Omniverse One

What is this?

This is about a new arc I am planning for Comix, called RODINAGRAD RISING. It's different, however. More on this in a moment.

I've noticed that most arcs for Comix tend to fail, mostly due to the author losing interest. Therefore I have developed a solution -why not have multiple authors? This is a Round Robin, and these sometimes fail too, most commonly due to different authors trying to pull the story in different directions, or the original plot being lost under a flood of mutations and plot tumours. To counter this, there are therefore two phases to the crafting of the story.

Planning

In this phase, ideas for chapters are submitted. For example -

Prologue
Characters: Rodinagrad, Communist Manifester, Red Chord
Events: Rodinagrad returns to the Earth, creating a pulse of Communist energy vaguely detectable to those attuned.

I am going for forty-five chapters, not counting the prologue and epilogue. Remember that these are the limits, and should probably be enough to tell the story satisfactorily. A chapter idea has to be approved first (this is to prevent plot tumours, to use the TVtropes parlance, and blatantly stupid ideas as well).

Writing

An impartial arbiter selects a writer for each chapter randomly, making sure not to do one person twice or more in a row (we'll need at least four interested people for this, maybe more). The person then writes the chapter within a time limit of two months (should be enough). If he does not write within the time limit or makes clear that he cannot do so, then a substitute is named (this is the only case in which somebody may write a chapter twice or more in a row).

Any comments? Discussion? Criticism?

Zounds! I definitely know who the "antagonists" are. Don't think the smog of communism will go undetected, for I, Captain Capitalism, shall fight this Red Menace!!

What will this arc be about, other than communist smog (erm, energy) that only a few select comrades know about? What would the metaplot be? What are you hoping to achieve? Because for all I know, if I somehow took the pen of Round Robin and never releasing it...

Chapter 1
Characters: Communists
Events: Crazy Communist Catastrophes concerning Cats!

Chapter 2-45
Characters: CAPTAIN CAPITALISM and his family, his family's extended family, Mexican stereotypical taxi driver, etc etc.
Events: CAPTAIN CAPITALISM CRUSHES COMMUNISM!

THE END!

Kamin997 wrote:

I am going for forty-five chapters, not counting the prologue and epilogue.

Any comments? Discussion? Criticism?

Going for 45 chapters is a recipe for disaster. Honestly, Comix stories (at least in my opinion) are best told with maybe half as many good-sized chapters, unless were going down the mega-epic route. You're chapters tend to be small, which is probably why you think this is feasible. If you make the story too long, you run the risk of killing all interest, which defeats the purpose of this exercise.

I couldn't even do forty five chapters unless I was doing small two-three page chap- waaaaait. This is Kamin we're talking about. It's not a question of whether he finishes, the final product would total to that high a chapter count, it's if he finishes at all. But most likely the forty-five number came from him just listing a bunch of cool chapter names that vaguely followed his rough plot.

But wait! Actually reading the article shows that the idea is to hand off the story to a different person for each chapter - a simple chain story, as it would be.

In that case, I'd sure as hell want to do it on something more generalized than OZC's ridiculous fetish for communism.

Okay, Kamin, you've got an idea that got a mostly positive reception. That's great, man. It's a good start.

But that's just it Kamin -- a start. Little steps, man. You don't just jump from one good idea to FORTY-FIVE CHAPTER EPIC just like that. Even trying to bring in other writers won't help much. Hell, it'll probably be worse as we actually have to try and coordinate the whole thing and has things out before and between every chapter. And to be frank, Kamin, you haven't always responded well to hashing things out.

Take it slow. You have an idea most people aren't hostile to. Build on that. But don't go building skyscrapers just yet, start with a bunch of prefab houses. Write a bunch of oneshots, short stories, and stuff first for you and other people to build on. An OMG 45 CHAPTER EPIC right now would be jumping the gun.

EDIT: Reading further on what you've discussed with the others so far on the concept of Rodinagrad itself, I have no strong feelings on this one way or another. I'm not opposed to it, but I'm not really that enthusiastic about it either. although, I do think a name that basically translates to "Motherland City" is kinda silly. It's like naming something "America-ville" or "Germanberg" or something.

Okay. I see what the problem is. I'm going to go with fifteen to twenty chapters. Is that still too long?

Kamin997 wrote:Okay. I see what the problem is. I'm going to go with fifteen to twenty chapters. Is that still too long?

The chapter count is immaterial even if you're running a chain arc - the story would wind up and down on it's own with even the least amount of planning. Chapter count doesn't really correlate with quality.

Well I think it'd be good to have a big arc for Comix, I think really it'd be good to have some more stories in Comix period. I think that the story should just be allowed to go for as long as it needs to go on without setting down a definite length. THere should also be discussion of each chapter after it is posted so that everyone is on the same page as far as plot threads and themes are concerned. Also, Invictus needs to be involved in the thing since he's done so much on the subject of our ridiculous fetish for Communism Shroom should probably be involved too.

Invictus gets involved in a lot of arcworthy material, since he will of course be at the head of The Omens of Oblivion* if we ever write it (I won't actually presume to suggest a plan until at least after Vic has posted Ominous Rex's coda).

I know nothing of Communism, so I probably couldn't contribute much to this one, I don't even remember much about the Manifester from the old site. None of my characters would really be involved either.

*I'm calling it this until someone thinks of a better name or I am thoroughly convinced that noone except me wants it to be written.

I see. All chapter limits and quotas have been abolished. Discussion of chapters will also continue after posting.

When I suggested that you consider the character arc of Rodinagrad, this isn't exactly what I had in mind. In any case, it might help if you tell us where you'd like to see it end up.