Where My Fiction Writers At?

By Kade
Los Angeles, California
January 16, 2022 1:04am CST
I hosted a writer/editor forum once for a few years and we used to do this activity to spark creative writing. One person would post just the beginning of a story and anyone could reply with the next few paragraphs. Then more people could reply on those replies and we'd wind up with like five different stories all spawning from the same original starter post. We called these Round Robin stories. Do we have any creative writers on here who would like to try that out?
8 people like this
7 responses
• United States
16 Jan 22
That was common here 15 years ago. It became difficult when overlapping comments made it hard to know which storyline to follow. Those discussions were usually deleted by admin for violating guidelines. But like DE said, it's been a long time since I've seen one here. Since it's a slower pace here now, it might work.
5 people like this
• United States
16 Jan 22
@akruser13 I couldn't say which guideline was broken, only that it violated guidelines. Maybe it fell under polls. Maybe because there was no actual question for discussion. Just a guess. We were never told. Poof. Just gone lol. We played games like Jeopardy and Scavenger Hunt in other temporary discussions. I'd be curious to see if they're still a violation. I suspect they are.
2 people like this
@lovebuglena (44504)
• Staten Island, New York
16 Jan 22
What guidelines did they violate?
2 people like this
• Los Angeles, California
16 Jan 22
Oh, what guidelines were being violated? I know you can't post anything super adult rated and no copyright infringement obviously. Was there anything else in particular with these types of posts that I should be watching for?
1 person likes this
@DaddyEvil (137257)
• United States
16 Jan 22
Back when I started here seven years ago people wrote stories like that but I haven't seen anything like that in a very long time.
3 people like this
• Los Angeles, California
16 Jan 22
It was always a lot of fun when I did it before. Maybe we can get it up and running again. It's great practice and a fantastic way to shake off writer's block when you're stuck in your own stories.
1 person likes this
@DaddyEvil (137257)
• United States
16 Jan 22
@akruser13 I don't write stories. I edit them.
@DaddyEvil (137257)
• United States
16 Jan 22
@akruser13 I started out helping authors on Wattpad and turned into a sideline for me in real life. I get clients through word-of-mouth and help them clean up and polish their manuscript.
@ElicBxn (63594)
• United States
26 Jan 22
I look at those round robin stories, but I've never seen one that sparks my interest. There is currently one started on the Lady Geeks group here in town...
• Los Angeles, California
26 Jan 22
I like the unpredictability of them. It's like getting a grab bag from a store. You could wind up with gold or something less interesting but it's yours now to do what you want with it.
1 person likes this
@ElicBxn (63594)
• United States
26 Jan 22
@akruser13 I guess I'm too much of a control freak. Now, a long time ago a member, who recently passed away, did something like it. However, I think she and I on my thread, did exactly what she wished it would be. There weren't any overlapping threads since each respondent stayed in their own thing.
I don't know how many of you are into 'role-playing' in other type of forums...I happen to be a member of the Lord of the Rings Fanatic Plaza where one can join...
• Los Angeles, California
26 Jan 22
@ElicBxn Mhm, I wanted to do something like this. If you look at the other comments on this thread you'll see that the admin popped in directly to say we aren't allowed to do these anymore. The comments under a post have to be actual discussion comments, not fictional additions to a story. I think we can maybe swing it if we do a hybrid of both? Like a responder has to give actual input about the story or the bit they're adding to before tacking on their next portion of the story? Idk. I stepped back on the subject for a little bit because I'm new to myLot and didn't want to get in trouble before I even really got started.
1 person likes this
@jstory07 (139579)
• Roseburg, Oregon
16 Jan 22
You might try it to see what will happen.
1 person likes this
• Los Angeles, California
16 Jan 22
I think I will! If it flops it's not like anything was lost. It could be really fun though if it works!
@arunima25 (87770)
• Bangalore, India
16 Jan 22
Sounds interesting! I have not seen anything like that here since I joined the site four years back. Many might be interested.
1 person likes this
@arunima25 (87770)
• Bangalore, India
16 Jan 22
@akruser13 I think many would be willing. I have never done anything like that but I might like it too. It sounds fun
1 person likes this
• Los Angeles, California
16 Jan 22
I'm trying to see if some of my other writer friends will join and then maybe it'll take off, but I'm hoping at least a few folks who are already here will be interested enough to keep something going.
1 person likes this
@soymex (1097)
• Glasgow, Scotland
16 Jan 22
I tried something like that, you have to be born with these skills!
1 person likes this
@soymex (1097)
• Glasgow, Scotland
16 Jan 22
@akruser13 It's a site, simily.com, where you can write all kinds of stories and stories! I also posted two articles there! Many of the creators there are true writers, and you read their posts with great pleasure. I tried to be inspired by them.
• Los Angeles, California
17 Jan 22
@soymex Hahaha! It was on the Simily groups that I discovered you guys over here! I'm definitely going to post stuff there too, but I really like collaborating with people. This seemed like it should be a good place to do that, but idk. We'll have to see if we can make it work within the guidelines.
1 person likes this
• Los Angeles, California
16 Jan 22
Well now there's another person right here who wants to try it, so that at least makes two of us!
1 person likes this
@Kouponkaren (5503)
• United States
17 Jan 22
From reading the responses, it doesn't look like it may work here, but it wouldn't work for me anyway because I write purely non-fiction stuff. Maybe you could try it on Facebook? Your FB friends could write comments on under the other so it would read like a story?
• Los Angeles, California
17 Jan 22
Oh gosh, no. I hate Facebook lol. I barely use it. I mean I'm on Discord a lot and we do creative things on Twitter, it's not like I'm not aware of other places we can do this. I just thought it would be cool to do something like that here too.