Hey, I was just thinking...I've been reading "End of the Bloody Line" and thinking how cool it was for so many authors to be working on one fic, and how very well it came out, with so many different styles, and yet still cohesive and all...

I was thinking it might be fun if we started something like that for the site now? Maybe start with some of the older challenges that nobody's claimed? Somebody start with the first chapter, then tag the next person, and so forth?

How would we go about doing that? Is it possible? Is anybody else even interested in that sort of thing?

Just a thought :)

*hugs to all*

DoS

I've always wanted to do that ^.^ Count me in!

(I hope that doesn't scare anyone off....)

ROFL. That sounds like a wonderful idea.

My recollection of the original was that BSB started it off with her unused chapter that was already written and that Oracle Holly organized it. Everyone knew the order and who they followed, so there were no excuses for not being ready on your day.  Of course, you couldn't write your chapter until the one before you was done because you had to know what happened there.  I can't remember the time frame - a week? two weeks? Something reasonable and yet often enough that readers wouldn't lose interest and forget about it.  I suggest you let this one play itself out and then see if Dia is willing to have another.  Could be fun, though.

yea!!! i'm glad some other people are into the idea...i wonder if there'd have to be something specific set up to do that? so that more than one person could make changes to a certain story? hmmm...i know nothing about the mechanics of this sort of thing... :P

LoL, answer one of my challenges *pokes DoS*

i was just thinking, someone could open a new account (with permission of course) with the author's name being "round robin" or something like that, and then if it would make it easier, each writer in turn could send their chapter to the person managing the account, and they could post it with the proper credit to the author for that chapter...that might keep from there having to be any major changes made to the system or anything like that?

i don't know, just a suggestion :)

and to your comment, EAS, a big  :P

lol

no, seriously, we could use one of yours...it might be fun to have a collaberation of a lot of writers to come up with all the requirements for some of those challenges, instead of one person trying to match up with someone else's original plot bunny, ya know?

About to head off to bed, but yeah. We've already used the BSV Projects account for the other RR, so if this ends up being a project organized by the site, we can use that one again. But I have to tell you right away, if we do this as a BSV RR, it will be organized, have certain rules, all that stuff. If you're intereted in that, I'll put together some ideas tomorrow (for the rules, not what to write about), and put them into the forum. If you would prefer something with less planning, I'd be absolutely fine with you using the forum to talk about, discuss and plan it. Thing is, if it isn't know who the authors are beforehand, the fic will have to stay on the moderated list, no auto-validation unless all the participants are on auto-val too.

Well, I'd say discuss it some more, and I'll post some suggestions about how it could look if we do this as a BSV project tomorrow, alright? I still remember most of what OHolly did to make the other one work, so we should be able to give it another go. 

yea!!!! *hehe*

really, i'm okay with it being either way....either as an official BSV project, or perhaps a bit less organized...

as for who the writers would be, i think it might be a little more interesting if you dont really know when you're going to get tagged, you know? like whoever wrote the last chapter just picks the next person...but of course, we'd have to have those who were interested sign up, i guess...so we're not randomly tagging people who really dont want to do it, you know? like, we could have a list of writers who want to be involved and pick from those when we tag someone....

ideas, peoples??? :)

*whimpers* No one would tag me

And well, Angelic Amy did one of my challenges and the another one has to do with the movie... and for some reason not a lot of fans of the show seem to be fans of the movie, which strikes me as odd since I watched the show because I was a big fan of the movie *shrugs*

lol....i never saw the movie....but i can see how that might sort of rule out that challenge, since i think i may not be the only one who either hasn't seen the movie or isn't all that into the movie....i mean, hey...no spike!! :-O

but there are tons of challenges up that nobody has taken yet...we could set a limit on chapters, like say, 30 per fic? and just start with one, take another one when we finish it, that sort of thing?

LOL...you do know that using a challenge kinda defeats the whole RR side of things, don't you? The idea is NOT to have anythng set that you have to write...just each go where you will from the chapter before hand.

