and you may contribute a 'verse

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and you may contribute a 'verse Sherlock Holmes Guy Fri Jun 17 00:45:38 2011 No.1856280 [Reply] [Original]

Why hasn't /lit/ developed something akin to the Holder series? (http://theholders.org/))

I don't mean a single work, but rather an ambiguous universe into which we all pour our own narratives in attempts to explore, define, and disfigure its boundaries? Has this been done?

>>	Anonymous Fri Jun 17 00:57:38 2011 No.1856296 File: 9 KB, 480x360, 0.jpg [View same] [iqdb] [saucenao] [google] >>1856280 No, but it would be interesting. How do we get started?

>>	Anonymous Fri Jun 17 00:58:38 2011 No.1856299 I support this idea.

>>	Anonymous Fri Jun 17 00:59:38 2011 No.1856303 >>1856280 I'd be up for it.

>>	Anonymous Fri Jun 17 01:03:38 2011 No.1856309 File: 15 KB, 210x270, 25325.jpg [View same] [iqdb] [saucenao] [google]

>>	Anonymous Fri Jun 17 01:05:38 2011 No.1856315 oh jesus, is this shit still going around on /x/?

>>	Anonymous Fri Jun 17 01:08:38 2011 No.1856320 I dig this. Someone get it started.

>>	Anonymous Fri Jun 17 01:13:38 2011 No.1856335 The Holders thing looks pretty bad. If /lit/ attempted something similar it might be okay. But what device could be used to link a series of stories together that isn't incredibly lame and cheesy?

Sherlock Holmes Guy Fri Jun 17 01:17:38 2011 No.1856339

>>1856296
Well, I imagine that we'd begin with an original work by some Anon, or choose a work that already exists somewhere by anyone else, and use it as our point of germination. Maybe a poem would be a good seed, since poems tend to be short and open-ended (oh, exploitable) little licks

I'm in favor of the idea of raping existent literature and pop culture for a stock of characters, stealing and transforming oedipus, Lancelot, Joan of arc, and frankenstein's monster for our own devices, so as to tie everything in to the "real" world, as a mythology of sorts, though that threatens to become terrible fanfiction

Anonymous Fri Jun 17 01:18:38 2011 No.1856343

>>1856335
Just the universe. I imagine it would expand to something like the Marvel and DC universes, where only the good stuff is considered canon and the tripe is ignored. People would borrow characters from each other, and it could end up really cool.

/x/ is just /lit/ with creative content, we can do this.

Sherlock Holmes Guy Fri Jun 17 01:23:38 2011 No.1856352

>>1856335
>But what device could be used to link a series of stories together that isn't incredibly lame and cheesy?

Whatever glue it is that holds "Greek mythology" or "the English language" together as a unit, despite not really being one

ah, a much clearer explanation: >>1856343

Anonymous Fri Jun 17 01:33:38 2011 No.1856369

>>1856352
>>1856343
After considering what was said in these two posts about DC Comics and Greek Mythology I think this might be able to work. Someone just write a story and everyone else extrapolate and expand (borrowing characters and locations). I feel like this will be loosely organized and no one will ever agree on a canon. Half the stories will be quite terrible, but it's all for fun right?

Anonymous Fri Jun 17 01:34:38 2011 No.1856372

The holders were one of /x/'s more interesting creepypastas for a while, but by the time they were organized and expanded, they already kind of sucked.

A much better system was used by the SCP foundation wiki:
http://scp-wiki.wikidot.com/scp-library
Even so, that wiki is infested with X-files and Dr. Who references. To my mind, any collective literary effort will be disappointing precisely because it lacks a centralized vision and executive oversight.

>>	Sherlock Holmes Guy Fri Jun 17 01:38:15 2011 No.1856380 How about we begin with a character or two. This may take a while, haha.

Anonymous Fri Jun 17 01:59:38 2011 No.1856435

The 'Estuaryum', they call it, blunting all their flowery Latinisms with a savage foreign accent. This is how the people down by the creek refer to their foggy coastal home.

[If we get started, I think I shall go anon from here, because the spirit of this sort of thing lies in anonymity, I think, at least in its preliminary stages.]

>>	Anonymous Fri Jun 17 02:06:38 2011 No.1856453 >>1856369 >Half the stories will be quite terrible, but it's all for fun right? Precisely. Fun, for most of us, and experiment for those who have a more dedicated storytelling bent

>>	Metacock Fri Jun 17 02:07:38 2011 No.1856455 Wouldn't it be really meta if /lit/ wrote a series of short stories that took place in the real universe?

>>	Anonymous Fri Jun 17 02:08:38 2011 No.1856459 File: 3 KB, 94x94, awesome.jpg [View same] [iqdb] [saucenao] [google] >>1856455 Try it and see

>>	Metacock Fri Jun 17 02:10:38 2011 No.1856461 >>1856459 I will begin work on a story about my own experience in the world, and everyone do the same.

Anonymous Fri Jun 17 02:11:38 2011 No.1856465

Oh god - what if...we start with a single story (could be about anything, whatever), but it has to involve more than one character.

And the writer after the first would expand a story revolving around the previous secondary character, including more characters to expand onward.

OH GOOOD.

>>	Anonymous Fri Jun 17 02:21:38 2011 No.1856488 ITT: everyone suggests that someone else writes something before them.

>>	Anonymous Fri Jun 17 02:29:38 2011 No.1856507 >>1856488 pretty much. It'll just be a shitstorm of "What a terrible idea, you're ruining everything faggot". There's no way this won't end in tears.

>>	Anonymous Fri Jun 17 02:35:38 2011 No.1856517 >>1856465 "Antony?" Cheek and ear pivoted, and Antony grunted acknowledgement over his shoulder in Valeria's direction. Valeria sidled up to him. "Who all should we invite, you think?"

>>	Anonymous Fri Jun 17 02:38:38 2011 No.1856523 >>1856372 In fairness, I think it would be hard to avoid X-files references, and there aren't that many Doctor Who ones.

Anonymous Fri Jun 17 02:39:38 2011 No.1856526

>>1856507
>"What a terrible idea, you're ruining everything faggot"

Someone inspired to say a thing like that should instead take the offending idea and transform it into something they approve of, then offer it up, without asking for critique. Ideas are "approved of" by being imitated and repeated, fleshed out, and stolen.

Anonymous Fri Jun 17 02:49:38 2011 No.1856547

>>1856526
We've got to enter this with an inclusive, cooperative, playful attitude. Begin with a massive lump of clay, cut away the imperfections, reveal the sculpture within. It's a game, and one that I hope is not too dissimilar from the creation of language so that I can use it as an analogy. Not everything jibbered by the mouth man is golden, and yet man is continuously, compulsively jibbering. People are not usually aware that they are contributing to a 'work' (the living language), and yet they are forever renewing and expanding it, responding, riffing, reshaping. To what end? We don't know. Will it ever be finished? We don't know. And does the first instance of its manifestation (that is, the first "meaningful" utterances of man) seem to matter all that much in our daily application of its current form? Not really.

I don't mean to ramble, but perhaps you see what I am getting at? It's a little experiment.

>>	Anonymous Fri Jun 17 03:16:38 2011 No.1856582 >>1856547 This. If we want to make something and have fun and be creative, we're all also going to have to get off our collective judgemental ass.

>>	Anonymous Fri Jun 17 03:24:38 2011 No.1856589 There once was a man named Nazeer Who found himself frozen with fear he took up his pen then dropped it again cursing his loathsome career

>>	Anonymous Fri Jun 17 03:27:38 2011 No.1856596 So how did /x/ get theirs started? Who can make such a website?

Anonymous Fri Jun 17 03:33:38 2011 No.1856606

>>1856596
They didn't get it started as purposefully as this has begun; it started on it its own because someone wrote a few Holder tales and they caught on, and people began writing them (IIRC). They were eventually collected, and people continued to expand them thereafter. I'd rather not give the impression that there should be a discernible beginning or end to this potential project of /lit/'s, but I really didn't know how to get such a thing rolling without being blunt about it, as I'm not a very compelling storyteller myself. So, in that way I've committed a great boo-boo. but perhaps it can be salvaged by (somewhat) faking an organic start (it's not really 'faking', but we'll have to tone down our desires to achieve a purpose beyond "fun" for now, IMO).

>>	Anonymous Fri Jun 17 03:35:38 2011 No.1856608 >>1856606 the website wasn't always around, i failed to mention that. The tales would just be posted occasionally on /x/, with a new one cropping up every so often (including parodies).

Anonymous Fri Jun 17 03:38:38 2011 No.1856613

>>1856606
I see. I just read the Holders guide, and it is about 538 objects that people have, and need to keep them separated. This is how the collaboration comes in.

Maybe ours should have a definite starting point. For some reason my mind keeps going back to Lovecraft and Gaiman and old gods and new gods. There are enough of them to write about without pissing on somebody else's lawn, and lends itself to collaboration.

Is there any feasible way to not make this a sci fi thing?

Anonymous Fri Jun 17 03:43:38 2011 No.1856618

>>1856613
>Is there any feasible way to not make this a sci fi thing?

I don't know, but there is a way to find out. Get writin'

And sci fi ain't so bad, nor is pulp horror. There is something they both drive at that people find compelling. Perhaps we shall discover what that is.

Don't be afraid of "breaking" whatever narrative we begin to weave. Your story is never officially in or out of the canon.

>>	Anonymous Fri Jun 17 03:47:38 2011 No.1856623 >>1856618 >something both sci fi and pulp horror drive at that people find compelling Do you think that might be the fear of the unknown? I don't think we need to discover this.

>>	Anonymous Fri Jun 17 03:49:38 2011 No.1856624 We should make the Cthulhu mythos, without Cthulhu. Nothing is explicitly stated, just hinted at. Spooks me right the fuck out.

Anonymous Fri Jun 17 03:51:38 2011 No.1856626

>>1856613
I think there is. All there needs to be is a strong, interesting overarching motif/theme, like the objects in the Holder series. That's easier said than done, especially since fantastic elements are easier to write due to their disconnection from us and the resulting unrestrained possibilities of elements within the formula, but I would think it's possible if someone has a good place to start.

Anonymous Fri Jun 17 03:54:38 2011 No.1856628

>>1856626
I'm not saying that sci fi is a bad thing, I'd love to make this a sci fi/horror thingy, but I mean it would be near impossible to do this without the relative ridiculous freedom that sci fi offers.

So should we start writing, and make a blogger network or something?

>>	Anonymous Fri Jun 17 04:00:38 2011 No.1856638 >>1856628 Yes.

>>	Anonymous Fri Jun 17 04:00:45 2011 No.1856639 And Nazeer was an ambitious man Who envisioned the stars in his hands and o, how they gleamed at night while he dreamed the day yielding nothing but clams

>>	Anonymous Fri Jun 17 04:02:38 2011 No.1856641 File: 11 KB, 264x282, 1288750165081.jpg [View same] [iqdb] [saucenao] [google] >>1856624 >Nothing is explicitly stated, just hinted at. Spooks me right the fuck out. absence is the highest form of presence

Anonymous Fri Jun 17 04:09:38 2011 No.1856649

>>1856628
>So should we start writing, and make a blogger network or something?

Since /lit/ is very slow, let's keep it to a thread for now. Don't want to spread ourselves too thin, although i do like the idea of a blog network. A thread here creates a somewhat linear atmosphere, a blog network creates more of a frenzy of loose association. we'll see, as things develop. write, write

Anonymous Fri Jun 17 04:23:38 2011 No.1856662

>>1856628
No, I didn't think that you were necessarily saying that either. Perhaps there should be some sort of overarching theme that doesn't restrict writers by genre. Borrowing from Ovid, transformations might be a good theme since it doesn't railroad writers into a single genre that maybe some of the writers don't like (thus diminishing the total content).

The only thing is that an idea by itself is too bland. If one were to use my example, the theme would need a motif or symbol or something else to centralize the stories, otherwise they would become just a bunch of disconnected stories with similar general thematic elements. Also, it's too vague to help the writers form the story (as it essentially forces each person to write from scratch the central elements of the story, unlike the Holder series which gives them elements to work from).

We should probably just start writing and throwing ideas out there (though the former is more needed than the latter). A blogger network would be a good idea, but only if it's centralized around a number of people who are willing to promote the idea on /lit/ and what not, and probably only after everyone knows exactly what this thing is about and there are people who are interested in it enough to preserve the idea. Without that, this is destined to fail.

>>	Anonymous Fri Jun 17 04:24:38 2011 No.1856663 >>1856641 Image plus statement made me lol uncontrollably at four thirty in the morning, bothering neighbors and birds.

>>	Anonymous Fri Jun 17 04:29:38 2011 No.1856672 Maybe establishing a central locale, like a major city with some kind of defining characteristic, and then populating it with characters who live under whatever characteristic we assign said city would be a good jump off point.

Anonymous Fri Jun 17 04:32:38 2011 No.1856674

Just a slag heap idea for this proposed project....

