The project page is live. Go here and remember that if you have questions, you can post them in the discussion section. Let's get collaborating.
This was discussed on the Collaborative Writing Project page, but thought I'd make it clear as a thread. Since a non-contributor to the story nominated the story, Meet the Cast, for Pasta of the Month no story contributors may vote for it. This would give an unfair advantage above the other stories that were nominated since, possibly, all the contributing authors might vote for it and have an edge with the voting numbers. I apologize for putting this as a highlighted thread, but wanted to just let everyone know that. Hell, I love the way the story turned out, but can't vote for it either since I contributed to it. So that's that.
Edit: The story will be featured on the front page in place of "Teacher Wanted. Must Love Children".
Also, since I feel that the collaborative story was such a wonderful end product, I'd like to also use this thread to foster some discussion for the next collaborative story idea. Remember it's you, the community, that has to throw around ideas with this. After some time has passed, I will gather all results from you guys and make another vote thread for the next theme. I think this is the best way the community can voice what they want to see for the next one. I have had many non-contributors (from the last one) asking when the next one will be so they can add their parts. This is a pretty cool thing, folks. I encourage all budding talent/budding pros to give ideas for a central theme, then contribute.
Anyway, spill your brainwaves in the comments below and let's get the ball rolling for a new idea.
I'm pretty excited myself to see the weird journey the next one takes us on.
Cheers.
UPDATE: Polls will be opened this Friday. Please take the time to read though the options before voting and make any story suggestions you would like seen covered in the second collaborative writing project. Here are the current options:
1: There are suddenly a lot of really nice yet dirt cheap houses on offer in the same street. Several families/people move in, not knowing that there was a very good reason the old people moved out...
2: A post apocalyptic story where it does not rain. The rain is only provided by a either a series of trials some humans go through decided by Gods, titans, something supernatural (big, though). The humans do the trials and they receive rain for the next x amount of years experienced there.
3: A young adult (roughly 18) walks into a ghost town with little or no people in it & decides to explore. Then it switches between the stories of the town to the story of the boy between different intervals. Eventually all the stories link together & the last part of the story is the boy finding someone (or something) and then leaving it open ended.
4: Clarity Communications: Tales about its mysterious founder or board of directors. The advanced projects division and its attempts to weaponize ghosts. The company picnic from which no one returned alive. The middle manager having an affair with something not quite human. The offshore telemarketing service they offer where the costs are kept low by the staff being the undead, stolen from their graves and raised by a corporate houngan. The office block which disappeared due to the company's decision to build on a burial ground, using special generators to channel the energy from the dead to power the air conditioning. The frustrated, obsessive hacker who finally breaks into the company's main network support offices and discovers that the company 'servers' are the homeless with their brains exposed and wires erupting from the puffy meat like a drunken spider's web.
Or:
4: I had an idea for a story where there's a small town that's really a front for a secret government lab where they can do whatever illegal things they want. Each story would focus around experiments, the running of the facility, or an aspect of the town and it would be up to the author to decide what exactly would be going on. We could have all types of stories in there considering it would focus on the town and the facility e.i. documents, audio recordings, journal entries, or just plain narration. I think this'd be a cool way for authors to experiment with new story telling techniques and ideas that you don't see much on the main site.
5: How about a pre-apocalypse scenario involving a meteor or something that's going to destroy the earth? I think it'd be interesting to explore the psyches of a group of people from different backgrounds, countries, races, and religions all being confronted with the end of not only their existence, but that of the world itself.
6: Perhaps an odd man that travels from city to city, and in each place, he witnesses something horrific. Each event can be a stand alone story, but the presence of the strange man ties it all together in some form.
7: A group of college friends sitting around at a cabin telling horror stories, ghost stories and urban legends. Or... Something happens at the end. The writers can use real urban legends from their locale. Every town has its own legend/stories.
Final update for the page: We have a winner! Idea 5 has swept the competition and will be our theme for this collaborative project. I will be making a separate page March 29th with guidelines for posting.