DoS...if you do make it just a random tagging then you would probably need to allow longer between posts in order to give the next person time to write and have their chap beta'd. The way we did it in the last on is you sent your completed chap to the next person to read as soon as it was written...which gave them a bit longer than the week between postings to get their chapter written.

Well that was the point of the challenge! Putting Spike in the movie! lmao

...

........

can we do a really smutty one.....

....?

*tucks head and blushes*

good point, always.... :P

we could just have whoever started come up with the original idea off the top of their head, i suppose...

and as for smut...up to the individual writers, i suppose :)

What you could do is all agree on say...we'll do a 'twist' of X episode...and the first person star of in that particular ep and just go from there...

Or we'll write a Season whatever fic and the first person just starts in that season.

Let's rewrite Wild at Heart so Oz doesn't leave dammit!

Wait...Spuffy...think Spuffy...

...Ok, I'm in. Sign me up or put me down for being tagged, whatever ;)

LOL, you with the Oz obsession..... :P

Well, just because it's Spuffy, doesn't have to mean that there aren't other pairs in the ensemble!

LOL, you with the Oz obsession..... :P

Well, just because it's Spuffy, doesn't have to mean that there aren't other pairs in the ensemble!

HA! I'm gonna make them as groiny as Buffy and Spike! *grin*

I'd be willing to participate, but I like Dia's idea of having rules for this. Rules are good.  :nod:

Though I will say this, I'd like to have at least a week and half to two weeks between chapters or maybe a head start on where the person before me starts their chapter. Being dyslexic I miss errors that are easier for others to see and my part may have to be rewritten a few times before posting.

 If that is too much of a problem then I could always help with plot ideas. I may not be able to spot spelling and grammar errors but I can help with plot ideas. :)

  Being dyslexic I miss errors that are easier for others to see and my part may have to be rewritten a few times before posting

I feel your pain hun. Some days are way worse than others and you don't want to even write your name.

I think this is a great idea! I would definatly be down for this! I think some rules are good, and about a week between each chapter. I also think that one person should serve as the beta for all chapters. Does that sound like a good idea?

*staggers to her chair and squints at the monitor" Ok, so much for posting this early today. Boss hurt his shoulder and I had to tag along everywhere in case he had to lift something. Also, remember me mentioning the time in my last post? Well, clever thing that I am, I took my book to bed. Two hours of sleep ain't enough, not even for me.

Anyway, (suggestions for) rules:

• a chapter has to be between 1000 and 5000 words (Think of this a a guideling more than a rule. No one is gonna tell you to cut your chapter if you're closer to 6000 than 5000 words, but trying to stay within those limits would be nice.)
• You have to subscribe to play. Some infos will be needed, like "are you willing to write a smutty chapter" and "will you have any other obligations in the near future that will make it hard/impossible for you to write a chapter in the given timeframe of x weeks? If yes, from when to when will you be unavailible?"
• Everyone who is on auto-val at the BSV can parttake. Ask if you aren't sure if that's the case for you. If you aren't on auto-val, or have never submitted a story to the BSV before, let me know and we'll talk about it. (I'm pretty sure in the end everyone who wants to will be able to play, but by talking it over we'll know why you aren't on auto-val yet, and asign you a beta or something like that.)
• As long as no one under 18 signs up, the story can be NC-17, but I think we should stay away from things that not everyone is comfortable with. e.g. no graphic rape-scenes, no sub/Dom relationships (relationship =/= sex), ... Maybe everyone who signs up can give me a list of the stuff that makes them really uncomfortable, and we can go from there. (And I mean uncomfortable, I'm not talking about "I don't really care for baby!fic", I'm talking about "I don't read fics who carry that warning, and when I stumble upon one anyway, I wanna curl up into a ball and cry".)
• Once the subscription period is over, you will be assigned a timeframe and a list will be send to every author who sined up. You can doublecheck if the date assigned to you works for you (if not we can shuffle people a round a bit).
• You'll have a timeframe of lets say two weeks, but it is encouraged to send your chapter to the next author as soon as it is done (as in, your beta and the next author should receive it at the same time). That will give the next in line a bit more time to come up with ideas, as it is unlikely that your beta will tell you to re-write the whole plot.
• If your beta DOES discover any plot-holes and you end up making major changes, please inform the next author about that imidiatly. Don't just send them the re-vamped chapter, but SAY "I changed the bit about them going to the crypt, the chapter now ends with them still being at the house". We wouldn't want the next author to not notice something that important.
• If something unexpected comes up and you won't be able to do your chapter (or at least not at the assigned time), let me know about it right away. I'll try to find someone to swap with you, or someone to take over, or something like that. Even if we end up with an empty time-period somewhere in the middle, we'll need to know that the author before you needs to send his/her chapter to someone else.
• Characterization: This one is iffy. Even while staying IC, there are certain things that every author has his/her own ideas about. I would encourage everyone to try to stick to the interpretations that the author before them choose. That way the characters will seem more like the same person. Same with facts that are a bit up in the air, or stuff that got jossed. If author A goes with Spike and Angel hating each other (as in really, really hating each other), it would be good if author B sticks with it - even if author B thinks Spike is just angry that Angel abandoned them and secretly yearns to be reunited with his "sire". That's just something you'll have to swallow in a RR - you get to yank around the plot though, so that's something I guess. ;-)