It is one that I have been working towards for a while.

A collection of short stories. Based on earth. Three settings, before, during and after and appoclyse.

This leaves alot of open space for people who want to write in dfferent styles.

ie:after the apocylse, the communities of the world would be disconnected. Some mutated through radiation, some as we know now but obviously stepped back technologically.

During the apocypse: lots of room for action and stories in the shadow of doom.. blah blah blah.

Before the appocypse: societal critisism and other shit...

Plenty of scope for different stories with different themes in different styles.

Hardest thing will be coordinating geography so two contradicting things are not happening in the same place and time.

>>	Anonymous Fri Jun 17 04:36:38 2011 No.1856677 >>1856674 ps. IMPORTANT that the way the appocolypse happen is never revealed.

>>	Anonymous Fri Jun 17 04:57:38 2011 No.1856694 bump for interest....

Anonymous Fri Jun 17 04:58:38 2011 No.1856696

>>1856677
>>1856674
Reminds me of The Road (yea you can call McCarthy shit I won't get mad). Like everything was very vague in terms of the specifics of the geography and the apocalypse. A story about some travelers. My point is post-apocalyptic can get cliched, but if you keep it simple you can tell a good story in that setting.

>>	Anonymous Fri Jun 17 05:03:38 2011 No.1856703 >>1856696 Nah loved The Road. point was think it is both specific and vague enough for a community writing project

>>	Anonymous Fri Jun 17 05:08:38 2011 No.1856709 >>1856674 I'd love to do this.

Anonymous Fri Jun 17 05:11:38 2011 No.1856711

>>1856703
I like the idea because of the focus on a specific event with the before, during, and after approach. The before could be anything that somewhat realistically reflects modern life. Anons that aren't comfortable with the apocalypse thing don't have to worry about it too much with this framing. And if you want to write about some crazy adventures you can do During or After.
It might be necessary to avoid doing (too many or too detailed) During stories if we are to never reveal how this disaster happened.

Anonymous Fri Jun 17 05:14:38 2011 No.1856714

>>1856703
I actually think it's too vague, you could fit nearly anything in the current world under it; stories will be too loose and we won't get 'that feel' of resemblence ala The Holders. It needs some sort of solid unifier, like some fictional/real city where it all goes down.

>>	Anonymous Fri Jun 17 05:17:38 2011 No.1856717 >>1856711 >>1856709 But how do we get this shit rocking? Someanon mentioned earlier>>1856662 about getting a blog or something intitiated with a core group. But how the fuck do we organise anon?

Anonymous Fri Jun 17 05:20:38 2011 No.1856719

>>1856714

You are right. Maybe the scope needs to be narrowed.

Maybe still revolving around the event but focused on specific locations as a starting point. One before, one during, one after.

Or maybe just focusing on during and expanding time in either direction as the project progresses

Anonymous Fri Jun 17 05:21:38 2011 No.1856721

>>1856674
I think this is a decent starting point. I agree with >>1856714 in that it's still too vague however. It needs a decent starting point, a central motif or overarching idea to tie all of the pieces together otherwise it's going to be a bunch of disconnected stories, as I mentioned in >>1856662. Your idea is a better starting point than my example though.

Anonymous Fri Jun 17 05:21:38 2011 No.1856722

>>1856714

A sleazy town akin to Vegas.

Then a city which was formerly akin to Vegas, but is now overgrown with trees and shit. Far enough into the future to not have to worry about things like dead bodies littering the streets but not too far. Maybe a year or two has passed?

People still live there but are oblivious to anything happening outside the city. There's no power.

Am I getting too /x/y?

>>	Anonymous Fri Jun 17 05:26:38 2011 No.1856730 >>1856722 I honestly don't understand what you're talking about. >Dead bodies >Overgrown with trees Explain your idea, I'd like to hear more of it.

>>	Anonymous Fri Jun 17 05:30:38 2011 No.1856735 >>1856721 >>1856721 Maybe referances to the date of the happening could be a tying factor. Like our BC, AD.... >>1856722 The vegas thing I like because it is a city with enough vibrancy to give numerous diferent stories.

Anonymous Fri Jun 17 05:32:38 2011 No.1856739

I think a specific end to the world would be a good unifier. Although how the world came to end is known (say a short lasting neurotoxic gas covers the world, starting in Vegas, and only those in planes at the time survive) the reasons for the end are not.

Anonymous Fri Jun 17 05:33:38 2011 No.1856741

>>1856730

Well I was trying to envision a setting and scenario in which we could base our stories. As you said, a "fictional/real city where it all goes down."

There could be a before, during and after version of one city or even a different locale for each period.

>>	Anonymous Fri Jun 17 05:35:38 2011 No.1856745 >>1856741 I'm not the one that said "a specific city". What you said was pretty clear, I just didn't read it right. I feel like a failure.

>>	Anonymous Fri Jun 17 05:38:39 2011 No.1856750 >>1856739 This could be good.

>>	Anonymous Fri Jun 17 05:44:38 2011 No.1856753 >>1856739 Hummmmmm kind of agree kind of don't. Maybe the initial city could be inundated with nerve gas. However I don't think that worldwide is so good. This gives the option to explore different scenarios in different cities.

Anonymous Fri Jun 17 05:52:38 2011 No.1856757

>>1856753

Maybe a plague?

This opens up a whole barrel of possibilities. i.e., what it's like being sick, what it's like having sick loved ones and caring for them at the risk of becoming infected yourself, how the more or less altruistically inclined react to the situation - looting or helping others - etc.

>>	Anonymous Fri Jun 17 05:56:38 2011 No.1856762 >>1856757 >>1856757 Like this, kind of like 12 monkies.

>>	Anonymous Fri Jun 17 06:17:38 2011 No.1856777 So in the truest meaning of the question.... where to from here?

Anonymous Fri Jun 17 06:30:38 2011 No.1856787

>>1856777
Someone should try to write something. I'm thinking about it myself, but I hate to write something that's more a piece in the context of the setting rather than fleshing out more of the setting. I may try it anyway and see how it goes though it's probably better if everyone tries to write something rather than wait for someone else to start for them or wait endlessly for others to hash out the setting completely. It's only through writing that the setting can truly be realized--else it's not a narrative, only mere talk of a possibility.

>>	Anonymous Fri Jun 17 06:31:38 2011 No.1856789 >>1856777 Start making a world

>>	Anonymous Fri Jun 17 06:38:38 2011 No.1856793 >>1856789 >>1856787 How do we cooridnate? Maybe keep this thread alive for the next week. Post on here than hopefully some hero will come along and provide a permenant home

>>	Anonymous Fri Jun 17 06:46:38 2011 No.1856810 >>1856793 seems like the only option for now

>>	Anonymous Fri Jun 17 06:53:38 2011 No.1856816 >>1856810 Write write humble anon. we shall destroy the world and bulid it again. I will be back in a day with something.

Anonymous Fri Jun 17 06:53:38 2011 No.1856817

>>1856793
Yeah, that'll probably be good enough. I guess whoever else wants to contribute to the setting will contribute and someone can bump if necessary. I'll try to write something up and hopefully it'll be halfway decent (and add more details to the setting).

Anonymous Fri Jun 17 07:42:38 2011 No.1856848

I tried to write some post apocalyptic journal entry but it came out one of the worst things I've ever written. I'll probably delete this in a few minutes because of how embarassingly bad it is.

Las Vegas is no place for children. I discovered this at the vulnerable age of 6, clinging to my mother's arm, trying not to
be lost among the greasy perverts and their cigar smoke encrusted clothing.

Lying here at 22 I am surrounded by a much different environment, though it feels equally innapropriate. Where once was
hedonism, now mourning. Where once was merriment, now death. No solice can be found in hotel rooms and
just-cleaned sheets. My good friend Johnathan stands beside me, almost certainly the last I'll make.
Never have I know someone to put my needs before their own as he does. I am in a state to be quarantined.
He knows, but continues to dress my soars and bring me meals in bed as if I were only coming down with a flu.
Others aren't so lucky I imagine.

Today I saw a woman leave her child asleep on the sidewalk outside my window. Las Vegas is no place for children.

>>	Anonymous Fri Jun 17 07:47:38 2011 No.1856852 >>1856848 that's not to bad

>>	Anonymous Fri Jun 17 07:51:38 2011 No.1856855 >>1856848 No, it's OK. A few typos here and there, and it needs more showing and less telling, but I've read worse on this board (and the central idea could be compelling if written in the right way). If your standards are higher, just keep writing.

>>	Anonymous Fri Jun 17 07:52:38 2011 No.1856860 >>1856852 Thanks, I just feel like it's really cliched and melodramatic. I'll try again tomorrow if this thread's still going.

>>	Anonymous Fri Jun 17 08:02:38 2011 No.1856866 >>1856848 The first brave contributer. This isn't too bad.

Anonymous Fri Jun 17 09:28:38 2011 No.1856930

A unifying factor could also be some character types. To borrow from a book I am reading:

"1 the villain
2 the donor (provider)
3 the helper
4 the princess (a sought-for person) and her father
5 the dispatcher
6 the hero
7 the false hero

"In a specific fairy tale, one character may be involved in several spheres of action, and several characters may be involved in the same sphere of action. "

Characters can be a strong basis for a series, like Sherlock Holmes and Conan the Barbarian. But if we do not wish to restrict all of ourselves to certain individuals, we may instead focus on certain archetypes.

I do like the before, during, after idea.

A friend and I have been kicking around an 'apocalyptic' idea for years and still never gotten anything on paper, hah. It's fun to talk about, though!

I also like the mention of a plague.

Anonymous Fri Jun 17 09:47:38 2011 No.1856959

>>1856930

Good old apocalypse the ultimate definition of all authors need to be god.

I like the charecter ideas. I would hope that charecters would naturall portray these traits... be rounded... (nieve?)

I like the idea in this scenario of normality twisted. Normal people having to change behaviour to adapt.

However.

More action packed stories with forerunning charecters would be good too... Every society needs (anti)heroes

Anonymous Fri Jun 17 09:58:38 2011 No.1856971

Leonardo Nazir found himself in the unusual position of being confronted with a tiger in a revolving door. It didn't occur to him to step out of the door, nor did it occur to him that the animal might step out of the door and wait for him to come around. Pursued in such a manner, ploddingly round and round by a zoo animal, Leo felt himself part of an absurd and unnerving carousel ride. The worst of it was his inability to reason a way out. He did not think to attract the attention of a passer-by, and had he thought of it, he would have flushed hot with embarrassment at his circumstances and been unable to explain their origin to the stranger. The stranger would have tried to help, and then would surely have been mauled and devoured by the ravenous beast. Leo didn't consciously imagine this scenario, but the fear of it bubbled in his veins and beneath his skin nonetheless. He felt distinctly isolated in this problem. Lacking any other way out, he ceased his forward shuffle and turned to face the creature.

Anonymous Fri Jun 17 10:14:38 2011 No.1857003

It was that year when the clock shattered against the bedrock and our dillusions of humanity ended for good. All of us left after that disaster had been reduced to beasts with only a passing resemblance to what we were before.

Everyone still alive has a story to tell from those days. Me and my father hid in the city for as long as we could, going from one looted and abandoned house to the next. Sometimes they had corpses, putrid and busted to bits and pieces strewn across the carpets, once red I imagined but since turned dirty brown as the blood had dried long before we arrived.

"This is a world of scavengers," my father told me as he threw more blankets over the corpse of a young girl lying face-up in bed, still clenching a stuffed bear between her arms as if it could've protected her from the bullets of killers. We had to chase their old dogs out of the house since they'd begun chewing on what was left of their former masters. We had too much mercy left in us to kill them outright, and we could understand why they did it. What's dead meat to a starving dog anyway?

If history's anything to go by, nothing at all.

i am a noob-ass writer Anonymous Fri Jun 17 10:20:38 2011 No.1857009

>>1856971
"Why are you following me?"

The tiger's ears swiveled and his jungley gaze set itself on Leo, eyes burning through the glass door that separated him from his quarry.

"In the plague," the tiger rumbled, "our masters forgot us, and we ate them. They left us. We are famished."

Anonymous Fri Jun 17 10:37:38 2011 No.1857034

Okay, so I'm reading through this thread, I'm likeing the idea, sounds fun...but what is the actual story idea we are supposed to write about? I mean, we're all supposed to write from a common source and put our on spin on it, yes? So what's the common source?

Anonymous Fri Jun 17 10:43:38 2011 No.1857045

>>1857034
I think at least since I have been posting... Aus time so might have missed all the yanks

The ideas are still vague...>>1856674
is a starting point... follow the details from here... sorry I have to go to sleep...

Essentially the stories are focused around a piont in time. Before, during and after and apocolyptic event. To be set in a specific city (Vegas>>1856722)

Details will come with the stories....

