THE SKY IS FALLING!!!!!!!!!!&#, Ok, seriously now.....

The board's falling apart! How do we fix it!?

The sad truth of it all is that this board was basically held together by "Juli". Now that he's not posting chapters anymore, it's falling into obscurity.

I hardly write anymore - I don't have the time, nor the willpower, or maybe just not enough of the second to make enough of the first. Either way, I haven't written anything of note in months.

As it is, I'll make a big effort to be more active here - it should be easier now as I'm going to aim to steer clear of RSC. Anyway, the only way we can aim to make this a more active place is by being active.

Of course, it looks very empty as it is... Perhaps if we just had a single board for written work, rather than splitting everything up, people would find there's more going on than they suspected?

I'm up for anything that keeps the Archives alive. Are we allowed to advertise on RSC yet?

Also, have you talked to Juli?

Multiwriter Story Project anyone?

This time I propose something different. Instead of somebody write the first chapter, we'll have somebody draw a map of the fictional world we're writing the story in, and then the next person gets to look at the map and start the first chapter. Then as people alternate, we stay true to the map unless catastrophic events happen that changes the landscape... but that wouldn't happen very often.

And if you wanted to change the landscape, you'd need to recreate the map.

Anyway, I'm all for the idea. I know we tried it before, and I was an integral part of it failing, but I'm sure we can pull it off.

Any thoughts, Gandy?

(Yes, I can see you logged in.)

Sounds good to me. I'd be happy to join, if you guys will have me.

Now, about this "map".... I guess you don't mean that in a literal sense, do you?

It'd be worth a try anyway.

lol, I did mean the map in a literal sense. It's not really that difficult.

We can all draw random shapes with extremely jagged edges that'll act as landmass. On the landmass, make a square dot for a city and a round dot for a town. Draw trees by drawing a circle and a verticle line under it (as trunk), draw lots of them to make a forest. If it's in the northern climates, change the circle to a triangle for pine trees. Dotted lines can resemble marshes. Lots of dots can resemble desert... little "v"s with a third stroke in the middle can resemble grassland... be creative! Make up names for landmarks, landscape features (mountains, lakes, rivers, etc...), cities, etc... It'll be fun!

Holly Lisle (a writer who has a website for writing workshops) advised that fantasy novels work really well if you begin by drawing a map. It makes sense, since drawing a map helps us achieve a better focus on what the world is really like.

Alrighty. I guess we'll each draw our own versions and post them on here, compare notes, make a final version, and draw from that.

What shall the setting be? Past? Present? Future? Combination past-present-future? (Like the Final Fantasy series)

Also, I know that more than one person is the administrator of this board. Can anyone upload new images for the "reply" and "post new topic" buttons?

I'll fix the buttons. Was kinda hoping they'd come back on their own, as they are sometimes apt to do.

This project sounds interesting. For my senior project I had to come up with a flyer for what my goals were, and I just so happened to photoshop an old map for the background. You guys are free to use it, though it may be kinda small (about 10.6x8 inches). I can (relatively) easily make it bigger if you need it to be.

Here's the link:
Old Map

I do love to see a map before reading a story. It makes you think, "Ooo, how will this area come into the story?"

Good idea.

~Knight~

Tolkien.

Sounds good. I haven't tried my hand at fantasy in awhile anyway.

Hey, do you guys think we can ask people on S&P If they would like to join us? (The project, I mean)

It's worth a shot. I'll send people the link, if I think they're worthy.

Alright then. I'll make a topic about it, but to ensure that no one tries to BS me (highly doubtful) can you make a post in it saying that you approve of the link? Or would you like to do it yourself? (the topic, I mean)

EDIT: Nevermind. Is this the Third story project, or the second? If it's the third, then it means we'll still have time to plot out the map.

Exactly what I was thinking.


Anyway, I like the idea and I'd love to have a go at this.