The Internet Book Database of Fiction

Well, since we seem to have ample room in this new fora, I figured we could have a sister thread, devoted to discussing (and laughing about) the main "Vollyball - for Writers" thread. We can also offload any ongoing rules discussions over here too.

By doing it here, we don't disrupt the flow of action.

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E.M.: I loved the mystery opening - that was great.

Gazoooo: Heh ... you kept playing on the boss-attraction thingee, so I replied with my "Xenophile" adult humor post. It tied in nicely with the footprint thingee, as well as being a backhanded tip of the hat to EM, for being in the comics industry.

I actually own a copy of that book, BTW, and I've met the author ... hysterically funny guy. The book is a total hoot too. He autographed it for me. Highly recommended. Just google the title, if you want further info. You'd be surprised at the number of high-power authors who've endorsed that title ... including people like Harlan Ellison

So, everyone having fun ?

I'm gonna sit out for a little, and give everyone a chance to have some fun ... otherwise I'll be tempted to monopolize the thread. Besides, I have work waiting for me to attend to

/me munches popcorn.

Pass 'em over Brad.

/tossing another beer to Brad

Shall we both watch for awhile and see if someone picks up the ball.

Sorry, Gazoooo - EM's latest entry weakened my resolve, and I posted again.

BTW, hidden jokes and low key guest appearances by RL friends are fair game:

* "Astral exploration cruiser Popyllol" - aka "the good ship Lolly Pop"
* "Patrol Officer Diane Wilson" ... a fictional alter ego for "Grilka"

My friend (actually, 'acquaintance' would be more accurate) Charlie Pellegrino is notorious for this sort of thing - in fact, he squeezed in myself, and about 7 more of our mutual SciFi friends, into his novel "Dust" a few years back.

Ok, who's goin next ?

I was wondering if anyone would want to retry this, keeping continuity in mind? I was hoping we could get a story out of this but there's no plot and the writing is all over the place.

If we try this again, maybe we should stick to one genre. I suggest science fiction or fantasy since we all seem to be fans.

I'm as much a lover of snappy banter and spotaneous wit as anyone, but it's more of a challenge to try and get a story out of this instead of trying to crack each other up.

If you rather just keep running the current dialogue, than just tell me to shut up and I'll play along.

ElongatedMan: I hear you. I'm 100% game for anything people want to do.

Let's cover both points:

1) CONTINUITY/GENRE:

My primary reason for having kicked things off in a 'vollyball' format (with a constantly changing genre, and a somewhat loose/optional commitment to long range continuity) was as follows:

* Keep things fresh.
* Make participation easy, thereby encouraging as many participants as possible - at least until we reach a self sustaining level.

The greater the commitment to continuity, the harder it becomes over time for people to remember all the pertinent details, characters, and events - esp if you have multiple writers participating, with varying levels of availability and invested effort level.

2) HUMOR:

It's only the last few posts that have been consistently humor oriented. Yeah, I suppose I should apologize for the Andrew Sisters curveball ... but slipping into a cuthulu-esque summoning spell seemed a bit too predictable at the time, and I figured it was good for a laugh.

In any case, I thought occasionally tossing in some running gags would help keep people's sense of fun (and motivation to participate) whetted.
Then again, perhaps that's a bit shallow on my part, and I'm underestimating people's ability/desire to maintain a more serious plot. I'm sure it could work if everyone agreed to it. The first few posts were fairly serious, and were just as enjoyable as the humor oriented posts.

Perhaps people would prefer to try straight writing for a bit, rather than sticking with our hackey-sack /volleyball type format ?

Also, do we want to pick a single genre, or continue to allow the genre to flop around a bit ... albeit a bit less wildly ?

Opinions ?

It's a big board. Why not do both? We can continue to run the Volleyball format and begin a more serious writing practise for those that have the time to participate in such an endeavor.

Ok, go ahead and start one up (serious thread).

I'll participate as time permits ... I'm a bit behind in my work, and I've got a long weekend coming up, so please be patient if the newer thread starts off a bit slowly.

Hopefully, people won't be too intimidated by the serious plot.

Hehehehe! So, I am my own fictional alter ego's fictional alter ego. Can a non fictional ego be a fictional alter ego? What does the Id have to say about all this?

I agree on the 'both' idea. I like being able to write a little something without having to remember/look up all the details of the plot, since I don't really get online for more than a half hour at a time. As it is by the time I clear out the email and then catch up on post reading, my free time is up. (waaaaah!) Forget about actually posting! But it's also fun to have a real story going as EM suggests.

Brad don't even act like you don't have time to do something Frankly I wonder how you ever get your work done! Oh yeah you said you were behind.

Holy cow!! I'm a character! LOL those were funny guys.