Anonymous Fri Jun 17 10:49:38 2011 No.1857050

>>1856674

The main idea is >>1857034, but so far there is no central narrative per se, just a lot of different ideas about where we want this to go. I think it needs a stronger base myself so it's easier to write for, but we were debating earlier whether the stronger base would come from discussing ideas for the stories or writing them out. In any case, there's no restriction on either since it's so recent.

Anonymous Fri Jun 17 11:00:38 2011 No.1857073

>>1857045
>>1857050

Okay, cool.

Considering this idea came from /x/, I don't think the post apocolyptic event thing is unique enough. I mean, we're /lit/ right? I think that idea is too...sensationalist. Let me pitch an idea I think might suit /lit/ a little better.

Let's just write the story of a fictional city/town as seen by it's inhabitants. Simple. The fun and interest will come from how we incorporate events from certain characters lives into other stories, sort of like Crash, where one event ties into another, and another and so on.

We don't need a big event, we just a town and a few stories to get us going. From then on, people can write about the same characters from multiple viewpoints, they can shift time hundred years into the past or future, the possibilities are endless.

I think this is a much better idea. I'm thinking it could end up like Twin Peaks or Blue Velvet, that sort of feel.

So, how about that?

Anonymous Fri Jun 17 11:05:38 2011 No.1857085

>>1857073
The initial idea was to give scope so that people who wanted to write in the present tense could, so that people who want to write action could and that people who want to write sci-fi could.

It is just a device to provide different settings for people who want to write diferent stories all based around the same point.

Anonymous Fri Jun 17 11:10:38 2011 No.1857098

>>1857085

Fair enough, I only threw it out there because it was said you were still discussing it. I just felt that by putting it in that world you were colouring it prematurely, when if you just have everyone write a story about something in a fictional town, everything would come together organically. People could still write weird shit as well as humdrum daily life.

I'm not pushing anything, just throwing out another idea.

Deep&Edgy !pSkjEcB9sQ Fri Jun 17 11:15:38 2011 No.1857105

>an ambiguous universe into which we all pour our own narratives in attempts to explore, define, and disfigure its boundaries? Has this been done?
it's called, at its best, and without any of this stupid genre crap that's being thrown around, INTERTEXTUALITY

jesus christ do you people read

Anonymous Fri Jun 17 11:18:38 2011 No.1857110

>>1857098

Don't mean to sound like a prick. I think your idea is good.

I really like the idea about trying to tie in different charecters as they move in and out of other charecters stories into their own story... and on and on...

I personally don't think that anything should be ruled out. That all contributions should be accepted. As long as they can be categorised and be short, to spring board ideas for other people to feed off and like you said grow organically.

>>	Anonymous Fri Jun 17 11:19:38 2011 No.1857111 >>1857105 It's not exactly intertextuality, though that's a part of it.

>>	Anonymous Fri Jun 17 11:20:38 2011 No.1857116 >>1857105 Quack I think OP was refering to a /lit/ collaberation

>>	♥ !Rrxa7zePwI Fri Jun 17 11:40:38 2011 No.1857158 File: 33 KB, 366x324, lol.jpg [View same] [iqdb] [saucenao] [google] >>1857105 just piling on.

>>	Anonymous Fri Jun 17 11:52:38 2011 No.1857188 bump for sweet dreams... so long thread, may you still be here at the other side of sunrise.

>>	Anonymous Fri Jun 17 12:08:38 2011 No.1857204 How about we all write about mermaids spinning around really fast unda da sea?

>>	♥ !Rrxa7zePwI Fri Jun 17 12:26:38 2011 No.1857217 >>1857204 with rockets made of bubble beam

Anonymous Fri Jun 17 12:40:38 2011 No.1857241

>>1857073
It's a decent idea. I think people should just write something that might provide a strong enough theme/motif to work from (or develop one from something on this thread) instead of endlessly debate what should be done. If you have an idea, try to write it out to see if it'll work.

>>1857105
>jesus christ do you people read
If your post on this thread is anything to go by, I don't think you comprehend much of anything you read.

Anonymous Fri Jun 17 15:30:38 2011 No.1857536

>>1857073

The Tallest Tree in Town

The workmen had the children stand aside. They were all excited, the younger ones running around screaming, the older ones talking amongst themselves in hushed voices, there was a scuffle at one point between two of the younger kids that amounted to nothing but a couple of grazed knees and they stood apart afterwards, the only sullen faces there.

"Okay, kids, watch out. This fella's comin' down! There's gonna be a whole lotta dust, so brace yourselves!" the workman went back to his colleagues and soon the chainsaws started and the smiles of the children stretched hard across their faces. Even the two fighting boys cheered up.
The tree had been around for a long time. It was well over a hundred years old, probably the tallest tree in town. There had been many accidents surrounding it over the years, some of the boys watching had fallen out of it more than once. Some of the workmen had fallen out of it when they were younger too. But now, it was coming down. The council thought it was too dangerous.

Anonymous Fri Jun 17 15:35:38 2011 No.1857546

>>1857536

The children coughed and laughed as the dust rose around them and the sound of the chainsaw stopped. The noise that old tree made as it fell was awesome, the immense creaking, the snaps, the moans, you could hear history shouting out above the roar of the machinary and the yells of the the kids. The dust settled and everything was still. The children just stood and stared at the body of all their summers past. Noone would climb that tree ever again now.
The workmen began cutting it up, slicing it into smaller pieces before throwing it on the back of the truck. One of the boys suggested ice cream. The children walked away.

Anonymous Fri Jun 17 15:39:38 2011 No.1857550

>>1857536
>>1857546

Okay, that's not great, but it's a start. If I were to do more I might start a story about one of the workmen in his youth playing on the tree, maybe have him fall out and break his leg or something. Then for another story I might do the cutting of the tree but from the pointof view of the workmen, or perhaps an old man looking out his window and watching it fall. I could take a surrealist bent too and maybe narrate the story as the tree, or as a squirrel in the tree...that sounds rificulous but I'm just trying to dish out possibilities here.
From this we expand into the town. The parents of the children, a death in the family, a day in the life of a schoolteacher, or the mayor, or a binman, or a junkie, or a clown in a visting circus...

Lots of possibilities. Once there are a few stories with a few characters we can expand. I should have named some of the children and the workmen really so you guys have a little more to work with, but if you want to do a story, you can name them yourself.

>>	Anonymous Fri Jun 17 16:13:38 2011 No.1857645 >>1857073 I prefer this. I will be writing from this angle. >>1857105 please relax

>>	Anonymous Fri Jun 17 16:19:38 2011 No.1857662 File: 8 KB, 191x263, happy man.jpg [View same] [iqdb] [saucenao] [google] >>1857536 >>1857546 >>1857550 This is already giving me ideas. For me, this is a beginning point.

>>	Anonymous Fri Jun 17 16:25:38 2011 No.1857674 >>1857645 >>1857662 Glad you two like the idea. Write something up and let's see where it goes. A name for the town would be great too. Something like..Twin Peaks, Pleasantville, Silent Hill, Lake Placid...

>>	Anonymous Fri Jun 17 16:44:38 2011 No.1857721 Possible town name... Pine Circle Pine County Yellow Lake Yellow Waters Still Waters Sweetwillow Newcross Little Bell Little River Song Heights Crescent Point Winters Balls Deep

>>	Anonymous Fri Jun 17 16:46:38 2011 No.1857729 >>1857721 >In Balls Deep, things don't feel quite right.

Anonymous Fri Jun 17 17:14:38 2011 No.1857791

Mr. Nazir was the most nervous man I'd ever known. He experienced vivid ad dreadful nightmares regularly, and any dreams he had that were not of a nightmarish quality always engendered in him a feeling of foreboding that would pervade both of our waking lives for days afterwards. Sleep and sleeplessness alike hounded him. His temperament was one of extremes; bouncing off the walls with excitement and agitation one day and crumpling himself into a black corner the next, rarely in a state of mind that would render him capable of discussing the weather or the sports section or the goings-on outside his apartment window on the detached level with which the rest of us are so accustomed. In fact, it was one such mundane topic (the cutting of the oak, you remember the one) that sent him to that old place on Pine Ave., I'm convinced of it. When I went to collect him there, he took both my hands in his and requested that I never again mention a thing about the oak tree, made me swear to God that I wouldn't. There were many taboo subjects between us, slinking like tigers, but none that I'd actually made an oath to completely avoid. By that time in our acquaintance I had learned better than to test Nazir's tolerance, and so I kept my oath and the old oak was never spoken of again. Whenever we passed the site where it once stood a pall fell over us; we would pitch ourselves forward and discreetly hurry past, Nazir fraught with a great tangle of emotions, indecipherable to me, and myself stirred by pity, irritation, and apprehension. The tree must have been a central figure in his nightmares, or else had some symbolic value for him--a poet, after all--that was turned completely on its head when the thing was felled. I suppose I'll never know. But there you have it, I hope this little letter of mine has in some way contributed to satisfying your inquiry into the whole affair.

-- D.M.

Anonymous Fri Jun 17 17:29:38 2011 No.1857832

I hate them all. Each and every one of them. Oh god, how I hate them; the schoolchildren that wander in with their greedy eyes, shoving each other around the aisles, knocking my wares onto the floor and laughing when I tell them to pick them up, that Bronson boy and his cronies that hang around outside smoking and leering at me through the windows; the legion of bored housewives and busybodies, Mrs Peaverton at the head of them with her blue dye and inane chatter, talking me into an early death for the sake of a dozen eggs and a copy of the TV Guide; the chinese family that moved in last year, skulking around like goddamn rats, picking everything up and buying nothing; Mr Nazir and his slimy skin, sweating all over my products and walking around like the living dead; oh God, how I hate them. This town will be the death of me.

>>	Anonymous Fri Jun 17 17:34:38 2011 No.1857846 >Mr Nazir and his slimy skin, sweating all over my products hahaha

Anonymous Fri Jun 17 17:35:38 2011 No.1857847

>>1857832

Just today I had to endure a half hour lecture from Mrs Peaverton about the mess the workmen made cutting down the old oak tree in the park and the children that have migrated to outside her house where they kick balls around at all hours. "Oh Mr Knead, in my day parents had control of their children, they showed respect, they had manners! But not today, of course. This generation is going straight to hell and we're all being dragged along for the ride!" I sat there and I nodded and I tried to catch the football game on my TV on the counter, but she wouldn't let me be. I asked her a hundred times if she wanted me to price up her items, hoping she'd get the message, and she ignored me each time. If you want my opinion, the older generation isn't any better, it's just a different kind of shit. It don't smell no better. This whole town stinks to high heaven.

>>	Anonymous Fri Jun 17 17:38:38 2011 No.1857856 >>1857791 I like that a lot. We have a good few characters to work with now. Should be good.

>>	Anonymous Fri Jun 17 18:45:38 2011 No.1857956 bump for stories

Anonymous Fri Jun 17 20:12:38 2011 No.1858128

Rats. Everywhere, rats. I'm told that there never was a better ratter than Silky the cat--You flatter me, Mrs. Peaverton--and yet I don't believe I've ever seen a town so infested. I imagine I'm just barely holding back the tide that will consume poor Peaverton's body when she grows old and passes away unnoticed (I am sure the gay young wife will die a lonesome widow) until the stench wafts over the rose bushes and into the neighbor's kitchen window.

There goes young Stanley, to wait for Lizbeth by the general store with the great glass doors. The front of the place is nice enough, and the inside is clean, but the alley that runs along the north side is absolutely plagued with vermin. I've even seen a raccoon rooting around there, twice. He had a guilty look about him, kept wringing his monkeyish little hands between picking up and dropping rotten corn cobs and licking his back like a cat does when she's embarrassed. I don't think he's been out of the countryside much; all I had to do was send a metal lid crashing to the pavement and he was off in a flash.

There's Lizbeth, now, checking her reflection in the glass door before Stanley sees she's there. She'll act as if she's just walking up, silly thing, when he turns around. They'll disappear into the store together, furnish their pockets with all sorts of eatables, and be off to the cinema, I imagine. Now there's a building rife with all sorts of hideous little creatures. I can smell them every time I pass by. If only they'd let the cat in, I'd eradicate that horrible odor for them and stop the scurrying bastards in their tracks. It drives me mad just to think of what must go on in that place. If I spoke human I'd tell the ticket-taker to lick my ass each time he shooed me from the door.

>>	Anonymous Fri Jun 17 21:31:38 2011 No.1858301 bump

Anonymous Fri Jun 17 21:53:38 2011 No.1858389

My humble piece was written for>>1856674 during the collapse.

>>1857536
>>1857546
Are good and can be incourperated to the before time.

--------------------------------------------------------------
Jim took a swig from the bottle of vodka and threw it at the church door. No matter how many times he heard it the sound of smashing glass always made him smile.
Flames licked and danced around the fuel as it seeped down the woodwork.

"Bastards its all their fault" Holding another bottle he shook his fist towards the church, showering himself with vodka. The crackling light of the fire cast mad shadows over his face.