I think Jenna's idea about one beta sounds pretty interesting. I still think everyone should have their own beta for the basic stuff, but if we could find someone who's willing to doublecheck all the finished chapters before they go up, that'd probably be good. They would have a much better grasp of what has been happening in the story so far, and will be able to pick up on smaller things that the individual betas might miss. Question is, who would be willing to do something like that, would be quite a bit of work.

Anything you want to add, anything you think is stupid or would work better differently? Hit me with it, those are suggestions that I think would help make this work better, if you disagree, let's talk it out.

LoL, I'm only slightly dyslexic and even THAT causes problems with funny wording that my poor betas try to catch. *gives Patti, Ruth, and DoS lots of cookies and chocolate*

Ahhh.... no kinky sex? Dammit.... lmao

I'd rather do a final beta than to write a chapter - so I would volunteer to do that.  I would expect writers to use their usual betas first, and then I would give it a final read-through before it went up. Unless everyone really wants it beta'd by just one person. I was thinking along those lines initially...

Yup Patti, that's what I was imagining for the "general beta" thing. Everyone uses their normal beta, and the "general" one just has to check if someting was missed, and if the chapters fit together.

And EAS, I didn't say no kinky sex. With the sub/Dom thing I specifically said "relationship =/= sex", and I meant no sub/Dom REALTIONSHIP. As in one chracter dominates the other in every aspect of their relationship. That's fine for bedroom games, but if one partner ALWAS bows to what the other partner wants, if he/she NEVER has an opinion of their own and sticks up for it - well, I'm extremely uncomfortable with that concept. If you see that different, that's fine; I suggested staying away from things that make one of the participants really uncomfortable, so I used the two things that I have serious problems with as an example. (I just assume you meant the sub/Dom thing, because I hope you don't consider rape kinky sex.)

As for actual kinky sex, as long as no one lists a particular kink as something they would have a problem with, you can use it all you want - as long as it fits in with the plot and the characterizations. If someone says they would have a problem, well, it'd be pretty unfair to change a fic someone took part in into something they won't even be able to read.

Sounds like fun, Di.  Thanks for being the hardest working moderator in Buffyverse. 

yea!!! i'm so excited to come on here today and see so many people interested!!! all those rules that dia came up with sound just fine to me, and i can't wait to get started!!! i think this is going to be so much fun!!

Ok, so should we all make some sort of seperate post or sign up thingie so we can keep track of who all is interested??

I was actually thinking of using our lj-comm for that. That way I can screen the posts. I might be too careful about those things, but I would like to keep the "uncomfortable with" comments private. No need for someone who won't be able to write his/her favorite kink, to know who's fault that is. Plus, not everyone is neccessarily comfortable admitting to what makes them uncomfortable.

