The Fiction Cloud: Worldbuilding Node-Network
SabreCat:
Last entry I put up a lengthy ramble about an idea I had for a collaborative fiction thing. The idea wouldn't let me sleep, so now I'm going to put it to work rebuilding my writerly habits!
The idea (slightly refined from the Audiodidact ramble) is thus. I start with a title for a setting, and a single "node". A node is a minimally described fictional entity in that setting, consisting of a name, a tag, and a description. Name is self-explanatory. The tag tells what kind of thing it is: character, location, object, event, concept, quality, whatever. And the description is some phrase, quote, or elaboration--no more than a few sentences--giving a broad but flavorful hint at what it's like.
So to start, this fiction cloud is called Mirage. The first node is
[Character] Anna Destrier
"This world is broken beyond repair. Time to cut our losses."
Kinda like a CCG card or something, eh? Anyway, from here, we add more nodes. Every node beyond the first must have one or more relationships to already established nodes. So if the next node were a character, it'd have "Rival of Anna Destrier" or "Brother of Anna Destrier" or something, a location might have a relationship "Anna Destrier lives here", you get the idea.
Anybody who can read this LJ is welcome to add nodes via comments! And I'll always add at least one node whenever I post an entry. So it could be a slow-building solo project or a rapid collaborative explosion, depending on how much interest it generates, heh. The thought is that in time, we'll have this massive, convoluted, organically created setting for use in whatever way desired--even if that's just to shelve it as-is once it's hit a critical mass.
The main thing I need to figure out is how to compile and represent the node-cloud so people can review it without backtracking through all the entries, preferably by some process that doesn't take more time than inventing a node to begin with. (Suggestions are welcome. There may be software that does this sort of thing?) But that's a difficulty to tackle later. For now, there it be!
Last entry I put up a lengthy ramble about an idea I had for a collaborative fiction thing. The idea wouldn't let me sleep, so now I'm going to put it to work rebuilding my writerly habits!
The idea (slightly refined from the Audiodidact ramble) is thus. I start with a title for a setting, and a single "node". A node is a minimally described fictional entity in that setting, consisting of a name, a tag, and a description. Name is self-explanatory. The tag tells what kind of thing it is: character, location, object, event, concept, quality, whatever. And the description is some phrase, quote, or elaboration--no more than a few sentences--giving a broad but flavorful hint at what it's like.
So to start, this fiction cloud is called Mirage. The first node is
[Character] Anna Destrier
"This world is broken beyond repair. Time to cut our losses."
Kinda like a CCG card or something, eh? Anyway, from here, we add more nodes. Every node beyond the first must have one or more relationships to already established nodes. So if the next node were a character, it'd have "Rival of Anna Destrier" or "Brother of Anna Destrier" or something, a location might have a relationship "Anna Destrier lives here", you get the idea.
Anybody who can read this LJ is welcome to add nodes via comments! And I'll always add at least one node whenever I post an entry. So it could be a slow-building solo project or a rapid collaborative explosion, depending on how much interest it generates, heh. The thought is that in time, we'll have this massive, convoluted, organically created setting for use in whatever way desired--even if that's just to shelve it as-is once it's hit a critical mass.
The main thing I need to figure out is how to compile and represent the node-cloud so people can review it without backtracking through all the entries, preferably by some process that doesn't take more time than inventing a node to begin with. (Suggestions are welcome. There may be software that does this sort of thing?) But that's a difficulty to tackle later. For now, there it be!