Sally turnedaway, trying to aviod the insanity that confronted her. The street burned, cars and bodies sat abandoned, some stipped naked and broken. She turned back to the church to feel the warmth of the fire on her face. "What are you talking about right to the end the church talked about forgiveness and harmony"

"Made in his image.Crap! We made him in our image.
We have always been our own gods. They promoted an eternity of life after death. Wiping away the potentcy of death and value of life. And now here we are fueling fires and looting." They stood watching the fire and listening to the faint chorus that rose from the bowels of the church.

"Well we are alive aren't we? There must be other people who are not waiting to die inside a burning church."

"Right there is no point standing around here. I'm hungry" he pointed to the trolley "And I am running out of vodka"

>>	Anonymous Fri Jun 17 22:02:38 2011 No.1858405 I like the normal, small town idea better. I don't like apocalyptic stuff really. It's seems this thread is split into two camps.

>>	Anonymous Fri Jun 17 22:05:38 2011 No.1858409 >>1858405 I don't think it is.... This project could be split across time... People who want to write about normal town stuff could with no reflection of the apocalyptic stuff... The town could be the focal point...

>>	Anonymous Fri Jun 17 22:09:38 2011 No.1858416 >>1858409 Yeah, I guess that doesn't affect any story anyone might want to write. You're probably right.

Anonymous Fri Jun 17 22:50:38 2011 No.1858473
File: 344 KB, 2564x2246, nocturne-huge.jpg [View same] [iqdb] [saucenao] [google]

Thread newcomer here. I think going anywhere near a post-apocalyptic setting is the best way to kill the originality of the work before a word is written. 20 years ago it might have worked. Post-internet zombie/plague apocalypse craze, it doesn't.
Sure, the setting leaves a whole lot of room for the writer to play god, but everyone's been inundated with the same apocalyptic scenario so much that it's just inherently uninteresting.
Look at The Holders. Does it take place in this world? A parallel one? As was mentioned earlier in the thread, effectiveness comes with ambiguity

Anonymous Fri Jun 17 22:55:38 2011 No.1858480

It was like run over putty. Up from the neck was the chin, a jaw, teeth, then nothing. The middle of the head was clean gone, only a thin layer of meat with tire marks, then the rest of the head, brain visible, eye sockets hollow and half-moon, and golden hair.
It wasn't the worst Rose had seen. This one wasn't even intentional, some dickshit was drunk and cleaved someone's nasal passages out with his tires. Wasn't the first time it had happened. Maybe the most grisly, but not the first.

The worst Rose had seen was intentional, horrific, and any sight of blood or ground meat would recall it, and she'd have to clamp her eyes shut and shoot it into the recesses of her mind. Ever since that's all she aimed at whenever her gun fired.

It happened above a convenience store. After hours a crook had slid in -- he was the one who called. He was emptying the cash register and heard screams from above. The owner's living quarters were up a flight of stairs, a male, but the sounds were decidedly female.
[1/2]

Anonymous Fri Jun 17 22:56:20 2011 No.1858483 [DELETED]

>>1858480

When Rose opened his door the first thing she saw were corpses. Several, lining the walls like living wallpaper, tied like hams and stapled, faces carved out and hair pulled upward and pasted onto the stomach above. Half the room was covered, he was working on more. A girl, a live one, was tied at the wrists and ankles, put in the corner, eyes wide. She was staring at a spot on the floor with dried blood and mashed meat, flies hovering, forming an outline of a body that'd seen it's end.

The girl and the smooth curves of the wall were illuminated by flickering candle light. Rose cocked her gun. Over his opened trunk in the middle of the room, hair greasy and hanging in tendrils, He turned around. Eyes wild, face dripping in some sort of black jelly, fingernails yellow and caked on the underside with skin. He blew. The candle lighting the room dropped the room into darkness.

Rose searched the walls, hands sliding over cold skin, but she never found a switch, and when she brought a flash-light back up he was gone. The girl had died. Nothing as messy as the rest of the room, a simple knife wound that had been bleeding the entire time. That place was shut down. It's a starbuck's now. Every time Rose drives past it, her foot presses down on the pedal just a centimeter more.
[2/2]

Anonymous Fri Jun 17 22:58:38 2011 No.1858485

>>1858480
When Rose opened his door the first thing she saw were corpses. Several, lining the walls like living wallpaper, tied like hams and stapled, faces carved out and hair pulled upward and pasted onto the stomach above. Half the room was covered, he was working on more. A girl, a live one, was tied at the wrists and ankles, put in the corner, eyes wide. She was staring at a spot on the floor with dried blood and mashed meat, flies hovering, forming an outline of a body that'd seen it's end.

The girl and the smooth curves of the wall were illuminated by flickering candle light. Rose cocked her gun. Over his opened trunk in the middle of the room, hair greasy and hanging in tendrils, He turned around. Eyes wild, face dripping in some sort of black jelly, fingernails yellow and caked on the underside with skin. He blew the candle and dropped the room into darkness.

Rose searched the walls, hands sliding over cold skin, but she never found a switch, and when she brought a flash-light back up he was gone. The girl had died. Nothing as messy as the rest of the room, a simple knife wound that had been bleeding the entire time. That place was shut down. It's a starbuck's now. Every time Rose drives past it, her foot presses down on the pedal just a centimeter more.
[2/2]

>>	Anonymous Fri Jun 17 23:02:38 2011 No.1858488 I think it's time to start that blog network now...read the whole thread and I don't know what the fuck's going on now.

>>	Anonymous Sat Jun 18 01:00:38 2011 No.1858739 >>1858488 Where and how do we get this network going?

Anonymous Sat Jun 18 01:04:38 2011 No.1858748

>>1858473
I would expect more from /lit/ (nieve? maybe). Otherwise we could say that no zombie stories would be accepted.

Could always leave the turning point (apocolypse) as a black hole in the story. Say 200 year that no one writes about. Then people can submit stories from after this time.

I am interested about writing stories in the future looking back to our society. Archiologists in the future... Prob been done, and done better than I will ever be able to do but that is not the point.

Anonymous Sat Jun 18 01:21:38 2011 No.1858806

>>1858473
I actually wrote one of the post-apocalyptic stories in this thread and I feel the same way about post-apocalyptic stories. I kept trying to think of some scenario that hadn't been done to death but I couldn't think of one so I did a generic survivor story.

I disagree, though, with your appraisal of why the Holder series became popular to write for. I think it was because it was a simple formula with many possibilities, vague enough for freedom yet specific enough to tie the stories together into one mythology. If it's too vague, it doesn't work because it doesn't captivate anyone's imagination. I think "a small town where stuff happens" is too vague still. It needs a more specific hook.

Anonymous Sat Jun 18 01:32:38 2011 No.1858848

>>1858806
I was here last night and for some reason I don't like the direction this has taken with the apocalypse thing. It's not the worst idea, but it's not coming together.
Maybe this collaborative writing process should be looked at in a way similar to TV. A group of people make the first episode and that defines the world for the most part. After that other writers can make the other episodes within the rules of the world, though sometimes changing the rules if needed.
I'm not suggesting all the stories be about certain characters or anything like that. I'm just thinking of how other fictional worlds are created.

>>	Anonymous Sat Jun 18 01:39:38 2011 No.1858867 >>1858848 I support this. The apocalypse thing is a bit drastic. If the world was disigned to allow freedom for writers, who want to write in different styles...

>>	Anonymous Sat Jun 18 01:43:38 2011 No.1858874 >>1858867 Looks like we need a hook that isn't too gimmicky... Fuck me.

Anonymous Sat Jun 18 01:57:38 2011 No.1858899

>>1858874
Is this critical of my response or exclamation towards the dificulty of the task?

Maybe the initial premise could be at a train station? Different trains going to different places, with a don't like don't get on policy.

Stories in the train station could be a shitstorm of all sorts of charecters from differnt genres colliding (sci-fi, fantasy, romantisism, gothic, philosophic).

On the trains conductors, communtors, and tourists.

Destinations genre specific...

Just a slag heap.

Anonymous Sat Jun 18 02:00:38 2011 No.1858905

>>1858867
>>1858848
I agree in part. The main problem is that the author of the first piece will have to write it open-ended, and with a strong enough story and motif to intrigue other authors. That is very difficulty, especially when you have to write something in such a self-conscious manner (i.e. keeping open all or most possibilities within the formula while writing something with a specific enough hook to interest most writers).

It's possible I'm thinking about this in the wrong way, though. What I mean is that my model for the series is based on why I think the Holder series was successful on /x/. The problem with that model is that /x/ has a specific audience (fans of the paranormal) which makes it easy to appeal to both the audience and the writers on the board. /lit/ is much more fragmentary since, besides fiction, there is no unifying interest thus no fictional world that would appeal to everyone unless one were to make a sort of fictional multiverse. If one were to use that idea, however then the question would become how to tie the stories together. I can't think of an easy solution.

Anonymous Sat Jun 18 02:08:38 2011 No.1858921

>>1858899
I'm not being critical of you. I'm being more critical of my inability to figure out how this could work.
>>1858905
>Holder
>fans of the paranormal
Maybe whoever likes the apocalypse thing should go and do it. Other people can do something separate. All of /lit/ probably won't come together on something unless it's incredibly vague.

Anonymous Sat Jun 18 02:09:38 2011 No.1858923

>>1858921
>incredibly vague Cont'd

I do have one idea that might be nonsense, but here it is. Stories of a more psychological nature that take place entirely inside someone's head, as if this person were dreaming or possibly insane. Would cohesiveness be possible or would it become irrelevant?
The idea is: "It was all a dream" times 9000, basically.

Anonymous Sat Jun 18 02:24:38 2011 No.1858946

>>1858923
It would be possible, but only so long as the character was conscious it was a dream and it was the same character every time. If the character was not conscious it was a dream then it would be a sort of multiverse story with the same character until the story ended with "it was all just a dream" (which would just irritate readers).

The same character also would have to be present, otherwise there wouldn't be any cohesiveness to the overall narrative. That character would have to be distinct enough to interest other people though, and relatively easy to write. In other words, he would likely have to be archetypal (hopefully without succumbing to cliche).

The temptation would be to reveal the character's traits and his past through the dream world, and that could be a way to grow the overall mythology.

Anonymous Sat Jun 18 02:31:38 2011 No.1858957

>>1858946
>>1858923

Dreams do leave alot of open space for manipulation...

But one character............. Unless the stories spun off into the the worlds of the other characters present in the dreams.... and leaving the whole thing open so that reality and dreams are never clearly defined as seperate

Anonymous Sat Jun 18 02:35:38 2011 No.1858963

>>1858946

Depending on if we would want to make it character-centric or situation-centric (or both, depending on whoever's writing what), we could play with an idea regarding the psychology of dreams, of the mind, and of memory. Obviously we wouldn't want to pigeonhole ourselves with someone so narrow, but I like the idea of the town, a web of interconnected stories from different perspectives, and I also like the massive subjectivity of stories that take place within a person's head.

If we could fashion a town, maybe over the course of the whole 20th century, interconnected-like but occurring in intimate vignettes across character and time, we'd have an immense canvas to vomit all over.

>>	Anonymous Sat Jun 18 02:56:38 2011 No.1858995 >>1858963 as was mentioned earlier make the town the focal point. And stretch the time line... this gives alot of scope for different stories. Gives the option to form specific commuinities in different times.

>>	Anonymous Sat Jun 18 03:12:38 2011 No.1859018 http://litverse.wikia.com/wiki/Litverse_Wiki Just throwing this out there as a possibility for a base.

Anonymous Sat Jun 18 03:14:38 2011 No.1859023

>>1858995
>>1858963
I like the town idea as well. I was saying earlier that, if the dream idea was used, we would likely have to maintain the same character for cohesion's sake. I doubt the same situation would work since the story arc would likely lose its cohesiveness unless the situational formula was strict.

A single town throughout the course of the twentieth century sounds like a good idea. I think it's slightly exclusionary (since it won't attract those who only want to write speculative fiction) and still a bit vague, but the former is probably a necessity of this venture while the latter will be fixed whenever someone writes the first story. The mythology of the town will grow over time, but it needs soil to grow in.

>>	Anonymous Sat Jun 18 03:28:38 2011 No.1859039 the apocalyptic stuff is Nazir's nightmare reality

>>	Anonymous Sat Jun 18 03:40:38 2011 No.1859051 >>1859018 >>1859018 Alright..!!!!!!! Think this is a good place to start throwing out ideas for the town. I like the idea of using short short stories to shape the town>>1858963

Anonymous Sat Jun 18 03:41:38 2011 No.1859053

>>1859039
That is, he lives in the town (i place him somewhere at the start of the 20th century, if anywhere at all), but his mind (and fiction/poetry?) connects us to the speculative/apocalyptic/grimdark scifi world. Perhaps he only catches glimpses of the extent to which this world exists within him when he dreams. To him, it is expansive, unfamiliar, and terrifying. In turn, he connects the "scifi" world to the town: his mind reflects elements of the town into the apocalyptic setting, often distorting them, sometimes reproducing them directly. authors of the "scifi" world needn't restrict themselves to what would be possible within a man's head; as i said, to him the world is full of unknowns. it seems infinite and uncontrollable, and perhaps it is. then again, to him, his dreams smack with a distinct feeling of premonition...