Uh oh, ketchup emergency... bbl

What does the Id have to say about all this?

Last I heard, Mr. SuperEgo told his old nemesis, Mr Id, to go 'get stuffed'.

Actually, I did it to hook ya into participating Diane - it was a cheap ploy, but hey ... it seems to have worked. BTW, it's a good thing someone beat me to the punch today, because on the way to work this morning, I thought up a neat mystery scene in which a coroner was doing an autopsy on you ... you'd choked to death on that chocolate donut after a 47 ton piece of building debris landed inches from your car

As for my workload ... it varies. Until recently, things have been on the slow side - but things will be changing shortly. I've got new work waiting for me to get started on (I've been stalling a bit), more work on the way, and I've got an office move/renovation coming up at the end of the month that will probably take me offline for a bit.

So ... things are getting a bit complicated on this end.

I've already gone into semi-retirement over in my Distributed Computing fora.

Cheap but funny Hey it's not that I don't WANT to participate y'know! And I want a better death than choking on a donut!

I want a better death than choking on a donut!

Ok, so what's it worth to ya ?

/me rubs hands greedily ...

ElongatedMan:

I've been spending a bit too much time in the IBDOF lately, and as much fun as it is, I really need to cut back a bit.

The Quill & Fountain, and The Soapbox sub-fora both have the potential of sucking up too much of my on-line time ... they're just too much fun for me, and therefore I don't know if I'll have enough on-line time to fully support both. Plus, I have a workload that's about to increase, and an office move that's pending, so my availability is going to decrease.

Do you have a preference between the two subfora ?

For me, the pleasure of cooperative creativity over here in TQ&F trumps the venal pleasures of adversarial political smacktalk over in Soapbox ... and it's less distracting

Whatever you feel more inclined to do is fine by me, Brad. I, for one, do understand fully about rationing time. The Quill & Fountain it is then!

OK, I'm ready to go - go ahead and kick off another creative thread whenever your muse pushes you

p.s. I only posted over in the sopabox today in order to tie up a few loose ends, nip a few misunderstanding in the bud, and answer a few questions you posed. Please dont construe that as a heavy handed attempt to get in the ol 'last word' - I was just tidying up

Hey Diane - I got ya to drink Kopi Luwak coffee ... as I explained over in the "Reading Room", it's brewed from beans crapped out by a small javanese rodent.

So, how do you like it ?

p.s. My office move is this Friday, so Thursday might be my last post for a few days. Hopefully I'll be back online by sometime early next week.

GRILKA: I was just doing some early packing for my office move, and guess what I just found in my desk:

To Brad:

With True Appreciation

Thank you for the singing telegram at our wedding - we loved it.

- Bill & Allison

(sniff)
Memories ...

Quite frankly, Brad, it tastes like sh*t.

(I know, that's the obvious response!)

AWW, yeah, that was five years ago as of October. I have the video somewhere too, I don't remember what she sang.

Thanks for pulling the story out of the gutter... for now! Heh heh. I don't know what it's worth to me to die an honorable (though hopefully no less bizarre) death.

Heh heh. I don't know what it's worth to me to die an honorable (though hopefully no less bizarre) death.

Ok ... DONE.

One dramatic & bizarre death, delivered on a silver platter

BTW, I want double credit for covering 2 genres at once ... dime romance novels & snuff movies

Oh.... my.... God.... No, you DIDN'T!! ::screams hysterically, stomps feet:: For a few minutes I was scared, I didn't know where you were going with that!!! That has to be THE best death I have ever had. Who can we kill next?

Heh - yeah, I had fun penning that - esp the last few sentences

The hardest part was having to wait 4 days to see your response

- Ye Trailer Trash

We need more participants in TQ&F ... 3 regulars just isn't enough.

Yeah if you can call us 'regulars'!!

I noticed too all the little things you threw in there - Bensalem Witch Trials & all that That stuff is always fun.

Okeis, gotta head out, work's a callin. It's interesting to see the weekend dropoff, I guess everybody just slums around at work then?

Here's another 'little thing' I'd squeezed in:

http://www.nationalgallery.org.uk/cgi-b ... ber=NG6389

Your dance for/with 'Herod' ...

Waltzing their way ...

Your requested death ...

Officer Wilson drifted off to her eternal rest ...

On a silver platter ...

... a spinning hubcap ...

I knew you liked Sting IRL, so the whole post was a bit of a 'head game', reinforced with extra visual & sound effects. So, there's the 'head' in the painting.

Anyway, it's a good example that shows how, sometimes (but not always), a few minutes of up-front plot diagramming, can help to improve the flow & finished result of a particular scene or chapter.

p.s. Who said the Old Testament can't be fun ?