Assignment Zero : Crowdsourced Novels Roll Call!

I'd like to help, Celestina, but right now my workload for school is huge. Supposedly, I'm getting two masters degrees by mid-May. Can I crowd-source my fictional thesis AND my pedagogy paper? ;)

My time would allow for editing of written work, however. I'd be happy to look over anyone's articles and edit for clarity, spelling/grammar, etc.

I haven't even taken enough time to see exactly how this all should work. Should I edit on the AZ end, or on the Newsvine end? I don't know!

This crowd-sourced novel idea intrigues me, mostly because right now I am scoffing at it, and I'd like to see if my opinion could be changed on the subject.

Celestina, as we have discussed by email I am on your team. I am ready to go. I am involved with other projects on AZ and elsewhere but my duty is to you first. I want to learn as much as I can because one of these days I want to publish the epic literary historical novel of the 20th Century and I want to do it before the 21st is over. My participation in our AZ project should help.

Mykola, Adam, when you snooze you lose. When Celestina gets through with me maybe she will pass me on to those we have left behind and you can take advantage of me then.

Other related efforts are Exit Strategy, written by Douglas Rushkoff, but left up online for a year so that anyone could add footnotes and annotations

Even though I'm working on the crowdfunding aspect, there was another project on just Rushkoff involving interviewing him. Since I've read quite a few of his books, I applied for that task and was accepted. So if you have a question or two that you'd like to ask him on the crowdsourcings novels aspect then let me know.

Celestina...I like Vicki feel a certain trepidation when confronted with sharing creative and logical thoughts as pertains to writing. I can handle an editor, but am not at all sure I take instruction well, hence would probably would be of little use unless alpha dog defense mechanisms would be in order.

I have empirically commented once or twice in the AZ threads just to keep track, but am not sure at all I would be helpful except in an analytical sort of way.

Forest

Celestina,
Like Forest and Vicki, I have some time constraints, but can certainly help (I have 15-20 college hours that were workshop environments, but that was more than 15 years ago).

If you can use me, I would like to play.

Celestina,

I have said I am happy to help as editor although I am unsure how the process works. My reservations include:

* what rights do editors have over work they edit (in terms of publishing to own column before public onslaught)?
* where do we work, A-Z or NV?
* what level of time comittment are we looking at? (work schedules are always demanding, especially at present. I need to play a careful balancing act on this one.
* when is an editor likely to come in the fray?

I'm in. What needs doing?

Celestina,

Like the others, I have some stuff going on that limits my time. But, I don't want to miss the opportunity to work with the great talent that has already signed on, so count me in. This is a great opportunity to experience this literary process and I look forward to working with your team.

I think the failing point of crowdsourced novels is who the royalties go to once the book becomes a best seller.

Count me in on Editing and Research.

I have some time. I'm doing the whole job-hunting right now, so my time constraints are minimal. I'm mostly busy in the afternoons/evenings.

Robie, I am with you but I would point something out. If a bunch of people write a novel and a bunch of people get it published there is a very good chance of it getting published. The chances of it making money are slim but still, no one person would be out a life time by contributing. I am sure that if these kind of things become popular, those that participate will receive benefits or revenue.

I will help, but please direct me as to how to begin investigating these things. Do I search for collaborative efforts and then report on them or interview a couple of the authors? What?

Here are a couple of quick leads.
A print collaborative book called Naked Came the Manatee - thirteen authors include Carl Hiaassen, Elmore Leonard, and Dave Barry.

Orson Scott Card's Hatrack River website has a writing workshop that could make for a sound starting point. (Card does a fair amount of collaborative work, so this sight might be handy.)

There is always somebody who can find something to crow about.

Celestina,

Great idea and I would like to be involved.

I came across a novel some years ago while in Paris called "Yeats is Dead". It was a collaborative effort by, if memory serves, about a dozen or so writers each one contributing a single chapter.

I remember it so clearly because I am big Roddy Doyle fan and he did the opening chapter.

In that case the writers must have all been across a general plot outline to begin with but you can tell in the reading of it that the story took on a life of it's own during the writing and the result was outstanding.

It was an effort for charity and as I recall really funny.

Here is a link:

http://www.amazon.com/Yeats-Dead-Mystery-Irish-Writers/dp/0375727566

WS

Celestina, while offering up the usual caveats about "busy--blah, blah, blah", this sounds like an aspect of Assignment Zero I too would like to get involved with, whether from the editing or writing sides. Please count me in; I'm not too worried about issues like credit and royalties, so abuse me as you will.

Celestina, et al: Sorry I'm late into this discussion, but a couple of aspects of this topic occurred to me as I was reading some of the responses. First was the mention of Naked Came the Manatee by Barry, Hiaasen and a bunch of other Miami Herald writers. That book was actually a "reply" to a much earlier book, the 1969 novel, Naked Came the Stranger by Penelope Ashe.

Ashe was actually the pseudonym of columnist Mike McGrady and 20 other writers at the Long Island newspaper Newsday. They decided that culture was so degraded, that even a crappy book could sell well if there was enough sex in it -- something which is pretty much taken for granted today. They each wrote a chapter, editing it to remove any cohesive plot, good dialogue or skilled craftsmanship and watched as it sold incredibly well, even making the New York Times bestseller list. They outed themselves on David Frost's show and later on, McGrady wrote a book about the experience called Stranger Than Naked: Or, How to Write Dirty Books for Fun and Profit: A Manual. One interesting aspect is that McGrady's papers and correspondence with the other authors, along with drafts and manuscripts were all donated and are catalogued at Columbia University, home of the main folks behind AZ. I wish I had the time to go up there and look through the papers, but if the research is due next Friday, that ain't gonna happen. :(

One other thing this reminded me of was the Surrealist's game of "Exquisite Corpse" which was about creating a short poem or graphic by having each person in a group append a phrase or part of a sketch to an unseen prior phrase or drawing. There's a pretty good Internet version of the text game here and a graphic one here.

I'm not exactly sure yet of how this whole AZ thing works, but I'm going to post this comment over there in the comments box on the assignments page for "What are other crowdsourced novels?"

I can help in any of the following ways: Editing/proofreading (I work best when bribed with
chocolate, for the record)
coaching writers and helping people prepare for interviews

I can write too but would rather let some others get that opportunity becaues after writing 10 articles a week for 10 years, well, it's someone else's turn

Just kidding. Have a nice computer break. I'm about to take one too.
Well, I'm taking the laptop to bed with me but with the cable modem unplugged.

Celestina,

You can put me down for writing/research. thanks.

Just checking in for Celestina and making sure every one is working. I will be checking in a few times today. Celestina is in dispose for a few hours.

Celestina,

I will take Yeats is Dead. I am familiar with some of the writers and I have (limited) access to the literary scene in Dublin.

I will start to dig into the "Collaborative Experience" the contributors had during the writing of the book and see what I can turn up.

Thanks
WS