>>	Anonymous Sat Jun 18 03:50:38 2011 No.1859059 File: 2 KB, 104x127, brautigan21.jpg [View same] [iqdb] [saucenao] [google] >>1856280 Because it is fucking gay.

Anonymous Sat Jun 18 03:54:38 2011 No.1859060

The rules still seem pretty incoherent. Why not think of it as /lit/ : the town? Everyone gets one character that will represent their writing chops. They can fill in the blanks of their life and the relating town details. Those details, as well as the events and other related specifics to the character, can seep into other's works. However, there needs to be some sort of consent, agreement, and collaboration. There should probably also be someone who makes sure that the canon remains coherent.

Anonymous Sat Jun 18 03:58:38 2011 No.1859061

>>1859053

I like this idea. I'd be inclined to make the Nazir story one arc in a greater series of stories, but I'm kinda enthralled by the idea of this guy who can't perceive reality right, so his perspective of the town is colored by his disturbed mind. When he dreams, he sees things as they really are, and he can't connect with it because he's become too used to things as twisted as he sees them.

Maybe Nazir's actions and perspectives influence the course of the town throughout the rest of the century. Maybe he's the head of an influential family, or the mayor or something. Just throwing out ideas.

Anonymous Sat Jun 18 04:01:38 2011 No.1859069

>>1859053
And with this there is no need for "AND THEN HE WOKE UP"

you just tell the story that happened in his dream. or off in the background of his dream, the part he wasn't directly involved in or paying attention to. Otherwise if you feel like writing about him specifically, you write him in the waking world of the town. And if you don't want to write him at all, you write about someone else in the town or someone in the nightmare reality. you don't need to mention the connection between him and this other reality, but if you want to, little hints and clues and tie-ins may be included into stories on either side of his consciousness. And of course it needn't be completely defined which world is the "real" world, whether the dreams are prophetic, whether they are nazir's, or whether they are dreams at all...just go with the flow; we're already doing it. The goal at present isn't to produce a hit piece of writing, it's to explore a world as we create it.

>>	Anonymous Sat Jun 18 04:05:38 2011 No.1859072 >>1859061 >>1859069 >whether they are nazir's >whether they are nazi's >nazis NAZIS EVERYWHERE This name is confusing me.

>>	Anonymous Sat Jun 18 04:07:38 2011 No.1859073 >>1859072 then use Nazeer, like in >>1856589

>>	Anonymous Sat Jun 18 04:10:38 2011 No.1859076 >>1859018 Someone(s) has to start writing pages on this here wiki. For Nazir/Nazeer or the town or something. If we're serious about this, we'll want to start developing a continuity for the town (if only a rough one) and what Nazir/Nazeer sees of it.

Anonymous Sat Jun 18 04:13:38 2011 No.1859080

>>1859061
>>1859069

I'd have Nazir be born on January 1st, 1880, and die December 31st, 1979. The rest of the town's "concrete" history occurs only within these boundaries. This allows for a blank period from '79 to whenever the future-town is set, meaning we can avoid filling the story with modern pop-culture and internet references, as you know we would.

1st person awake-Nazir stories would present his insanity-touched worldview. Stories where he's in the 3rd-person would not highlight this as much, focusing on how he interacts with the scene. Dream-Nazir might be the basis for all future-town stories, or could at least be a source for some of the more abstract works, where reality might not be like in our world.

Anyone see him as someone from the Nile Valley, possibly a mayor?

>>	Anonymous Sat Jun 18 04:15:38 2011 No.1859082 >>1859076 Just go and make a page, type in a few ideas, and then story-writers can pick and choose from the themes they wish.

Anonymous Sat Jun 18 04:17:38 2011 No.1859084

>>1859076
I plan to contribute to it...tomorrow.

I don't want the wiki to cause stagnation. it's a great resource for such a project, but i feel like /lit/ is a good testing ground for ideas. people will reuse and repost things they like (dem memes), and it's good to keep it here so that anons may wander freely in and out (trust me, some people actually are too lazy to leave a website they are used to). So, i think, the wiki plus occasional /lit/ threads for this would work well in combination.

>>	Anonymous Sat Jun 18 04:20:38 2011 No.1859088 >>1859084 Ideally, /lit/ would be the discussion-based area, where we plan, muse on, or critique what's being done. The wiki would be the common resource where ideas (and stories?) get are stashed.

Anonymous Sat Jun 18 04:25:38 2011 No.1859092

>>1859080
interesting ideas, i'm not sure how i feel about all of them. I shall ponder them tonight as i enter my horrific apocalyptic dreamworld and give you my response tomorrow.

i see Nazeer as a poet/writer, because he seems to be too dysfunctional to do much else (and because he is in a way our own vessel for storytelling), but perhaps that was only at a certain period of his life--and poetry and writing don't have to be ones' primary occupation, after all. i think he would be a learned man, though, and rather well-off.

Anonymous Sat Jun 18 04:27:38 2011 No.1859095

>>1859092
I posted something short about him on the wiki, about his being involved with law through his father, that he is well-educated. I don't think it's a stretch for him to be both a mayor and a writer/poet. It's not unreasonable to think that he would at least try to get down on paper some of the intense nightmare that his life has become.

>>	Anonymous Sat Jun 18 04:27:38 2011 No.1859096 >>1859088 sounds good to me

Anonymous Sat Jun 18 04:34:38 2011 No.1859100

>>1859092
>>1859095

So, Nasir is educated and a poet and mad. I'm beginning to see him as an analogue of various 19th/20th century writers in this regard. Perhaps like them, he wrote excellently but was unrecognized so he turned to something else to earn a living, in his case politics. Perhaps there are casual references to his "Opus" (which of course is never quoted to keep the believability that he's a good writer), with his work gradually becoming more respected as time passes.

>>	Anonymous Sat Jun 18 04:39:38 2011 No.1859104 I just added a couple of pages suitable ambigious(I hope) Nazeer Dreams of Flying Nazeer Dreams of His Birth Do you think it is necessairy to have a page listing secondary charecters?

Anonymous Sat Jun 18 04:44:38 2011 No.1859107

>>1859104

It will be, eventually, when the town of which he is the mayor comes into focus, but for the moment we've just got a character with a vague (at best) psychological disorder and a really loose history.

With regards to what are dreams and what aren't, >>1859080 had a really cool idea about the three different types of stories (awake, dreaming, and 3rd person) -- I like this system of classification. We could keep the boundaries between what's real and what isn't pretty blurry with conflicting accounts.

Anyway, I'll pick up on this more tomorrow. Gotta sleep.

Anonymous Sat Jun 18 04:47:38 2011 No.1859111

>>1859104

There are no "secondary characters" yet, and may never be. The idea is that any character can become the central one in their own story.

Perhaps a page titled "Potential Characters," where characters that someone thinks should be added are listed. A sort of to-do list, where each character idea has a few sentences describing them.

Anonymous Sat Jun 18 04:58:38 2011 No.1859124

>>1859111
Yes I realise this, but if the story is going to start with nareer it essential to keep tabs on the charecters that appear in his stories, their relationship with him...

So when charecters start appearing there is no collision/contradiction...

Nazir Dreams of Flying Anonymous Sat Jun 18 06:34:38 2011 No.1859166

The heroic gates consecrated to heaven loomed over Nazir, a bulwark against the omnipresent threat of reality. He looked up into the dusk of the dream skies and imagined himself flying once again. The sands beneath his bare feet smelled of his summers in Cairo as a boy, before he and his family emigrated to the town of Augustine.

"Being able to fly is better than any amount of money," he said. "I'd give up everything I have if God would grant me wings."

"You should know that's a terrible thing to wish," his mother told him, materializing from the sands. "To give up everything for something so ridiculous."

Nazir nodded in deference, but he still looked up at the sky. It was a dream, he knew, all a dream, but every time he jumped he could feel an intolerable weight dragging him back to the sands, clasping his legs and clipping his wings. His mother laughed at him every time she saw her son crash to the ground, gasping and half-dazed from the fall.

The immortal gates cast a single long shadow over the two as the sun descended. Nazir jumped thousands of times more over the span of what seemed like hours, each time collapsing onto the sands as he heard more mocking laughter from his mother. He dreamed of flying in the skies like a bird, free from everything below, but his ragged breath and heated sweat glistening in the dry desert air only reminded him that he was more a beast than a bird.

>>	Anonymous Sat Jun 18 07:31:38 2011 No.1859209 >>1859166 Yay for input Wow that is a different take to how I was thinking of that page....

Anonymous Sat Jun 18 07:48:38 2011 No.1859217

>>1859209
Yeah, I finally noticed. Dreams of flight are hardly restricted to one-time events, though. The vignette says "once more", so perhaps he was able to fly in his dreams (maybe when he was a kid?) but his past began to weigh more heavily on him as he aged thus preventing him from flying. At least that's part of what I was trying to get at.

sage Sat Jun 18 07:53:38 2011 No.1859218

>>1859217

Please don't take that as an offensive statement towards what you wrote. I didn't even make the wiki page, liked the topic, I just had a really different take on it.... looks like this thing (if momentum keeps building) is going to be almost unpredictable even within the constraints....

>>	OOPS!!! Sat Jun 18 07:56:38 2011 No.1859219 >>1859218 hopefully no acidental sage given earlier.... live, thread, live!!!! YOU DON"T HAVE TO DIE!!! YOU CAN LIVE, YOU CAN GROW OLD

>>	Anonymous Sat Jun 18 09:48:38 2011 No.1859306 bump glad to see this got more interest

>>	Anonymous Sat Jun 18 10:15:38 2011 No.1859338 >>1859306 Slowly but surely the keys are clicking. bump with wikilink, for sweet dream and longevity http://litverse.wikia.com/wiki/Litverse_Wiki

>>	Anonymous Sat Jun 18 10:19:38 2011 No.1859348 >>1859338 What should we do with the pieces in this thread? Archive them on the Wiki, wait for more, or what?

>>	Anonymous Sat Jun 18 10:25:38 2011 No.1859359 >>1859348 >>1859348 I have copied them into a .txt file on my pc. I think it would be good to get them onto the wiki tho.

Anonymous Sat Jun 18 10:30:38 2011 No.1859370

Are we splitting this thing up into reality/dreams and so on? If so, I don't think we should do that. The only constants in the story should be the setting and the characters. Beyond that let people do what they want, move forwards or backwards in time, alternate realities, weird POV's, dreams, hallucinations, whatever.

The name of the project should be the name of the town, whatever that might be. There's a short list in this thread, I quite like the name "Winters" or maybe "Sweetwillow" or "Sweetoak".

Anonymous Sat Jun 18 10:42:38 2011 No.1859384

>>1859370
I didn't think it would be that dreams and reality would be demarcated by some artificial boundary. I just thought the title might give the fact that something is a dream away as in "Nazir Dreams...". That's what I used in >>1859166 since it was convenient.

I went with Augustine in that vignette, although that doesn't necessarily have to be the name of the town.

Anonymous Sat Jun 18 10:48:38 2011 No.1859398

>>1859370
>>1859370
I agree, and with time and expansion of the project I personally believe that nothing should be excluded.

I think the last wave of people on here (about 8 hours ago) were focused upon getting something started and focused on the nazeer(nazir) charecter, who was deemed a starting point.

Halucination and dreams and his lack of definition between reality/fantasy being a vehicle for starting this project.

The town (i think and hope) is still the focal point...

This is getting really hard to follow as people in different timezones never have the opportunity to communicate with each other, (and a relentless sinicism everyone is samefagging to support their ideas. I will not put myself above this, but have conceded all of my suggestion by this stage) anyhow...

If you want to define the town(and I think you should) go onto the wiki site and post the list of names for consideration.

Anonymous Sat Jun 18 11:01:38 2011 No.1859406

>>1859398
>>1859398

Thee's a few characters that overlap. I wrote that thing about the bitter shopkeeper Mr Knead earlier and mentioned Mr Nazir briefly, along with old Mrs Peaverton, the gossip, the Bronson boy, the bully, the chinese family, the outcasts and relative newcomers. These are all in the same timeline, roughly around when the old oak was cut down. I haven't read everything in this thread but I'm willing to bet most of them are on the same timeline, the present day.

Once we have a few more things like this we'll have a working present day town and it'll make it easier and more interesting to do more bizarre things with the characters and the setting.

>>	Anonymous Sat Jun 18 11:05:38 2011 No.1859411 >>1859370 I agree here. If we're planning on having other stories with other characters later, we'll want an objective timeline and cast. Nazir's dreams can be moments of lucidity where he perceives reality and can't deal with it.

