once said (paraphrasing), "I've got all these lyrics to songs I start and then I can't figure out how to finish them, or fill in the middle. Dylan knows how to complete something."

Don't disappear, or SS will have to carry the weight alone. Although QQ will probably return with both barrels blazing.

[Zinjanthropos]

CC..... I’m not in your league.  I respectfully bow out. Where’s QQ contributions...he started this.

Heck, it's because of you and SS that I had to desperately crawl out from underneath my lazy rock. I'm a two or three shot act and then finished. Like Jimi Hendrix once said (paraphrasing), "I've got all these lyrics to songs I start and then I can't figure out how to finish them, or fill in the middle. Dylan knows how to complete something."

Don't disappear, or SS will have to carry the weight alone. Although QQ will probably return with both barrels blazing.

I’m not a writer. Not much of a sci-fi reader either. Just show me the movie already.  Interestingly a neighbor few doors down is an author....should have consulted him first. 

Can someone kill the stowaway off? What I had intended was for Jarad to attend to a problem with a telescope they were placing on yonder mountain. When he starts working on it he notices the brand name R.A.S.T.U.S. on the instrument nameplate. He investigates further, the letters stand for Royal Astronomical Society Thames* University Science. I also had a very good reason why he wanted a sex change but I’ll keep it a secret.

*or whatever

I’m still out. I have this idea for a sci-fi story that might be worth a shot some day. Future moon colonists discover an underground chamber in which aliens have placed machines that anyone can use to actually observe Earth history, right from the beginning. Story would have religious implications as a central theme.

Never seen one of these internet collaborations come to fruition so maybe this will be the time. Good luck dudes.

[C C]

CC..... I’m not in your league.  I respectfully bow out. Where’s QQ contributions...he started this.

Heck, it's because of you and SS that I had to desperately crawl out from underneath my lazy rock. I'm a two or three shot act and then finished. Like Jimi Hendrix once said (paraphrasing), "I've got all these lyrics to songs I start and then I can't figure out how to finish them, or fill in the middle. Dylan knows how to complete something."

Don't disappear, or SS will have to carry the weight alone. Although QQ will probably return with both barrels blazing.

I’m not a writer. Not much of a sci-fi reader either. Just show me the movie already.  Interestingly a neighbor few doors down is an author....should have consulted him first. 

Can someone kill the stowaway off? What I had intended was for Jarad to attend to a problem with a telescope they were placing on yonder mountain. When he starts working on it he notices the brand name R.A.S.T.U.S. on the instrument nameplate. He investigates further, the letters stand for Royal Astronomical Society Thames* University Science. I also had a very good reason why he wanted a sex change but I’ll keep it a secret.

*or whatever

I’m still out.

If I understood QQ right in a later amending, there can be multiple alternative storylines going on here which don't have to be integrated with each other, like I tried to do in that one attempt the other day in a purist sense. So don't worry about any different routes that SS or I were taking interfering with your own version.

That's not to wholly dismiss a grand concept being conceived at the end that might be used to assimilate or tie all the approaches together without revising them severely, but it would surely take some extraordinary imaginative effort to pull that off.

If this "Franken Literature" experiment is ever tried again, what might be done is stipulate that each contributor only supply a passage until after everyone else has donated once during a cycle, or set a time limit of sorts (once a day or half a day?). That way it's more constrained to a single storyline developing rather than gradually branching off into the "many parallel worlds". But of course, that could also make it tediously slow in emerging... depending.

I have this idea for a sci-fi story that might be worth a shot some day. Future moon colonists discover an underground chamber in which aliens have placed machines that anyone can use to actually observe Earth history, right from the beginning. Story would have religious implications as a central theme.

Go for it. One good idea can pursued and completed. Just don't get bogged down by hundreds of others screaming for attention and undertaking at the same time, as would be the case with me.

Reminds me a tad of the device in Macroscope, although I barely remember the details of that old, re-published novel. It probably could not view the entire past of a world, even though the reference to being able to observe the whole "space-time continuum" up close makes it sound that way. "Macrons" were surely light-speed restricted, so only time-traveling observation across distances in that respect.

Never seen one of these internet collaborations come to fruition so maybe this will be the time. Good luck dudes.

With their much larger participations than this, they probably just do it generate a crop of ideas, anyway. Pick out the desirable mutations in the bunch and cross them together to get new breed of dog, chicken, or other livestock animal.

[Quantum Quack]

If I understood QQ right in a later amending, there can be multiple alternative storylines going on here which don't have to be integrated with each other, like I tried to do in that one attempt the other day in a purist sense. So don't worry about any different routes that SS or I were taking interfering with your own version.

That's not to wholly dismiss a grand concept being conceived at the end that might be used to assimilate or tie all the approaches together without revising them severely, but it would surely take some extraordinary imaginative effort to pull that off. 

If this "Franken Literature" experiment is ever tried again, what might be done is stipulate that each contributor only supply a passage until after everyone else has donated once during a cycle, or set a time limit of sorts (once a day or half a day?). That way it's more constrained to a single storyline developing rather than gradually branching off into the "many parallel worlds". But of course, that could also make it tediously slow in emerging... depending. 

hee hee... well ... I got lost about after the tenth subplot...

Normally a typical 400 page novel would have about 4 or so major subplots.... but what we have here is probably a 30000 page encyclopedia which will probably need a wiki  to decipher...
But this is all really cool I might add. I love how the members have demonstrated their creativity, collective connected-ness, intuitive collaborations and humor.
A "get to know you all" thread, perhaps.