I'll make a post and screen comments, and everyone who's interested can comment there. (Annonymous comments will of course be on, so everyone should be able to access it.) What do you think?

Ups, this turned out pretty long I'm afraid. This is an EXAMPLE of how I think the lj-post should look. I'm posting it here first, because I'd like you guys to take a look and let me know if you think I should change anything. (You were the ones to come up with the idea after all, so it is only fair if you have a say in the planning.

Oh, and I thought maybe it would work best if we start this the same way BSB did with the other RR. I could write you a first chapter, and you can run with it? I could probably even do two different ones so you can choose. (Starting fics I can do, it's the finishing that I'm having trouble with - hence the lack of fics by your's truly. ;-) ) If you prefer a challenge we can do that too, but I actually think having a first chapter and going form there will allow you more freedom than a challenge.

Anyway, the example. (Do NOT sign up here, this is an EXAMPLE, the real thing will go down in the lj-comm.)

Hey all, we're going to try to have another round robin, as suggested by DreamsofSpike.

You can sign up for it by leaving a comment to this post (will be screened). Please use the following form to sign up.

BSV Screenname: (Username of your account at the BSV)

Email Address:

Will not have time: (Finals, surgery, vacation, if you know that there is a time coming up when you won't be able to write, give me the dates and I'll make sure your assigned chapter will not clash with your other responsibilities.)

Uncomfortable with: (Things you really don't want to see in a story you're participating in. As in they make you so uncomfortable, you wouldn't be able to read the story if this came up. E.g.: rape – Will NOT be part of the fic.)

Would prefer not to write: (Things you will read, but would prefer not to write. If you list a lot of things here, I'll try to assign you an earlier chapter, so there is a better chance of your "squick" not being part of the story yet. A "squick" mentioned by the majority of the writers might even be banned from the story altogether. – We'll try to at least not make you write it, even if it might come up in later chapters.)

If you're under 18, please tell me your age:

Are you willing to writing a smutty chapter:

This will be the rules for our little RR, please read them before signing up.

A chapter has to be between 1000 and 5000 words (Think of this a guideline more than a rule. No one is gonna tell you to cut your chapter if you're closer to 6000 than 5000 words, but trying to stay within those limits would be nice.)

All BSV authors on auto-validation (when your fics get posted directly, without a mod looking at them first) who sign up can play. If you haven't submitted anything yet, or if you're still waiting to be put on auto-validation, you can sign up anyway, but I'll most likely contact you before assigning you a chapter/timeframe. Don't worry, I'll just make sure you have a beta at hand (for those still waiting), or ask for an example of your work if you haven't submitted anything at the BSV yet. (Not trying to harass or control you with this, but we wouldn't want any trolls to sneak in to take away all the fun, now would we?)

I'll take the authors who want to play, and put them in some kind of sensible order according to the dates when they will be available. Everyone will get a copy of that list, which will tell you when your chapter is due, and who the authors before and after you are.

You'll have two weeks to finish your chapter, but each author is encouraged to send their chapter to the next author as soon as it is ready for betaing. That way you'll hopefully all end up with more than two weeks. (Should your beta suggest any major changes, please inform the next author about those immediately. Don't just send him/her the revisited chapter, but mention what you changed. E.g. "Here is the new version. Please note that I took out the bit about them heading over to the crypt. The last scene does NOT end at the crypt, but at Buffy's house.")

Please try to stick with the characterization and the universe the author before you set up. You can play with the plot all you want (as long as it makes sense), but even if one of the "fact" the previous author used is up to interpretation, please stick with his/hers instead of switching to the one you prefer. E.g.: Author A choose to have Spike and Angel hate each other, as in really truly hate each other. Even if you usually prefer to believe that Spike is just angry that Angel abandoned them when he got the soul, and is secretly yearning to be reunited with his "sire" – don't. Swallow your pride and stick with what the authors before you declared as truth. Otherwise we'll end up with a choppy fic.

