And Now For Something Completely Different?

[Captain Untouchable]

In the spirit of the whole TheHolo.net name change / broadening her horizons / etc, I had an idea for an experiment type thing that it might be interesting for us to try.

I know a few of us definitely do solo writing from time to time, whether that's our own novel projects, NaNoWriMo, fan fiction, or something else. It presents a very different challenge not just because you're writing it all on your own: you're also often having to write characters that you wouldn't necessarily choose to write in a roleplay, you're writing dynamics, interactions, and that sort of thing. Roleplaying is "acting with words", whereas writing on your own is more like being a director.

There's an added challenge if you're writing for TV or comic books, because often you aren't just writing an ensemble of your characters: you're sharing those characters with the other writers, you've got to respect the development and evolution they bring (and plot developments of course), and they in turn have to respect yours.

I thought that might be a fun thing for us to try: instead of each coming up with our own individual characters, we'd instead come up with the characters collectively and then do short story type chunks of adventure and activity for them. A TV / Expanded Universe novels type approach might make for some interesting Star Wars / Mutants / Star Trek prequels or spin-offs, where we establish a crew/team in a different time or place within the same continuity, and each have our turn at writing a story/episode/thing. Or, the comic approach might be fun, with some people writing a solo series for a particular character while other people are writing Avengers / Justice League type team-ups, and so heroes and villains are all getting shared between.

It might be an absolutely terrible idea that just doesn't jive with us at all... or it might wind up being really fun.

[Dasquian Belargic]

Intriguing. Did you have any thoughts for the first story/setting?

[Captain Untouchable]

Ultimately it depends on who wants to be involved and what they're interested in... but objectively I think DC would be the best setting to do first.

While we're putting our own spin on stuff, we're still doing variations of canon DC characters and canon settings, which means you don't need to be a Fans/Holo veteran to understand the significance of things, just vaguely familiar with DC... which'd make it easier for new people to join and such. Also, comic stories are told in small snippets anyway, so it's probably the least dissimilar to roleplaying. If it works / if lots of people are interested, we can always branch out into other settings.

As far as story/plot, a Gotham City where Batman has just died might work pretty well. There'd be the Bat Family coming to terms with it, and maybe Dick and Damian trying to step up as the new dynamic duo. Batwoman might be about the place disapproving because Dick & Damian aren't taking things seriously enough. Green Arrow might be in the mix because he wants to "take care of" his friend's family / city. The Birds of Prey might form/re-form to try and fill the power vacuum. There's a lot of magical/supernatural stuff going on in Gotham. There's the GCPD with a lot of potentially cool characters. Justice Leaguers might be there from time to time to see if there's anyone worthy of replacing Bats in the Justice League. We could each have our own little circles of characters that we write about, but those circles would overlap if, for example, Oliver Queen shows up to give Dick Grayson a pep talk, Batwoman shows up to catch the same crook that the Birds of Prey are chasing, etc.

[Dasquian Belargic]

Sounds like a cool concept

[Dick Grayson]

So.. let's do this?

[Green Arrow]

I'm about half-way through writing "Issue #1" of Green Arrow - should have it posted later today!

DC switched to the New 52 in 2011, so I'm assuming that this is all basically happening a year or so after the "New Earth" continuity left off. That way, everything that's on DC wiki and what-not happened, and we don't need to worry about thinking / working stuff out / etc. This means stuff like Green Arrow's "secret" identity is now a matter of public knowledge, Batman has already died once and been brought back to life (which might make people sceptical about believing he actually is dead), etc.

Hope that's okay/seems sensible.

Edit:

Scratch that. I'm finished, but I realised if I wait until tomorrow it will be posted on new comic book day.

[Dasquian Belargic]

Haha, good call

[Green Arrow]

So, problem.

My Issue #1 was too long for the character limit on blog postings. I did a redraft and rewrite, removed an entire scene... and it's still nearly 7,000 characters too long. I think the blog stuff may not be usable for this sort of thing... there's just not enough letters to right a decent chunk of anything.

We could do it in threads, but tbh I kinda liked the novelty of people being able to comment/etc if they wanted to, issue by issue and stuff.

[Dasquian Belargic]

If you make it a thread, we can always 'promote' it to an article

[Lilaena De'Ville]

Or maybe increase the character limit on blogs, I don't know but I would guess that it's an option.

[Green Arrow]

If you make it a thread, we can always 'promote' it to an article

I'll post it up in thread form just so it's there / readable, and we can play around with articles and stuff! I'm wondering if the "Blog this Post" button might be a sneaky work-around...

[Captain Untouchable]

Operation "Post on Wednesday" would probably go a lot smoother if I actually paid attention to what day of the week it is.

Want me to send you across a preview of Issue #1, Jenny? I have some bonus ideas and stuff too, but I'm too lazy to write them out in a PM yet.

[Dasquian Belargic]

Am I imagining that you posted this? I'm looking for a thread and can't find it! @_@

[Captain Untouchable]

Nope, I didn't in the end. I think I was planning to run something by you, and then I forgot, and now I've forgotten what the thing even was.

I'll try and catch you for schemes this weekend... and if it isn't up by Wednesday evening, nag me furiously.

[Dasquian Belargic]

Alright! I'm just lazing about the house all weekend

[Green Arrow]

It's still Wednesday in America. It still counts.

Green Arrow

Unfortunately, the "blog this post" option turns it into an abbreviated quote. I put it up as a post for now, since I'm not sure how Articles work. Also, I used the DC tag for now... that a good one to go with, or do we want to use a different one specifically for this continuity/thing/doodad?

Also... it looks/feels kinda weird as a post. I wrote "an issue's worth" of stuff, hence it having three scenes... but with it as a post instead of a not-post, it's just a giant wall of text. Should it be split into three? Should it have pictures? I dunno.