>>	Anonymous Sat Jun 18 11:09:38 2011 No.1859415 >>1859411 >>1859406 Maybe an easy way to get a town would be to pick one from google maps, that way we are working off the same layout.... We could change the name, change the geography around the town, remove the town completly from earth...

>>	Anonymous Sat Jun 18 11:16:38 2011 No.1859421 >>1859415 That sounds fine, but I wouldn't put the town in any real place. I don't even think we should say it's American or European. It should be left blank. The universe should be the town and nothing more.

>>	Anonymous Sat Jun 18 11:20:38 2011 No.1859425 >>1859415 I agree... Was just trying to get a quick way for a setting... Definatly leave the town ambigious... Give it a new name... change street names.... but have a map to work with.... Good night anon....

Anonymous Sat Jun 18 11:29:38 2011 No.1859429

Welcome to Winters! Winters is a picturesque and lively town that sits between The Great Lake and Cold Mountain. With over 9,000 residents for which the Town Council provides essential community services, ‘the Village’ as it is referred to locally, has good transport links, an abundance of shopping, leisure and restaurant facilities and many green open spaces.

>>	Anonymous Sat Jun 18 11:32:38 2011 No.1859434 >>1859429 Tried to do a town bio in the form of a tourist info thing. Got a little stuck, feel free to pick up on it and expand or whatever. I reckon you could introduce some important characters such as the mayor and the councillors in this intro.

>>	sage Sat Jun 18 12:10:38 2011 No.1859482 bump for interest

Ted, a high school senior !!FLVqQBEAMuY Sat Jun 18 12:49:38 2011 No.1859537

Don't know if I can/want to work with this setting, at least not in its current state. Would've loved it so much more if it was indeed a more Twin Peaks-esque setting, a small character-driven present-day town where nothing seems too crazy to happen, but still holds a feeling of realism to it.

Anonymous Sat Jun 18 13:02:38 2011 No.1859561

>>1859537
There's no prohibition against that at this point. I was thinking about writing a vignette about a different character in the town myself. A character returning so that the town could be introduced in a more organic way rather than through the mechanics of planning out each square foot of a city.

Anonymous Sat Jun 18 13:07:38 2011 No.1859566

>>1859537

Twin Peaks is totally what I want too.

>>1859561

I was thinking that a character returning/moving to town would be a good idea to introduce the main elements too. Maybe a character can come back because of a death in the family, or maybe a relative of Mr Nazir comes home to look after him after a bad seizure or something.

Plenty of kooky characters would be great. I like the bitter shopkeeper Mr Knead, and Mrs Peaverton could be great too as the local gossip. She could head some sort of pensioners brigade or something.

Anonymous Sat Jun 18 13:19:38 2011 No.1859578

Winters must be the most appropriately named town in the world. When I caught my first glimpse of it I thought I was looking at a snowglobe. The entire town seemed to have every black cloud for a hundred miles hovering over it, spitting down on it with large white globules of the cold stuff. When I was almost there, just past The Great Lake, my tyres skidded on some black ice, locked up, and sent me into the side of the road. The mechanic that picked me up, Mr Grizzle, wasn't very helpful, kept saying over and over how strangers always fell for that trick, and that until the snow calmed down some, they couldn't tow it to town. My car has been by the side of the road now for almost a week.

Anonymous Sat Jun 18 13:21:38 2011 No.1859581

>>1859578

I thought a noir detective could be pretty cool to throw into the mix. It'll paint the town from a strangers point of view, and of course, it could make it pretty Twin Peaksy.

Haven't got any real details for a story yet, just threw down some words. I'm going to eat now, if anyone wants to pick up where I left off feel free. I'll be back to have another stab at it in a bit.

Anonymous Sat Jun 18 14:55:38 2011 No.1859688

>>1859166
I like the name Augustine for the town. But I have a thing for names that derive from Latin, so, oh well.

I agree that it should not be specified whether the town is American or European, I think it should exist in some ambiguous place of the world and be the universe itself. Egypt exists in this universe so far as a far-off place.

I do not think contradictions in the storyline are necessarily a bad thing. If they occur constantly, that could be irksome, but if they're just here and there all it does it cause the narrator of each story to become very questionable/unreliable, which opens up room for speculation and imagination about what the "true" world is like, despite there not actually being one.

Here is how I see the timeline of characters:

~1920 - Silky the cat narrates her tale, Nazir is 40 years old and perhaps living with his friend "D.M.", Mrs. Peaverton is a "young wife", Stanley and Lizbeth are young teenagers.

~1960 - Mrs. Peaverton has lost her beauty and charm, Mr. Knead, age unknown but I imagine he's a young fellow, narrates his story about the various deplorable inhabitants of the town. Leo Nazir is 80. Silky the cat is dead. Stanley and Lizbeth would be in their mid 50's.

Feel free to change the ages/years here, but we had to start somewhere to begin to edit them

>>	Anonymous Sat Jun 18 14:58:38 2011 No.1859691 >>1859688 Hmm, damn but then that means Leo was 80 when the tree got cut down...I imagined him being younger at that point. A quandary! (though it could have been a different tree, or Mr. Knead could be much older than I stated, what say y'all?)

>>	Anonymous Sat Jun 18 15:05:38 2011 No.1859699 >>1859688 So should it be Winters or Augustine? I don't mind writing for either, but it'd be nice if there was a name everyone agreed on. Whatever the case, I'll probably try to write something else later on today.

>>	Anonymous Sat Jun 18 15:11:38 2011 No.1859708 >>1859699 I vote Winters. Something about the seclusion of winter and the muteness of heavy snowfall rings a chord with what I imagine the town signifies. Although I'm not really sure what the town signifies at this point.

Anonymous Sat Jun 18 15:20:38 2011 No.1859721

>>1859708

I wrote that short detective thing (that I need to continue...) using Winters, so obvioulsy that gets my vote, but I'm happy to go with the majority (although with potential samefags that is disputable lol). Not everyone can be satisfied, but as long as there is some sort of agreement, I doubt it will leave a bitter taste in anyones mouth.

Anonymous Sat Jun 18 15:24:38 2011 No.1859728

>>1859688

That sounds okay, but I think if we move the timeline forward it would fit better. Maybe 40 years? So in 1960 Mr Nazir is about 30, that way in the present day he's about 80 and Mrs Peaverton should be 65-75. I think that sounds about right.

Also, if nazir is living his youth in the 50'ss and 60's, well, that's just a really sweet time period, especially for a character that has problems with reality in later life (LSD, lots and lots of LSD)

Anonymous Sat Jun 18 15:26:38 2011 No.1859731

They could live in a town called Winters in a close-knit county called Augustine. That may be inviting too much, eh...Ground to cover outside of the town. But, for example, where I live there are 3 cities that are all very close together, and part of the same county. When referred to by outsiders they are called by the county name and when referred to when you're in them you talk about the individual cities/towns.

Or, Augustine could be a river that flows through the town of Winters, and houses and buildings in its vicinity of it form their own little neighborhood that is unofficially referred to as "Augustine", and the river "The Augustine"

Anonymous Sat Jun 18 15:29:38 2011 No.1859736

>>1859721
Well, I'm sure that having anon tell you this will in no way quell your doubts, but in all my years of 4channing I've never "samefagged" any of my posts/ideas. I don't get butthurt when people ignore/don't like what I come up with. So there's at least one anon here who doesn't samefag, lol.

Anonymous Sat Jun 18 16:26:38 2011 No.1859840

Thing of nightmares, that Peaverton cat. Favored among strays, fed rice and fish by the immigrant families. She is bulky for her breed. Muscular. Ears in tatters, battle wounds inflicted by rats, crows, dogs. We are not the only family who has never fed her, and she no doubt can fend for herself. So why is it that she comes to the window now, scratching and peering, frightening my unwell son?

>>	Anonymous Sat Jun 18 18:56:38 2011 No.1860145 bump

>>	Anonymous Sun Jun 19 00:18:38 2011 No.1860862 tuti fruti o rudy tuti fruti o rudy

>>	sage Anonymous Sun Jun 19 00:27:38 2011 No.1860886 >>1860862 I fuckin love lil richard

Anonymous Sun Jun 19 00:56:38 2011 No.1860971

>>1859731
I wrote the "Nazir Dreams of Flying" piece and what you wrote sounds good to me. "The town of Augustine" can refer to the county that Winters and the towns surrounding it are in since they're close to the Augustine River. Most people consider all of the towns part of the same whole, thus refer to them with the general appellation "Augustine". At least it's a decent enough ret-con.

>>	Anonymous Sun Jun 19 01:05:38 2011 No.1860991 >>1860971 How about they live in "(Greater) Augustine", like saying "The San Francisco Bay (Area)" or "(Greater) Los Angeles" (Cali has some neat names..."the Southland", "Inland Empire")

Anonymous Sun Jun 19 01:11:38 2011 No.1861004

>>1860991

I recomend not getting too carried away on semantics. Charecters will personalise names as they require. Besides attatching Greater alread assumes that the populated area is quite substantial, drawing away from the initial premise that the town is reasonaably small

Leave it at Winters and Augustine

Anonymous Sun Jun 19 01:18:38 2011 No.1861010

>>1860991
That's probably fine. I'm just trying to find some way to fit the piece into the larger panorama. "The town of Augustine" or "Greater Augustine" can both refer to the general cluster of towns that encompass Winters.

Also, should "Nazir" or "Nazeer" be the preferred spelling? The original at >>1856971 went with the former so that's the name I used in what I wrote as well, but the Wiki seems to prefer the Nazeer spelling.

>>	Anonymous Sun Jun 19 01:22:38 2011 No.1861022 >>1861010 Those two wiki pages were Nazeer Dreams of his Birth/Flying were put on by me. (BTW sorry about the misspelling brith.....) I threw them up there to open a few ideas along the deamscape/halucination paths. Which someone else jumped on.

>>	Anonymous Sun Jun 19 01:26:38 2011 No.1861028 >>1861010 I think at this stage our communual strength will work in compromise... Like I really don't agree that Nazeer(Nazir) graduated from law at 19??? Was mayor at 24/??? Bit too.... you know

Anonymous Sun Jun 19 01:48:38 2011 No.1861066

The illness was never the cause of it. It had been there, he was sure, since before he was born. Waiting on its haunches, crawling on its belly toward him and his mother and father, purring at his bedside by the time he was thirteen. The fever had only played the role of catalyst. It had steamed the seams of his skull apart, and now the rain would forever be dribbling through the cracks. Eventually the heavy cistern of his mind would rupture completely, his drooping head would tumble from his hands and the vision-obscuring liquids of misery and doubt would splatter into the mouth of the monster, and that would be the end of all.

Anonymous Sun Jun 19 02:15:38 2011 No.1861090

Look, I understand many of you feel constructive and want a sense of community in your writing, but I shared enivronments are a collective straitjacket which really restricts your abillity to be creative. Not to mention the wankery that goes on as a result.

The idea of sharing environments together goes totally against the grain of writing, which is in the end a process of plurally transcribing ideas in a linear fashion. If you want community, join a writing group.

Mind you, the idea isn't god awful. If you need motivation, it's a good enough start

Anonymous Sun Jun 19 02:44:38 2011 No.1861144

>>1861090
So I take it you are not going to participate, that is cool.... I guess......

Is there a grain of writing? Isn't that a restriction in itself? Don't you have to define boundaries to be able to step over them....

I completly disagree with you on all your points. If you feel constricted 'creativly' in a group environment then you have no understanding of what creativity is.....

btw isn't this an attempt to start a writing group?

>>	Anonymous Sun Jun 19 02:55:38 2011 No.1861162 >>1861144 He's denouncing the entire concept, yes, very astute of you.

Anonymous Sun Jun 19 03:02:38 2011 No.1861177

>>1861090

Well, my personal interest in such a project as this lies with the observation of creation as a group process. I participate in it principally out of curiosity.

As for lineality...The nature of spoken and written language makes a linear "unfolding" of information unavoidable. I am highly interested in dabbling, even in a small/silly way, with warping the befores and afters of storytelling. A story is usually a string, but I wish to create an impossible knot that is tied together at both ends.

I also just enjoy the idea of an open-ended /lit/ collaboration that one might waft in and out of on a whim, and a cast of characters created by us that we may discuss and dissect for entertainment's sake. /co/ has some characters of its own, and I enjoy threads where people draw their own interpretations and make up little comics about them. It's just fun. I wanted to know what a /lit/ version of this would be like.

Anonymous Sun Jun 19 03:04:38 2011 No.1861181

>>1861090
I don't disagree necessarily, but this is just for fun. I'm not going to stop writing other things just because I write a few scenes for this plot.

I do know what you mean with the straitjacket comment, but sometimes it can be interesting to put oneself in a straitjacket to find some way out of it, as in a magic trick. Without getting into the jacket the magician cannot perform his magic, of course, but he cannot get out of the jacket without a struggle.

