Group Writing

I am doing something really fun for me. In case you can’t tell, I love to write. It is fun. It is amazing. It is solitary. Now, I happen to like people. A few of my best friends are people. Some of them are not. I have had many meaningful conversations with the rainstick that casually reclines against the wall across the room. He always wants me to write about rain, but I like him because he never criticizes my work. Most of my friends tend to be imaginary, but I think of them as people, too. There is only so much your imaginary friends can add to a story before it gets monotonous. Seriously, the voice in my head that I used for the serial killer in Shrink always says the same things about killing people with screwdrivers. That voice is almost as bad as the three or four who gave me ideas for demons in Angelcide. (I’m am joking here…or am I?)

When you can get together with someone else and write a story, bouncing ideas off one another, it is truly great for the creative process. Since I work alone most of the time, I thought of something different. What if I get my Facebook friends to help me write a new story? If they pick the topic, then I would have a story to stretch my writing muscles. Who would have thought they would go for a gothic story? Well, they hang out with me so I guess that’s not much of stretch.

Now for the challenge. I wanted to include as many of their thoughts as possible. In this Techno Gothic Tale (yes, that is what I called it), I have been able to work in most of their comments and few of their typos that were really funny. Today, I even managed to add in a mention of a very unusual character one person suggested called the Granola Kid. (He’s a hippy cowboy who likes his chili with tofu. Don’t judge him until you have tried it.)

I really have no clue how this story will end. To be honest, I don’t know what’s happening next. This is scary, challenging, confusing and enlightening. My goal is to create a story that people want to read by letting others guide the story. I’ll keep you posted on how it goes and will probably post it on my Sneak Peeks blog. Still trying to wrap my brain around a hippy cowboy.

Feel free to check out the story in the notes section of my Facebook writer page and toss in a few ideas of your own: https://www.facebook.com/DougRomigWriter