Make sure you have a beta at hand. If you don't have one, let me know and I'll see if we can sweet-talk one. Slaymesoftly offered to be a "general" beta for all the chapters, but that only means that she will double-check the already beta'd chapters, and make sure noting we missed, and that everything fits together smoothly.

That sounds pretty good to me. Now, if you are not on validation, you can still sign up, but when are they going to ge the good to go? After the mods talk it over?

Just wondering. It looks pretty good! :)

Guess that will depend on what we already know about the author. If she is relatively new to the BSV and either hasn't submitted enough chapters yet to go on auto-val, or tends to have some minor problems that make us keep her on manual-val so we can help out, then they'll most likely be good to go right away. Same if we know the author from elsewhere and know they write well. If we know the author has major problems, we'll ask about their beta, and, if neccessary, try to find an additional beta for their chapter. If we never heard of the author, we'll ask for an example of their work, and go from there.

I'm not trying to exclude anyone, but I have seen some truly frightening submissions: people who don't know what a upper-case letter is, people who seem to think that if you don't know how to use punctuation correctly, it is best not to use it at all, ... In some cases I seriously doubt that they were "real" submissions, they were most likely trolls who thought they'd have some fun annoying the mods. Assigning a chapter to someone like that would only take away the fun for the other authors, because we'd have to leave out that chapter and somehow fill the gap at a moments notice.

looks excellent to me!!! :) nothing i would change, can't wait!!! :)

Cool. I'll try to get this started as soon as possible. Would probably be good to have the start-chapter ready before you start signing up, that way people can decide if it interests them. (Have two possible ideas swirling around my head right now, I'll try to give it a go tomorrw and see how they turn out.)

Wheeeee!! Are we still doing this? There still enough interest?!?

Yes. Like I said, I want to finish the start-chapter before the sign-up. That way everyone can decide if it sounds interesting. But you're gonna have two weeks to finish your chapters, I'm trying to give you two different options here, so I'll need at least those two weeks as well. Working on it though, first one should be ready to be beta'd soon.

Ooooh! You're writing the first chapter?!?  Neat! *grin* I thought DoS was running this thing and you were putting down ground rules and stuff.

Neat! Okies...was just wondering

*goes back to photoshop*

naw, i'm not running *nothin'*!!!! lol...i just had the idea...lol....i'm perfectly content to leave all the actual responsibility to someone else :P lol

and btw, thanks dia!!!! you're awesome!!!

*hugs*

DoS

Well, to be honest, me writing the start-chapter is partially because I want to play too, but with a vacation coming up, and the stress I expect to have at work after being gone for nearly a month, I don't know if I'll be able to write a later chapter. Also, I thought basing it on one existing chapter is a good idea, since it worked out so well last time. However, I don't much like asking someone else to do something like that, because there is always a risk that someone will complain, and I don't want to put anyone in a position to be bitched at.

Nah...I doubt anyone would bitch...or at least they shouldn't. Its supposed to be fun!

I'll just warn everyone right now...Oz is around! Muahahaha....

*goes to get the ropes*

Are you saying you want the RR to feature Oz? Damn, the two options that I have are s5 and s6, should I try to add a third one in an earlier season? I know you could just bring him back, but maybe having the option of chosing a slightly different set of characters would be nice.

Btw, the two I have: While you can of course twist it every-which way, I think one has the potential to turn out funny, and the other angsty. They don't have to, that's just what I would probably do with the setup. While I'm wondering about adding one in an eaarlier season anyway (not promising anything, mind you - just thinking about it, should I have the time), is there also a third genre you'd like to see hinted at?

LOL Dia, write whatever you feel because like you said, I can always bring him back. If you go the S5, Oz could come back cause we can keep Tara crazy and he can help Willow take care of her or something.

S6 has Willow and Tara breaking up cause Willow goes all wonky with the magic so he could come back there or he could come back at the end and be the one to save Willow and keep her from going apocalyptic when Tara gets shot...

...he is easy to bring in, no matter what you write hun.

I was only teasing about bringing him in, but now you've got me considering it LOL