Floating a concept, possible challenge

[jaF0]

As posted on Story Ideas and recommended to post here even though I don't spend much time on the AH any more.

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Basically a shopping mall type of place (name to be determined). Each author creates their own store or business (whatever you might find in a typical mall) and their own cast of characters as staff or customers. You tell stories based on customer interactions with staff. One author might create the management which would include maintenance and security (mall cops).

As stories evolve, authors can use characters from other authors and stories the way customers and staff would move from store to store.

Could also be done as a small town down town shopping area.

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There can be all kinds of places. A costume shop. Shoes store(s). Food court (Fast Times/Ridgemont but with college students). A hardware store (with a back room for certain 'special' hardware). Dress shops with custom fittings A conference/meeting hall for hire (what does that kinky Rotary Club banquet turn into?). Bar/cocktail lounge. Out in the parking lot a Gentlemen's Club (or the ladies version with male dancers).

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Suggestion was to limit word or page count per story so as not to have some very much longer than others.


As for characters interacting between shops, authors would almost have to post them in a thread like this with an outline and a concept of their store(s). Or maybe this could work in the new interactive format?

 

[MillieDynamite]

What?

 

[ElectricBlue]

This is sorta kinda Amorous Goods, which is already a recurring anthology, plus there's On the Job.

Is there enough space for another collection? I don't know - I rarely get into any of them because I'm rubbish with deadlines. I also note some of the Geek Anthology writers seem to be a bit underwhelmed by the latest reception - is that event exhaustion? Don't know.

 

[Voboy]

Hmm.

I've created many stores and put them in more than one mall among my stories, and from what I've experienced in posting those stories, they're never as good as I want them to be. Obviously, YMMV.

Sounds like a good concept in general, but I would worry about two things:

1. "Challenge fatigue"
2. The sense of possessiveness a lot of us have about our characters or settings.

I've invented Secret Whispers (a VS analog), Ahab's Coffee (because Ahab was Starbuck's boss), and Samurai's Teahouse, all of which are chains. I've already set a story almost entirely at a mall Secret Whispers, and another one partially at an Ahab's. Various stories I've written feature other one-off businesses as well: Zimbardo's, Harborside Book & Tea, South Side Wellness. I'd be happy with other writers mentioning those places, but I wouldn't be comfortable "giving them up" to a collective. They're mine.

I'm unsure, obviously, whether other writers feel similarly possessive about their creations. I'm curious whether anyone chimes in about that. Leinyere works pretty well along similar lines, but it's not as constrained as a mall would be.

 

[Voboy]

I also note some of the Geek Anthology writers seem to be a bit underwhelmed by the latest reception - is that event exhaustion? Don't know.

I've noticed that too, and I'm sad about it. I'll post over in that thread perhaps, but I wonder whether the readers' expectations matched the writers'.

It used to be all-SF, and many readers might still be expecting that. My own piece is SF, and it's doing great.

 

[MillieDynamite]

OIC

No, I wouldn't post in such a Mall. My worlds are my universes. And I'm very selfish with things I create.

 

[ElectricBlue]

I've noticed that too, and I'm sad about it. I'll post over in that thread perhaps, but I wonder whether the readers' expectations matched the writers'.

It used to be all-SF, and many readers might still be expecting that. My own piece is SF, and it's doing great.

There's the clue - readers wanted one thing, writers gave them several others, and disconnected.

 

[djrip]

This is sorta kinda Amorous Goods, which is already a recurring anthology, plus there's On the Job.

Is there enough space for another collection? I don't know - I rarely get into any of them because I'm rubbish with deadlines. I also note some of the Geek Anthology writers seem to be a bit underwhelmed by the latest reception - is that event exhaustion? Don't know.

I have a feeling that events that cause dozens of stories to drop at once, especially mostly in a single category, lead to lower reader engagement with each one.

Edit: To be clear, I don't think that would be an issue with an ongoing anthology without a particular deadline, as it sounds like this would be...

 

[jaF0]

 

[Rob_Royale]

I like this idea. I suggested the word limit, mostly so a reader might not pass a story by, based on length. I don't always have time for a 20-30k story. Keeping it to 12k or so would allow readers to literally read straight down the list, just like they were walking through the mall, gazing into each store. Imagining the naughty stories unfolding in each one. In any case, it has inspired a new story that I will be writing, regardless, so jaF0, thanks for that at least.

 

[ElectricBlue]

Edit: To be clear, I don't think that would be an issue with an ongoing anthology without a particular deadline, as it sounds like this would be...

That might be a useful separation, a sort of on-going rolling theme release, rather than a discrete "anthology publication" release. And R-R's suggestion to have an upper word limit on each story submission also makes sense.

Not sure I like the idea of linking it to the new "interactive story" activity, though. I read through the latest on that in Manu's new thread Interactive Fiction Zone, and came away scratching my head, thinking what does that all mean, and how would I (who expects software to work, not to code it myself) ever write content for that?

@jaF0 I reckon you should check out the Amorous Goods threads, have a think about the theme similarities, and maybe have a yarn with the Amorous Goods keeper (can't recall who that is).

This idea of inter-connected stories is how I write most of mine, so I could be a convert if the set-up was done right (whatever "right" means).

 

[Djmac1031]

Interesting idea.

As a concept it sounds creative and fun.

As a coordinated multiple author effort, it sounds like a logistical nightmare.

I have my own idea along these same lines, not not as some "challenge" with a deadline or something.

More like a singular concept that has endless possibilities.

I've held off on sharing it because I wanna write the first few myself to plant the seeds, then see who else might be interested. If anyone.

