Story #4 - It's that time!
Hey all - Story #3 is out there and it seems to be making the rounds. It's already gotten 10 times the number of views than the first one. Great work, Collective!
So what are we going to do with Story #4? I don't have a big high concept idea for this one like the last two - but the manner of its composition will be a challenge in itself. This Thursday evening I'll be getting on the red-eye to go to Massachusetts for the weekend. Our fourth story will be a tale-in-transit.
As always, send me your submissions. Make them villainous.
But this time, also send me your ideas about what to do both inside and even outside of the story to make this one a different experience.
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Jan 24, 2010 -
Mar 12, 2010
- First created · 10 backed
- Has not connected Facebook
- Website: promiscuousintelligenc...
Pledge $1 or more
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CHALLENGER: You get to submit one adjective per story. // You'll receive: You get to follow along with the project with all of the emails and digital PDFs backers receive. (But that's it. No novel.)
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ADVERSARY: You get to submit one noun per story. // You'll receive: All the emails and digital PDFs AND a copy of my very first novel The Collective.
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FOE: You get to submit one sentence per story. (Think about the power you'll wield!) // You'll receive: Emails and PDFs, obviously. And I will mail you a SIGNED copy of my book.
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ENEMY: You get to submit a character. Give me a name and as much or as little of a description as you want. (You can have some fun with this one: Your friends or family, historical figures, even yourself!) // You'll receive: Emails and PDFs and the signed copy of The Collective.
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NEMESIS: You get to submit a setting in which some of the action has to take place. As with the character you can give me as much or as little as you want. // You'll receive: Everything above AND (here's the big one) a signed printed book of the six stories making up Andrew vs. The Collective! I'm not planning on making this one available for sale - so this will be a very rare commodity (that you helped to write!).
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EVIL DOPPLEGANGER: Send me an email. No, seriously. You can give me any direction you want. Anything you can come up with. Just send me an email. // You'll receive: Everything above and I will include your name in the acknowledgments of The Collective as you are truly a giving benefactor for my writing career.
Comments
Creator Helen Michaud on February 26, 2010
@Dan: A costume eight months in the making? That's going to be epic. You'll have to find some way to share pix with the Collective ...
@Jayson: I'm flattered, especially since when I read yours I could think of nothing cooler. this.thrustEmergencyKill(thrusterPID); for the second time, indeed!
Creator Julie Hauldren on February 26, 2010
Since I excel at procrastinating and breaking rules, I'd like to submit 3 adjectives for this story, to make up for the ones I failed to submit the last 2 stories. Do what you will. Here goes. TUMULTUOUS. ASTRONOMICAL. ERINACEOUS. Can you use all in one sentence? Come on. I'm pretty sure you can. Ain't nothing to it but to do it!
Creator Joy Carletti on February 26, 2010
CHARACTER: Eli Jørgensen is the left half of a pair of conjoined twins. He designs roller coasters but has never actually ridden one due to his physical condition. He can't even go to the theme parks where his better roller coasters are displayed, because people tend to assume he is there for a freak show and protest out of political correctness.
Creator Abby Berendt Lavoi on February 26, 2010
I'm not being creative at the moment. Therefore, I give you my sentence from a book sitting on my desk at the office. How about a free copy to whichever one of your readers figures out where it's from... or (probably more accurately) googles it first? Which means you can't say where it's from in your story, you just have to quote it mysteriously. Opening to random page... pointing... Ok go:
"I am invisible within the thought of the invisible one,
although I am revealed in the immeasurable and the ineffable."
Creator Michele Bell on February 26, 2010
Bravo Han! Today is Johnny's birthday, a fitting tribute to "The Man in Black".
Creator Han Shan on February 26, 2010
Sentence: "When he released Bitter Tears in '64, Johnny Cash said he had Cherokee blood in 'im and later folks said it weren't true but my Indian friend Wally – I think he's Nez Perce – is always tellin' me he's related to the Man in Black."
