We could carry our discussion here....
All right...I agree this is by far the easiest, since we all have our
own careers. So, I have heard from a few people already who are interested
in co-writing an adventure. Let's get to it!
What I need now is a suggested story. Anyone have a quirky event,
villian, or death-machine they'd like to suggest? Or a title or anything else
to spark the book. It doesn't matter to me. I can write on any topic
(but let's not make it a stupid one; please think of it as a legitimate Doc
adventure so let's make it as cool as possible). I can also create the
topic myself, but thoguht it might be more fun if the group nominates some
potential villians/tales and then we jump from there. That'd be more
interactive and fun. But keep it original. Let's not just rehash and
old tale or reuse old characters. Time to use your OWN imagination.
Then I'll write the first chapter and post it here to see what happens
next. I don't know how fast others writers write -- I myself am extremely
fast and usually do chapters within an hour to a few hours. But, just to be
nice, I'm sure we could allow a week per chapter. That'd be more than enough for a few pages.
The main rules are this:
1) HONOR THE INTEGRITY OF DOC AND GANG, THEIR ERA AND MYTHOS.
2) WRITE A REAL ADVENTURE. CLIFFHANG EACH CHAPTER.
3) REMEMBER IT IS A TRUE STORY, WITH BEGINNING, MIDDLE, AND END. THIS MEANS YOU CANNOT ENDLESSLY INTRODUCE NEW CHARACTERS AND DEVICES. WORK WITH THE ESTABLISHED CAST AND PLOT.
4) IF IN DOUBT, DON'T. This means "I wonder if any will notice if I
kill off Ham?"
5) BE ORIGINAL. DON'T BE AFRAID TO IMAGINE. CREATE NEW, VIBRANT
CHARACTERS AND SCENES. DON'T REHASH THE OLD.
6) WRITE WELL. This isn't the time or place to louse up a tale with
remedial grammar, spelling, etc. That'll just ruin the book for
everyone. We're all readers. Let's do some justice to Doc and his fans.
Everyone gets their name on the chapter they contribute. We'll post
the finale novel here or out at Hidalgo or wherever is eventually decided
as home.
I think I should add that maybe in case things don't work out, as in no
one finishes the tale and it is left hanging at Chapter Ten or something,
maybe the core writers of the group like myself, Howard, Joe, Tom, etc.,
should agree to finish it. Maybe we'll be the "editorial advisory board" or
some such, so we can tidy up the end mess.
Sound good (or good enough for something I just pulled out of a magic
hat)? Good.
OK, I'm ready for suggestions. Anybody have a character, villain,
place, color, event, or plot suggestion?
Cheers,
Thomas Fortenberry