About social novel writing

This is a social experiment that allows a community of creative people to collaborate on the creation of a new novel. You tell me what you want to have happen. I bring your ideas to life through the written word.

Why I'm doing this:

I started writing as a teenager because the stories I wanted to read didn't exist yet. Since then, I've met so many creative people who are burning with ideas for stories, characters, and settings, but who lack the time or writing skills to bring their ideas to life. This blog is for you. Let's create the stories you want to read.

The mechanics of social novel writing:

To start a novel, we need a basic premise, a setting, and a few characters. From there, the process will be very organic with all aspects of the story evolving as you give me suggestions and feedback after each scene.

On your end, this is simple: post comments with your ideas about characters, setting, and plot line, what you think should happen next, how you think the novel should end, etc.

My end is far more complex. Based on your initial suggestions, I'll create a bare-bones skeleton of how I think the novel will progress. Naturally, this outline will change over time, but a writer needs at least an idea of where a novel is headed in order to create intrigue, incorporate important elements for later use, and to keep the story from meandering off into nonsensical tangents. I'll also be incorporating many different ideas into one novel. By necessity, I am always the final arbitrator of what goes into the story. Please don't be offended if I don't use something - some ideas simply won't fit into the story. Hopefully we'll be able to use them in the next novel.

Let the experiment begin.