I don't think sharing environments is totally against what writing is. Maybe in a contemporary sense that's true, but Homer, Hesiod, Aristophanes, and Sophocles all shared Greek mythology which either informed their works or seeped into it from time to time. I'm not saying this is anywhere near the equivalent of their masterpieces, but I am pointing it that it's not totally against the nature of writing to share a common universe.

As for the wankery, well... not yet at least.

>>	Anonymous Sun Jun 19 03:11:38 2011 No.1861198 So, I wonder: Who is D.M.? Who is Mr. Peaverton? Why is Mr. Knead so grumpy? And what does he sell? What do the "Bronson boy and his cronies" get up to when they aren't smoking in front of the store?

>>	Anonymous Sun Jun 19 03:17:38 2011 No.1861209 >>1861162 >>1861090 cough samefag cough

>>	Anonymous Sun Jun 19 03:23:38 2011 No.1861219 >>1861209 I knew someone was going to mistakenly call it, but >>1861090 is a faggot anyways.

Anonymous Sun Jun 19 03:32:38 2011 No.1861226

Oh, and how about this: Did Greater Augustine participate in the Great War and WWII? Do those wars even exist in our universe?

I think that we shouldn't tango with WWII or WWI specifically, but having a comparable war in the town's history might be interesting. Mr. Peaverton could be a vet.

>>	Anonymous Sun Jun 19 06:19:38 2011 No.1861409 bump

Anonymous Sun Jun 19 06:25:38 2011 No.1861413

>>1861409
savior

>>1861226
I haven't really given this much thought.... impossible to feign any realism over last centuary without mentioning the war....

I don't think that the town should be on the battle front... however this could allow a vehicle for action....

I am writing a story about a cafe owner who appeals to Mr Nazeer(Nazir) to get a ring road around the town because she is sick of spilling coffee and food every time a truck rolls past.(Thinking somewhere in the 70's)

Anonymous Sun Jun 19 06:36:38 2011 No.1861421

>>1861226
>>1861226

If you write about the war, maybe you should just make the town into an industrail thing, an old factory making bullets or gun barrels or food rations or something. Maybe send a couple of people off to the war but don't actually write about them in the war, just tell their stories through town gossip, and through people who know them before and after the war. Also just refer to it as The War, no specifics.

>>	Anonymous Sun Jun 19 06:38:38 2011 No.1861425 This thread is nearing it's end. Time to round up the details and get ready for the next one. Characters and their traits Stories so far Name of the town (Winters?)

Charles Bronson Anonymous Sun Jun 19 06:56:38 2011 No.1861438

The Bronson boy, Charlie Bronson, named by his mother after the actor, walked through the heavy snowfall of winter in Augustine. Charlie had left the house to search for his friends, all out of school due to Christmas break.

North Main Street's usual traffic had dwindled to but a few cars all passing Charlie by, driving frantically with half-frozen windshield wipers to through the frigid atmosphere of Augustine's fierce late December, and Charlie hiked through the snow so he could get to the house of John Benson, one of his best friends. Each time he stepped, his foot sunk into the slush of water and ice, the cold liquid seeping into his boots and absorbed by his woolen socks. His legs felt heavier and heavier with each movement as he called out for help in the whirl of the blizzard.

His eyelids closing, he stopped in front of Albert Knead's coffee shop and collapsed against the door. Only a few seconds later, the door pushed open and Albert dragged the boy into his shop, hurriedly pulling off all of the boy's wet clothes and throwing more wood in the fireplace to warm Charlie's cold body.

Albert sat in an antique rocking chair next to the fire and the cot he had made for the boy, watching the snow heaping up outside through the display window of his shop. The boy tussled with the blankets and kicked the wall he was lying against as he mumbled to himself about the cold.

"That was a stupid idea, you know," Albert said. "Going out into weather like this...."

Albert turned back and saw the boy's eyelids were shut. He let out a sharp sigh and stood up from his chair to pour another cup of coffee.

>>	Anonymous Sun Jun 19 08:53:38 2011 No.1861572 bump

>>	Anonymous Sun Jun 19 12:36:38 2011 No.1861825 File: 73 KB, 630x906, 1308484125992.jpg [View same] [iqdb] [saucenao] [google] >>1861438 pretty cool BUMP

Sherlock Holmes Guy Sun Jun 19 13:07:38 2011 No.1861869

I think just calling it "The War" would be perfect.

>>1861438
Oh, yes, some development on someone that isn't Nazeer. And now we know more about Mr. Knead, good...

>>1861425
>Characters and their traits
here's a list of names.

Leonardo Nazeer
Mr. and Mrs. Nazeer, his parents
Albert Knead
Mr. and Mrs. Peaverton
Silky the cat
Guilty raccoon
Charles Bronson (lol)
John Benson
D.M.
Stanley
Lizbeth
Mr. Grizzle
People mentioned in Mr. Knead's narrative
People from the dreamverse

>Stories so far
Shall we start picking and choosing a canon, or shall we keep everything for now and cut it down later? (If we keep everything, the parts of the stories that we like will be carried on into others by their own power, and give us more openness, which we arguably still need alot of. If we cut it down now by popular vote/opinion, we may get some more clarity in the story's continuity. I am willing to edit my own contributions to conform to what elements we decide to keep, and also quite willing to toss any bad apples of my own right out the door)

>Name of the town (Winters?)
There is Winters, which is on the north side of the Augustine river, and Augustine itself, which lies to the south of its namesake. (just a suggestion)

/lit/, I am totally surprised with how this has turned out. I'm emerging from anonymity for a minute to ask whether I am expected to be the one to make threads for this, or if we'll all carry it on ourselves, with anyone starting a thread?

Anonymous Sun Jun 19 13:13:38 2011 No.1861878

>>1861869

We'll need a new thread soon, and you started this, so you may as well do the honours.

I say we just keep getting stories, and then later on, we'll edit for continuity, make the town names match up and stuff, maybe take out any clashing details.

Sherlock Holmes Guy Sun Jun 19 13:28:38 2011 No.1861896

>>1861878
Alright, then. I will wait until later to make a new thread, depending on when this one reaches its bump limit or disappears from the board, or if enough anons in here call for a new thread. If someone makes it before me that's fine.

Just a note, anything I write for this project is free to be edited or retold by anyone who wants to tweak with it. I am interested to see how something I wrote would morph as it passes through others' hands. I'm not sure how the rest of you feel about your pieces, though. But here is my take on it--there are certain pieces of writing which suffer greatly from translations and retellings. The beautiful wording is lost. Most poetry is like this. There are certain writings, however, that do not suffer hardly at all from translation, and what these seem (to me) to have in common is that they are retellings. We may not be conscious of what essential element the story contains that makes it retellable and transformable like that, but we instinctively preserve it whenever we successfully pass a story on. So, I am curious about seeing this phenomenon in action.

Anonymous Sun Jun 19 13:33:38 2011 No.1861912

Winters must be the most appropriately named town in the world. When I caught my first glimpse of it I thought I was looking at a snowglobe, every black cloud for a hundred miles seemed to hover over it, spitting down on it with large white globules of snow. When I was almost there, just past The Great Lake, my tyres skidded on some black ice, locked up, and sent me into the side of the road. The mechanic that picked me up, Mr Grizzle, wasn't very helpful, kept saying over and over how strangers always fell for that spot, and that until the snow calmed down some, they couldn't tow it to town. My car has been by the side of the road now for almost a week. I always regret taking the small town jobs.

I found a room fast enough, the mechanic was kind enough to point me in the direction of The Willow Inn. I dragged my suitcase inside and admired the animal heads on the walls and the wonderfully garish carpet as I shook the snow from my mac and hat. After six rings of the bell she popped up. The old bat had been down there the entire time.

"Yes?" she said. It sounded like I was putting her out and I hadn't even opened my mouth yet.

"Ah, hello, m'am, I'd like a room."
"How long?"
"Well, I'm not sure to be honest, my work-"
"You don't know how long you're staying?"

Anonymous Sun Jun 19 13:41:38 2011 No.1861928

>>1861912

She looked down her nose through her glasses and I felt like gripping the old bitch by the throat.

"No, m'am, I don't know how long-"
"Well, how the hell am I supposed to work with this, I need to know how long a man'll stay, I have a business to run here, y'know?"
"I can compensate you for any business lost, m'am. If you're particularly busy at the mo-"
"Well, I am busy! You can't just walk in here off the street and expect a room, this isn't a goddamned soup kitchen!"
"Well, I did make reservation. I phoned ahead two days ago."
"Name?"
"Mills. Raymond Mills."
"Humph!"

I was gritting my teeth so hard I think I cracked a tooth.

The old lady, Mrs Weatherby, allowed me into my room after she had grilled me good enough. It was hard to tell who exactly was the detective in that situatuion, I felt like I should hand her my P.I. license and my gun and start answering the phones at the inn instead. She's a tough old bird.

The room was good enough. A fair sized bed, a desk, a modest bathroom, a chest of drawers for my clothes, and a window looking out onto the highstreet. There wasn't much in the way of shopping, or anything else for that matter, but Cedar St had an old fashioned charm to it that more than made up for it. I could look out my window and see all those twee shops reaching out, way down to the Augustine River on my left, and on my right the mountain framed the street beautifully.

>>	Anonymous Sun Jun 19 13:43:38 2011 No.1861932 >>1861928 >>1861912 Gonna eat now and take a break. I like the idea of bringing an outside detective into it though, even if I am pretty much directly ripping off Twin Peaks...

Anonymous Sun Jun 19 13:48:38 2011 No.1861940

>>1861869
Yeah, I don't mind if you start the new thread when we need it. I'd like for it to gain a bit more momentum before we leave the preliminary stage anyway.

>Shall we start picking and choosing a canon, or shall we keep everything for now and cut it down later?
I don't know. Does anyone have any idea on what stories should be considered canon and which should be thrown out yet? Also, how many stories do we have about Nazir/Nazeer and Augustine/Winters in total? I think someone was saving all of the stories in this thread, but I could be wrong.

Anonymous Sun Jun 19 16:01:38 2011 No.1862209

>>1861928

After a quick bite to eat - eggs and ham, undercooked - I decided it was about time to start on the case, I exchanged contemptuous looks with Mrs Weatherby, and went on my way down Cedar St, the snow half way up to my knees.
I had no luck finding a cab. I asked around but people just looked at me as if I were crazy. I stopped one man, an elderly gentleman, stooped over at a ridiculous angle, and asked him if there were a cabstand near by and he damn near took my eye out with a swipe of his claw. He stood there laughing, beads of sweat covering his face even in this biter weather. I backed away and decided it best to walk. It took half an hour, but eventually I stood outside the biggest house I've ever seen.

Anonymous Sun Jun 19 16:05:38 2011 No.1862215

>>1862209

As soon as I reached the large iron gate, it swung open and swept away all the snow in two slow arcs. When I reached the door at the end of the drive, that opened too, effortlessly, and a cloud of thick white smoke billowed out and dissipated in the cold hour. This place was running on full automatic.

>>	Anonymous Sun Jun 19 16:06:38 2011 No.1862217 >>1862215 Dam, I've only just started again and I realise I have to stop. I might be back in an hour or so to finish...

Sherlock Holmes Guy Sun Jun 19 16:07:38 2011 No.1862218

>>1861940
Someone did mention that they were keeping a .txt file of the stories ITT. I've just now gone through and saved alot of town-related stuff, but I skimped on the apocalyptic stories, so if there is someone inclined to salvage those or put them on the wiki, go right ahead.

>I'd like for it to gain a bit more momentum before we leave the preliminary stage anyway.

I agree. If I make a new thread, I think I will head off the OP post like this:

>Winters and Augustine, an experimental /lit/ collaboration that is open to anyone and still in its preliminary stages.
>Originally proposed as "an ambiguous universe into which we all pour our own narratives in attempts to explore, define, and disfigure its boundaries"

>>	Anonymous Sun Jun 19 16:19:38 2011 No.1862246 >>1862217 I wonder what this detective is detectin', and what era of the town he is from, and just how Twin Peaksy things are gonna get up in here

Anonymous Sun Jun 19 17:25:38 2011 No.1862404

How about the story of different people in a surreal town going about their everyday life? They treat the whimsical and grotesque things that happen as complete normalcy, since it is everyday life for them. Like how in dreams there are familiar places and people only, for example, there are faces peering out from the darkness under your grandmother's kitchen table and her front yard is filled with decapitated statues... But it feels completely normal.
Anything can and does happen, and it's possible for separate realities to exist for some people to make room for the post apocalyptic stories in the beginning of the thread. The 'survivors' are just a few normal citizens, wandering through the streets thinking the world has ended.
No central message, perhaps save for how bizarre what we consider normal can appear to outsiders?