 

[jaF0]

I reckon you should check out the Amorous Goods threads, have a think about the theme similarities, and maybe have a yarn with the Amorous Goods keeper (can't recall who that is).

Uhh, me.


This would be different. That's all based on a common store and the events away from it. This is more a bunch of people from different walks of like coming together at one large place with many variations.

No, it doesn't need a deadline. It would be ongoing, open ended. And there doesn't need to be much coordination. Once a few stories got posted, other authors could build on them, using characters defined by others, or creating their own. Remember, stores come and go at these places. Some are only pop up kiosks, maybe for holidays. And staff is constantly changing.

Security or the local cops can get involved in shoplifting cases, maybe dishing out their own fun justice ... ' lemme see those knickers you just nicked '
......

 

[MajorRewrite]

I think it might be more successful as an “open world” rather than a challenge. If all the stories are written at once, they can’t build on each other.

In Loving Wives there are frequently stories that either extend or reboot other authors’ stories. And the Fan Fiction category is all about writing about things you didn’t create. I for one would be interested in writing a story for a shared universe.

A mall or a small downtown setting seems too sanitized though. How about setting it on a couple of blocks in New York City? A large city environment has more potential for grittiness and influences creeping in from the rest of the city (Warring gangs, a movie being shot on location, the marathon closing the street, etc).

 

[KeithD]

I have a mainstream anthology written like that. The scene is one of those small academic towns that closed and bricked over its main street as a pedestrian mall. I set the time as one day in April and moved down the mall from west to east over the day using people on the mall in multiple overlapping stories of people's lives, enriching their characters and unlocking their secrets and interconnections as the series moved down the pedestrian mall.

For this to work here, though, I think someone would need to start it with the world of the mall and with a set of characters and those who followed would have to remain on some sort of a "from there to here" track and both use existing characters and add them. It would be pretty difficult, but it probably would also be interesting to do.

 

[Rob_Royale]

How would we connect the stories? Tags?

 

[jaF0]

Things don't have to be as limited as some indicate.



'My wife likes to talk to me during sex. Last night she called me from the mall.'

 

[KeithD]

How would we connect the stories? Tags?

Lit. has a chain story mechanism. It can be done. I think this would be a "way down the road" issue though for a concept this complex.

 

[jaF0]

I have a mainstream anthology written like that. The scene is one of those small academic towns that closed and bricked over its main street as a pedestrian mall. I set the time as one day in April and moved down the mall from west to east over the day using people on the mall in multiple overlapping stories of people's lives, enriching their characters and unlocking their secrets and interconnections as the series moved down the pedestrian mall.

I'm running ideas on Story Ideas also .....

"Also keep in mind that there are some concept communities popping up around the country where retail, business, residential and entertainment/recreation all occupy the same area. You can live, work, shop, dine and recreate all in one area, walking to each, or using some sort of closed loop transit system."

 

[KeithD]

Things don't have to be as limited as some indicate.



'My wife likes to talk to me during sex. Last night she called me from the mall.'

Yeah, it could just be "connect sex with a mall in any willy-nilly" way, which would be sort of bland exercise.

 

[jaF0]

For this to work here, though, I think someone would need to start it with the world of the mall and with a set of characters and those who followed would have to remain on some sort of a "from there to here" track and both use existing characters and add them. It would be pretty difficult, but it probably would also be interesting to do.

The baseline could be set up in a thread like this, sort of like that world building thread, 'Tales from Lan ... ' whatever it was.

 

[jaF0]

Yeah, it could just be "connect sex with a mall in any willy-nilly" way, which would be sort of bland exercise.

Well, the tie in would be a bit more than a one liner here.

 

[KeithD]

I'm running ideas on Story Ideas also .....

"Also keep in mind that there are some concept communities popping up around the country where retail, business, residential and entertainment/recreation all occupy the same area. You can live, work, shop, dine and recreate all in one area, walking to each, or using some sort of closed loop transit system."

Yep, that was the pedestrian mall I used in my short story collection. All sorts of businesses below or beside and residences above. It even had a mega dimension to it (which reviewers liked the best)--college students sitting at an open-air restaurant as the other characters passed by. Every third story was of the students playing a game of "giving the most interesting background to a character" passing by, with sometimes their best guess being close and sometimes wildly out of reality.

 

[ElectricBlue]

Uhh, me.

Lol. Shows how much I pay attention to the small detail .

One thing though, if it's going to work as a wide ranging thing, you shouldn't make it location or even country specific. One of the reasons I rarely go near the contests is that they're very American, and I have no affinity with the cultural specifics readers might expect. So far, as you're describing this idea, it's Americana.

I do like the idea of interconnectivity though - I could put my characters on a plane, I guess, with the crossover shop being the travel agency.

 

[jaF0]

One thing though, if it's going to work as a wide ranging thing, you shouldn't make it location or even country specific. One of the reasons I rarely go near the contests is that they're very American, and I have no affinity with the cultural specifics readers might expect. So far, as you're describing this idea, it's Americana.

I do like the idea of interconnectivity though - I could put my characters on a plane, I guess, with the crossover shop being the travel agency.

There are stores in some areas run by people who were raised in other countries. China Town, Korea Town, etc. are more well known ideas, but I've also seen stores that carry products from England, Germany, France, etc. Exactly as they would be sold in the home country. Yours could be such a store. A British citizen is transferred to a US office of the company they work for. The spouse or other family member gets homesick and opens a store selling stuff from home. I'm sure there are lots of ways to Litify such a store.