Creator Elinor Mills on February 26, 2010
Character: Ned, a 65-year-old former spiritual leader of a cult in Oregon, former EST guide, former boxer, former San Francisco hippy, served time for molesting his step-daughter, now lives in his van when he's not washing up at the YMCA or scrounging for recyclables.
Creator Jayson Lorenzen on February 26, 2010
@helen, brilliant and haunting. If I happen bump into @Dan Halloween night, I will run I think.
Cannot wait to see more of this character.
Creator Mike Shen on February 26, 2010
A UC Berkeley journalism student who, putatively on exchange from Xinhua news agency, is, in fact, a spy. (For which government or entity is up to you.)
Creator Burt Herman on February 26, 2010
Noun: A single Cheerio
Creator Rod Naber on February 26, 2010
Setting: A bank heist in central Oklahoma. The vault contains the world's largest collection of $2 bills. A captive is tied in a chair -- mouth covered in duct tape but he's somehow still making noise. There is only one exit and navy seals are waiting outside. The navy seals are there for a completely unrelated matter.
Creator Jeremy Brooks on February 25, 2010
@helen: That is a great character!
Creator Dan Levine on February 25, 2010
@helen LOVE IT! You have just created not only a villainous character challenge for Andrew, but also my next Halloween costume. (Mentally designing the villainous outfit already!!!)
Creator Dan Levine on February 25, 2010
CHARACTER: Jimmy James, a soft-spoken elderly gentleman. He's the kind of person that you don't really notice except from the corner of your eye, and you don't really hear him except as he's walking away, but if you were to pay attention you'd realize that he's everywhere... at all of the important moments in your life. What is he saying as he's walking away? In his quiet, soft-spoken way he is dropping brilliant nuggets of wisdom that you really should be listening to.
And where does he get these nuggets of wisdom? I'm not sure where he gets them from in the story, and that's not important, but i know where YOU will get them, Mr Andrew. As you travel tonight from SF to Mass, you will gather life lessons from the travelers you meet along the way, eg the taxi driver to the airport, the stewardess on the flight, the little boy who you gave your window seat to, and anyone you encounter along the way. Ask each of them, "what do you think is the most important lesson in life?" and write it down. (Bonus if you flip video it!) That is where Jimmy James fills his wisdom bladder, which you will spray onto us throughout story #4 with deadly precision.
Creator Helen Michaud on February 25, 2010
CHARACTER: The Label Maker. An unnamed, mysterious figure with a compulsion to label things with what they are, in neat printed stickers with black block letters on white. LAMP. CABINET. And, of course, LABEL MAKER.
For bonus points, the characters (aside from those provided by the collective) should have names that are also common nouns.
Creator Michele Bell on February 25, 2010
Ooooops, the "BOLD" did not show up...
1. I don't remember.....
2. song
3. One Moment More
4. songs
5. out of the darkness
6. wakeup call
And the sentence starts at "Music had now become...."
Creator Michele Bell on February 25, 2010
Inspired by last week’s internet connection, if you can insert the links for the” bold” wording. I have 22,000 songs in my library and randomly load my player… these among others have been coming up for me when I need them.
Music had now become more important to her than ever before, they were the same songs but now they spoke to her in a different way or maybe she never really listened before; she would sit under the tree during her visit and hum the Jackson Browne song, now conscious of the words…
I don’t remember losing track of you
You were always dancing in and out of view
I must have thought you’d always be around
Always keeping things real by playing the clown
Now you’re nowhere to be found http://www.last.fm/music/Jackson+Browne/_/For+a+Dancer
The song http://www.last.fm/music/Coldplay/_/The+Scientist… by Coldplay on the radio while driving into work, “One Moment More” http://www.last.fm/music/Mindy+Smith/_/One+Moment+More… as she walked to her desk, songs http://www.last.fm/music/Tyrone+Wells/_/More… to pull her out of the darkness http://www.youtube.com/watch… streamed through her earbuds and the morning wakeup call http://www.last.fm/music/Ben+Harper+and+The+Blind+Boys+of+Alabama/_/Mother+Pray… that would prepare her for a new day, the same as the last.