• The reason for the no rules, no right or wrong principle is to allow creative freedom that is restrained only by the author and not any one else. This allows for usually better writing, or so I have found from experience...but it also leads to sometimes rather bewildering inputs... ( chuckle) a form of collective "brainstorming".
  
• The reasons for sci fi genre with a limitless galactic colonization/migration theme were many, but really it is about allowing maximum flexibility, and imagination.
  
• The only staring guide was the title (INFESTATION) and the initial Lake setting...introducing Jarad and his yet to be named partner.
  

This was my first thread to this forum, some of the members I know , some I don't. There is no way I was going to tell any one how they should creatively restrain themselves...any attempt at control would fail IMO.

But so far it has been a great success, even if it appears to have produced a complex labyrinth of great ideas and concepts.

As to putting it together in a sensible way, I am not all that confident it is possible with out arbitrarily excluding or heavily modifying someone else's ideas, potentially alienating that poster.

So I wont do that, not with my first thread topic... maybe the next one... hee hee.

Maybe INFESTATION can relate to ideas and concepts as well?

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The newly released "Another Life" on NETFLIX is amazing for it's diversity of ideas.... a sort of TV series thrown together just to show of the ideas but not decent writing or much else... lol
As Peter Hamilton, ( famous British Sci Fi Author) wrote on social media "Copper pipes in the FTL drive engine room with the Captain using an adjustable mechanics wrench was hilarious" or something to that effect...
...and it was and still is offering similar implausibilities...even after watching chapter 8 of the first season.

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CC

Go for it. One good idea can pursued and completed. Just don't get bogged down by hundreds of others screaming for attention and undertaking at the same time, as would be the case with me.

ahh
"The essence of writers block is not about the lack of ideas. It is typically the overwhelming number of ideas that all beg for immediate attention.." ~can't remember who

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sorry still trying to work out how this forum software is set up.... interesting posting format...

[Zinjanthropos]

I call bullshit whenever I see hee hee.

[Quantum Quack]

I call bullshit whenever I see hee hee.

Yeah ... well....collaborative writing is never easy.. keyword: collaborative.
Colluding with strangers
Russians even  

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It's bit like a painting of a man, a women and a dog going for walk, with the man being painted by the woman and the woman being painted by the man, with the dog being painted by both... every thing is fine until they paint the dog...then total chaos....

[Zinjanthropos]

I call bullshit whenever I see hee hee.

Yeah ... well....collaborative writing is never easy.. keyword: collaborative.
Colluding with strangers
Russians even  

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It's bit like a painting of a man, a women and a dog going for walk, with the man being painted by the woman and the woman being painted by the man, with the dog being painted by both... every thing is fine until they paint the dog...then total chaos....

Well .... what is it then? Chaos or a beautiful thing? You’re saying both? How convenient. 

You started a thread that got out of control, happens a lot in a forum, but don’t make it seem like you conducted some fantastic psychological experiment to stimulate our creative juices just to cover up the failure. Just an observation, I’m not a mind reader nor lab rat.

Hee hee.

[Quantum Quack]

I call bullshit whenever I see hee hee.

Yeah ... well....collaborative writing is never easy.. keyword: collaborative.
Colluding with strangers
Russians even  

---

It's bit like a painting of a man, a women and a dog going for walk, with the man being painted by the woman and the woman being painted by the man, with the dog being painted by both... every thing is fine until they paint the dog...then total chaos....

Well .... what is it then? Chaos or a beautiful thing? You’re saying both? How convenient. 

You started a thread that got out of control, happens a lot in a forum, but don’t make it seem like you conducted some fantastic psychological experiment to stimulate our creative juices just to cover up the failure. Just an observation, I’m not a mind reader nor lab rat.

Hee hee.

Why do you think it was a failure?

[Leigha]

I don't consider it a failure, and I believe CC should be writing for Asimov's Sci fi publication.

When I was into The Walking Dead a couple of years ago, I joined a small forum that was to discuss the show and they had different threads like this, with various story arcs. (The arcs were to be spins based on The Walking Dead.) The challenge was that one or two people ended up ''steering'' the story, and several decent contributions got overlooked. Another thing I recall happening, was that it became not so fun, like it was just supposed to be a fun collaborative group story. Some took it way too seriously. It's not anyone's fault, but it's just the way threads like this go, sometimes. Eventually, many of us stopped contributing, and the story fizzled out because the main story writers didn't like being the only ones. lol Forums, funny and fickle, sometimes.

I like the ideas presented here, so far.

[Quantum Quack]

I don't consider it a failure, and I believe CC should be writing for Asimov's Sci fi publication.

When I was into The Walking Dead a couple of years ago, I joined a small forum that was to discuss the show and they had different threads like this, with various story arcs. (The arcs were to be spins based on The Walking Dead.) The challenge was that one or two people ended up ''steering'' the story, and several decent contributions got overlooked. Another thing I recall happening, was that it became not so fun, like it was just supposed to be a fun collaborative group story. Some took it way too seriously. It's not anyone's fault, but it's just the way threads like this go, sometimes. Eventually, many of us stopped contributing, and the story fizzled out because the main story writers didn't like being the only ones. lol Forums, funny and fickle, sometimes.

I like the ideas presented here, so far.

If there was a like button, i'd  click it....