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The most exciting part of this wiki website is collaborative fiction writing! You can write fiction by yourself, but wiki technology makes it easy and fun to write collaboratively. So how do we write collaboratively using wiki software? Anyone can contribute to every story by clicking on the "edit" button. Start you own stories and collaborate with others who share your interests in fiction.

How much time do you have?[]

no time to write? - read stories: VirileMail, Cellular Civilization, The search for Kalid, Harbinger, 2084, The Lord of the Wikis, I will wait for you, Fly Paper, etc. Check Featured fiction to read our best works.

enough time to write one word - participate at One-word-at-a-time.

enough time to write a sentence - participate at Category:Fortunately unfortunately

enough time to write a paragraph - participate at Microstories or Complete the Stories

enough time to..well, I want to get serious about this! - Make sure that you register a user name and put some information about your interests on your user page. Read the rest of this page and feel free to add your ideas. Other participants of this wiki are also looking for collaborators, so explore, post your own ideas for collaborations, and have fun!

You can start at Training/Story starters, if you wish. Or create your own new work!

What it takes to achieve proper collaboration[]

Collaboration is a complex and fun issue. From my experience in collaboration (VirileMail and The search for Kalid) I have come to certain conclusions, from my point of view. If you have created collaborative fiction, share your views here too! --Davinci - talk 17:15, 11 June 2009 (UTC)

Create a meta[]

The first thing collaborators need to do is to have a plan for the story. When you write alone, the plan is inside your head and you might not need to write it down. You can just "be bold" and write your ideas as soon as they come. But when you will work with other user(s) you will need a way for them to understand your ideas and they must have a way to express and discuss theirs with you. That is the purpose of what we called a "meta page" in this site. Examples of them are: VirileMail:meta, The search for Kalid/meta, Bacterias/meta. That kind of page is like a talk page where participants will discuss the plot for the story. I concluded it is the ideal method for collaborative writing.

In the beginning of collaboration, there are usually 2 types, as I see them. Vertical and horizontal collaboration (a concept in systems theory). In vertical collaboration one user is the main writer of the story, the one who created the idea and maybe has already written part of the story. So, in this case, the main author might have a "word" on what he wants for his story, unless he authorizes full freedom on the changes other collaborators will do (there will have to be agreement on those, anyway). Obviously, when people begin collaboration, the story becomes "horizontal", which means that they all have a say as to how the story will develop.

Horizontal collaboration is where each participant is free to collaborate and there are no restrictions on their ideas. It is the ideal method for collaboration. An example of this is Wiki fiction stew, where each participant creates a character and puts him/her into a story.

Communication[]

After having a clear idea on the plot and maybe having created a meta page, we need to find a way to communicate our ideas. Our first means of collaboration here is posting messages on talk pages. But a more effective one is to log in into an IRC channel devoted to Fiction Wikia: irc://irc.freenode.net/#wikia-fiction, where we can discuss in real time.

Using wiki software for collaborative fiction writing

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Please help fulfill these requests if you feel you are up to it. Thank you.


collaborative environments[]

There is an article about Collaborative fiction at the collaboration wikia.

Although the word collaboration is widely used in many varying contexts such as education, science, art and business, very little research has been carried out to determine the properties of this process. With the relatively recent advent of computer mediated communication (CMC) and the resulting rise of online collaboration, the nature of collaboration is coming under more intensive scrutiny. As software designers, facilitators and theorists from many diverse fields strive to create more useful and effective collaborative environments and methods, more light is shown on this ubiquitous and taken for granted practice. However, what light is being cast is still fairly refracted into the diverse fields in which the research is being carried out.

Trebor Scholz from the Institute for Distributed Creativity suggests these guidelines:

  • Develop trust and mutual respect
  • Stick to initially made commitments
  • Outline clear and attainable short and long-term goals
  • Define needs/self-interest well
  • Give reasons behind your thinking
  • Combine online collaboration with face-to-face meetings to speed up the process
  • Be concise, patient, and persistent
  • Get everybody involved in the process
  • Develop a clear process including self-reflexive loops
  • Develop good listening skills
  • Pay attention to scale in collaborative groups (production groups: 4-5 participants)
  • Put a stop to domineering interruptions and put-downs
  • Communicate frequently, clearly and openly
  • Acknowledge upcoming problems
  • Use facilitators for larger groups
  • Develop a long-term view
  • Take a dose of humility
  • Learn when to let go

Links to other fiction wikis[]

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