Creator Robin Sloan on February 25, 2010
CHARACTER: Camden Grange. People call him Cam. 45, rangy. Wears thick cable-knit sweaters. Thinning sandy-blonde hair. Scary-pale blue eyes—but he's an affable dude. And a velocity artist. His stuff has been shown briefly at the MOMA (falling from the roof) and in a special Louvre-sponsored "moving exhibit" aboard/beside a TVG from Avignon to Paris.
Creator Jayson Lorenzen on February 25, 2010
Not sure if this post is going to work. I will send it in a message if it fails.
SETTING: The second time through line# 753 in the code below
500 public void reEntryStageFinal() {
501
...
603 else if {
604 this.thrustEmergencyKill(FUSELAGE.FORARD_RCS);
605 }
...
649
650
651
652 /**
653 * Really kill a thruster process that is not responding
654 * FIXME: we should probably switch to use the new method
655 * in the next build.
656 */
657 @Deprecated public void thrustEmergencyKill(int thrusterPID) {
658
...
750
751 } catch (IOException ioe) {
752 logger.error("First attempt failed, try harder.",ioe);
753 this.thrustEmergencyKill(thrusterPID);
754 }
755 }
756
757
758
759 /**
760 * Really kill a thruster process that is not responding
761 * NEW VERSION, WITH -9 ABILITY
762 */
763 public void thrustEmergencyKill(int thrusterPID, bool minusNineEr) {
764
...
Creator Jeremy Brooks on February 25, 2010
Setting:
The top of the North Tower of the Golden Gate Bridge, where a lone figure with a backpack full of spray cans and a rappelling rig is preparing to paint a stylized "Andrew vs The Collective" tag down the side of the tower.
Creator Nichole Owens on February 25, 2010
I want to submit a sentence that I spread around to encourage generosity to all those I come in contact with. I hope that the context it's used in will represent it well. I'd appreciate if the person using this sentence could be a good hearted person: "Curiosity killed the cat, but lil' Generosity never hurt anyone."
Creator Nick Lamb on February 25, 2010
SENTENCE (Yes, I've got a thing for death in stories): As the cluster of violin spiders danced over every inch of her naked form the initial feeling of terror slowly turned into a calm and almost erotic sense of finality.
Creator Craig Blalock on February 25, 2010
This week I would like to see the story have a section which is written Dr. Seuss style. The characters and setting for this section should include, but not be limited to: Snoop Dogg (fo shizzle), Capt. James T. Kirk, Matt Foley (Chris Farley's motivational speaker character from SNL that lives in a van down by the river), and a canary. The canary is necessary because the setting is an abandoned West Virginia coal mine that they have been trapped in overnight. Have fun!
Creator flory on February 25, 2010
this is the first time i'm commenting (i keep forgetting to); i've really enjoyed the previous three stories! i would write a really, really long sentence to make up for the three times i've missed it, but i can't think of one so here this is:
The following is really two sentences...so, um, have either one or both!
Sentence: "Mille feuille's the bomb diggity, 'specially when you get the last slice in the cafe and everyone looks like they wanna tear your guts out for it. _That's_ the bomb diggity."
Creator Jonathan Schmid on February 24, 2010
Word: Zambesomima
Creator Anna Marie on February 24, 2010
Sentence: Save the Margaret Statue in New Orleans!
Creator Betty Ann Sloan on February 24, 2010
I am in the grips of a brain worm ... killer in Kathmandu!
Creator Rod Begbie on February 24, 2010
Sentence: "It's pronounced PEABODY, not Peabody!"
Creator Mikael Vejdemo Johansson on February 24, 2010
Noun: Banach-Tarski paradox
Creator Zach Seward on February 24, 2010
Not a setting, just a phrase: <b>quiet car</b>.
Creator Kevin Jackson on February 24, 2010
Setting: Logan International Airport, Terminal C
To make it different: The first letter of every paragraph should be combined to spell out a phrase. (IOW, the whole story should be an acrostic).