Anonymous Sun Jun 19 17:47:38 2011 No.1862465

>>1862246

I'm gonna see if I can get some more down now. I'm not sure what I'm doing, but I think Mills is on the hunt for a very rare and expensive cat that has gone missing under mysterious circumstances. I also have this idea that I'd like two characters, William Shakespeare and William Stanley, the 6th Earl of Derby. These two will be neighbours and have a sort of feud. Shakespeare hate the Earl because he insists on claiming authorship of his work and constantly invades the stage during his plays asking at the top of his voice "Who allowed this? I gave no permission for this!". Shakespeare get very frustrated with the Earl, because as far as the Earl is concerned, Shakespeare is a figment of his imagination, his pseudonym come to life. I'm not sure how the hell I'm going to mix this in but I'll try. I also want a saloon run by a chinese family. The head of the family will sing Willie Nelson songs and get drunk and cry after arguing with his wife in Chinese for hours in the bar, and he'll go around the customers trying to talk in a cowboy accent. He will also dress like a cowboy even though his wife and two children hate it.

I don't know what I'm fucking doing....

>>	Anonymous Sun Jun 19 17:48:38 2011 No.1862473 >>1862465 Oh, and I imagined it being set in the present day too, but I might change it, I don't know.

Anonymous Sun Jun 19 18:04:38 2011 No.1862523

>>1862404

If you want to tie in the apocalyptic thing, take a handful of characters, three or four, and put them in a cult. They can be tripping balls all day wandering around town crying the end is nigh whilst the sherriff drinks coffee, eats donuts, and says good morning to them all before reading the local paper.

Just tie them into the community. The local cult. Call them The Survivors.

>>	Anonymous Sun Jun 19 18:44:38 2011 No.1862616 bump for stories

>>	Anonymous Sun Jun 19 20:03:38 2011 No.1862811 LIVE! LIVE I TELL YOU!

Anonymous Sun Jun 19 20:10:38 2011 No.1862825

She pressed upon him heavily in the darkness, slipped her fingers up his sleeves and through his cowlicked curls. A thousand and one nights like this, spent in sweat-slicked revulsion under the weight of a hideous unsleeping Shahrazad. She brought deserts of heat upon him, filled his belly with sand, babbled nonsensical versifications that left him feeling a blasphemous and crooked child. God could see him, would one day pluck him from the church pew or the confession box and squeeze him like a ripe tick until the blood of sin burst from his body. All would know he'd lain beneath this evil woman and eclipsed her burning thighs with moonlit palms even though it was forbidden.

>>	Anonymous Sun Jun 19 20:32:38 2011 No.1862875 Is it dead?

>>	Anonymous Sun Jun 19 20:37:38 2011 No.1862879 >>1862875 It's on it's way. I want the detective story to start again, that outline sounds ridiculously awesome.

>>	Anonymous Sun Jun 19 21:02:38 2011 No.1862919 Alright guys. I'll admit I haven't read even 10 posts in this thread, but who has read Tlön, Uqbar, Orbis Tertius by Borges? Maybe we can do something like that.

>>	Anonymous Sun Jun 19 21:04:38 2011 No.1862922 cloris leechman takes a sht

>>	Anonymous Sun Jun 19 21:05:38 2011 No.1862926 >>1862919 You should probably read a bit more of the thread. Ignore the top half.

Anonymous Sun Jun 19 21:55:38 2011 No.1863039
File: 13 KB, 220x230, 318845.jpg [View same] [iqdb] [saucenao] [google]

Alright, so let me get this straight:

Anyone is allowed to make any type of story they want, but the story itself will be judged by the readers in the end, so the writers, at their own discretion, have to try to make it good enough for this town. The shape of this town will be molded by the stories that remain in the mix. For example, a cliche story about aliens and zombies fighting robots in our town probably will not go well and will be eliminated eventually either through neglect or forceful deletion, whereas a story that "fits the flow" and is well-liked by the general consensus will be a new piece of history in this town.

THE ANONYMOUS AND VIRAL ENTITY AT WORK, REPLICATING QUALITY AND DELETING SHIT

Anonymous Sun Jun 19 22:27:38 2011 No.1863157

A photograph of the construction of the original Winters Bridge adorned the wall behind his desk. I liked it that he'd chosen that particular photograph for his office, because if you stood at the place where the original Winters Bridge had been, you'd have a perfect view of Alban-Harrison Middle, and if you stood where original school house was, you'd have a perfect view of the new Winters Bridge. The symmetry of it struck me like music. I doubt Principal Boyer had thought it through like that, though, or would care if I brought it up. He hardly cared that I was in the room, I could tell that from the hunched form and shiny pate that greeted me when I entered.

"Mr. Boyer?"

He was annoyed already; the writing hand paused, everything in his body language spoke of an inward cringing at my presence. To hell with you, I thought.

"Do you have a moment?"

"Is it good news or bad news?"

"I wanted to ask about Johnny. I understand you had him in here earlier today? What happened?"

He took great pains to illustrate to me through the slow blinking of his eyes and the slight downward tilt of his head that it took a lot out of him to put down his pen and look at me. Fuck you, I thought.

"The Benson boy? Fist fight. Nothing unusual."

"But Johnny Benson's never been in a fight."

"He's a growing boy, and I'd say that Bronson kid provoked him something awful. About time somebody knocked that delinquent's block off. Now, please, did you have something urgent to tell me?"

I made my excuses and departed from Boyer's office. The kids were filtering out of the gates already and neither Johnny nor Charlie were anywhere to be found. I returned to my own office to gather my things, designing to speak to one or the other of the boys next day about the incident.

>>	Anonymous Sun Jun 19 22:29:38 2011 No.1863166 >>1863157 Damn, that's quite well done and it opens up a lot of room for the verse to expand. Thanks man!

>>	Anonymous Sun Jun 19 22:49:38 2011 No.1863246 >>1862919 I haven't read it, but I've just googled the title and it sounds really frickin cool.

>>	Anonymous Mon Jun 20 00:58:38 2011 No.1863517 Bump for Augustine

>>	Anonymous Mon Jun 20 01:09:38 2011 No.1863540 I've only just began again and I realise I have to stop. I might be back in an hour or so to continue...

>>	Anonymous Mon Jun 20 01:19:38 2011 No.1863566 Oh, and I pictured it being set in the present day too, but I might alter it, I don't know.

>>	Anonymous Mon Jun 20 01:30:38 2011 No.1863593 Made a wiki page for Knead; took some liberties. Correct it if I've missed something, rendered it non-canonically or what have you.

>>	Anonymous Mon Jun 20 01:35:38 2011 No.1863611 >>1863593 There is no canon as of yet, so what you have there works, and seems good.

Mr Knead-The Ring Road Mon Jun 20 02:51:38 2011 No.1863822

If you looked at objectivly you would rightfully say that it was excess coffee consumption, not the vibrations from passing trucks, that caused Mr. Knead to spill almost every coffee he made. Unfortunatly objectivity was not one of Mr. Knead's strong points.

"Damn it, everytime..." He flicked his shirt, trying to dislodge the coffee before it was able to add to the scattered stains colouring most of his working wardrobe.

"I don't understand it. Where do they go?"

Joanna looked up to see if he directed the question at her. Satisfied that he was venting to the gods she went back to the delicate task of pouring the coffee that spilled into the saucer back into the cup.

Outside another truck passed, rumbling to a stop at the intersection. The engine strained under the heavy load. Every piece of china and glass rattled filling the shop with the sound of an unrestrained timpony.

"That is it" Mr. Knead yelled over the noise "something has to be done. We need a ring road. It is not safe having trucks roll through the centre of town. They never stop, all they do is cause trouble. Tear up the road, it is dangerous for kids. We need a ring road. You agree don't you Joanne?"

Joanne tried to ignore him, she was on annual leave and didn't plan on getting involved in anything for the next two weeks. Besides Mr. Knead was famous for running to the picket line over the smallest quibble.

"Joanne?" he turned from the window and confronted Joanne directly in the eye "You agree don't you Joanne?"

Mr Knead-The Ring Road Mon Jun 20 02:51:38 2011 No.1863823

>>1863822
"Yes"

"Well it is settled then, I am going to find Mr. Nazeer. We are going to get this ring road for the good of Winters. Are you able to look after the shop while I am gone, I shouldn't be too long and it is a slow day"

"No problem" Joanne couldn't wait for Mr. Knead to leave so she could get back to the crossword puzzle "I have no other plans for the afternoon"

"Thank-you. Help yourself to coffee, it is on the house. We are going to do this and Winters will be all the better for it"

He picked up his jacket and left Joanne in the shop. Town was very quiet, as it always was on a tuesday, so Mr. Knead made good time to the mayors office.

Mr Knead-The Ring Road Mon Jun 20 02:57:38 2011 No.1863835

>>1863822
>>1863823
(samefag)
needs editing.

story outline/possible connecting stories.

Mr Knead finds Mr.Nazeer who isn't in his office(because he tripped out over paperwork and needed fresh air) he finds him in park. Convinces him about the ring road(Mr.kneads perspective)

(Mr.Nazeers perspective) is in the park tripping out when an deamon like entity storms up to him and starts talking. Agrees to to whatever the deamon wants.

(Joanne in the shop) All sorts of crazy shit happens.... no details....

>>	Anonymous Mon Jun 20 02:59:38 2011 No.1863838 >>1863835 Nice to see earlier promised stories actually existed.

Raymond Mills - An inquiry (Part 1 of 2) Anonymous Mon Jun 20 08:16:38 2011 No.1864183

Raymond Mills, a gaunt detective just shy of forty, felt the urge of his addiction well up inside. The detective stopped and he took a piece of nicotine gum from his coat-pocket and stuffed it in his mouth. He started his trek through the snow again, forced every few minutes to clear his throat of the heavy mucus clogging it, another remnant of his smoking habit as a police detective made worse by the cold of winter.

More snow piled up as he walked the white streets of Augustine, emptier now than decades past because of Augustine's senescent population slowly descending into death along with the town itself. A booming suburb during the war more than fifty years before, it had transformed into a crypt for the aging generation while their children left for better fortunes elsewhere.

His first stop was a small coffee shop on Main Street, the letters on the sign long faded and its display windows boarded up, owned by Albert Knead, once a major personality in Augustine but now retired and confined to a wheelchair due to the stroke he had four years ago. The detective brushed off the layer of snow covering the door and knocked.

Raymond Mills - An inquiry (Part 2 of 2) Anonymous Mon Jun 20 08:17:38 2011 No.1864184

"Who is it?" a muffled voice asked from inside.

"Detective Mills," Raymond responded.

The detective heard locks unfasten and the door opened slightly with the sound of creaking metal. "Come in," the voice said.

Raymond Mills pushed the door ajar and closed it once again. "Cold today, isn't it?" Raymond said, taking off his gloves. Sitting in a wheelchair, the plump man in front of the detective rested his back on a pillow placed between himself and the leather of the seat.

"It's cold every winter here," the man said. "Sometimes I think that's why the town's called Winters. I'm Albert Knead by the way."

"Raymond Mills," the detective said, shaking hands with the man. "It's good to meet you in person this time."

"Good to finally meet you as well. You want any coffee? Finished brewing only ten minutes ago."

"No, I'm fine," Raymond said. "I'll just get straight to the point. Would you mind telling me what you know about the murder of Leonardo Nazir last October?"

>>	Anonymous Mon Jun 20 08:40:38 2011 No.1864210 bump from the depths

vvv--------New Thread--------vvv Anonymous Mon Jun 20 10:45:38 2011 No.1864343

>>1864340
new thread

>(Mr.Nazeers perspective) is in the park tripping out when an deamon like entity storms up to him and starts talking. Agrees to to whatever the deamon wants.
hahaha

>(Joanne in the shop) All sorts of crazy shit happens.... no details....
I am interested

>Al Knead now retired and confined to a wheelchair
gasp

>murder of Leonardo Nazir
GASP

Anonymous Mon Jun 20 14:58:38 2011 No.1864893

>>1862215

I stepped inside, a little apprehensive. The place was huge, pricey. I stood in front of a large wooden staircase with a red carpet that stretched so far up I could barely see where it ended. I looked down at my feet and saw a heap of dirty snow that I'd trodden into the house. I was glad when a voice in the distance called me away.

"Detective Mills, please, take a seat." This woman was awfully sure of herself. She didn't even look up when I entered, she just waved her hand at the wicker chair in front of her and carried on reading her magazine.

"Thank you, 'm'am. I have to ask though, how did you know it was me? I didn't call to tell you I would be here yet."
"Mrs Weatherby thought it best to let me know," she said, closing her magazine and resting it on her lap, "We're quite a tight knit community round here you know."

She smiled and it was like stretched plastic. I tried not to stare at the lipstick seeping into the cracks around her thin lips.

"I see," I said, "Well, it's nice to see a town with a heart."
"Oh, we have plenty of that, detective."

That smile made me shift in my seat. I pulled my tie loose and tried to pull myself together.

"Well, let's get down to business Mrs Nazir. You said this was urgent, and it's costing you a pretty penny for me to be sitting here right now. I take it you didn't have me come over 200 miles for a missing pet."
"Oh, no, detective. I'm afraid it's more complicated than that. I think my husband has been murdered."

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/lit/ - Literature