Live, Crowdsourced Content Creation

Stephen Sullivan, author of dozens of novels and the Origins Award-winning Podo and the Magic Shield, is hard at work on a project called Tournament of Death, a 'live-novel' written entirely during the Olympics. He's also relying heavily on user input and feedback to develop the story. For example, there's a poll on the Tournament of Death blog asking 'Things [you] want to see killed in the Tournament of Death are:' Of course I voted 'everybody' because it's a tournament of death!

Stephen's project combines two really interesting things in a way I'm not exactly sure has been done before: crowdsourcing plot points by asking community members and readers what they want to see happen and allowing them to have a real effect on the events in the novel; and a restrictive writing environment. In this case, writing only during the 2008 Olympics. It's a fabulous little experiment and the first post is pretty awesome.

Also, Stephen wrote a hell of a press release for this, which I'm going to simply copy and paste here because it's so great. I wish my clients would let me write press releases like this for them. It's a short story in and of itself.

Tournament of Death is a special writing challenge conceived and executed by award-winning fantasy author Stephen D. Sullivan.

The writing of the story will take place over the 16 days of the 2008 Summer Olympics.

"I was looking at my schedule and wondering what kind of work I'd get done during those two weeks," Sullivan said. "The Olympics is kind of a holiday in our house. We love it, and we try to watch as much coverage as we can. Then it hit me: what if my work for those two weeks became connected to the games?"

Sullivan came up with the idea of writing as he watched the Olympics and letting his work be inspired by both the games and by interaction with fans during that two-week period.

"I haven't done any actual writing yet," Sullivan said, "though I may work on the prologue before the games begin. After that, I'll be doing one chapter of the story each day. Each chapter will be at least 1000 words long, so, at the end of the Olympiad, I'll have — at minimum — a decent-sized novella."

The episodes will be published on Sullivan's site, www.stephendsullivan.com, and on his blog — stephendsullivan.blogspot.com, and on his author page at GoodReads.com.

"I have an idea of where I'm going with the story," he said, "and I have a few characters in mind, but there's nothing set in stone. Inspiration for writing can come from a lot of places. I know watching the Olympics will really get the creative juices flowing. I'm also interested in feedback on the concept from my readers. They'll be able to comment on my blog and send messages through my email. Once the story gets running, I'll have some lists of characters for people to vote on, too."

Because the project will be the majority of Sullivan's work for those two weeks, he will also have a donation form set up on PayPal.

"I'm a professional freelance writer," he said. "If I don't work, I don't get paid. So it's risky for me to devote a couple of weeks to something like this. I'm hoping the readers will support me in this experiment. And if they do, I'll write them into the story."

Sullivan plans to have a list — a "banzuke," he called it — of people supporting the project. "There will be Bronze, Silver, and Gold levels of participation. There will be a spectator level, too, for small donations, with participants listed on the web site. Finally, there will be a Champion level, where the donor will actually be written into the story as a contestant — though I won't promise that anyone written into the story will survive."

However, "dead" contributors will live on, when the online project becomes a printed book.

"Though I have a small publishing house of my own, Walkabout Publishing, I will be pursuing all printing options," Sullivan said. "One way or another, Tournament of Death will be available in print and at Amazon after it's done. It'd be nice if a big publisher picks it up. We'll just have to see what the reaction is."

Either way, Sullivan hopes to have the book out by the end of 2008.

"Assuming I don't crash and burn," he said wryly. "There's always that possibility. Since this is a live event, it's going to be like walking a tightrope — not a lot of room for error. I hope people will tune in and see how I do."

The live, online version of Tournament of Death will run from August 8th to 17th, 2008.

Full Disclosure: Stephen is a member of my writing group, the Alliterates, and is the editor of the Blue Kingdoms anthologies in which some of my fiction has appeared.

From a Fellow Allit

Fellow Alliterate (and really nice guy) Wolfgang Baur has taken his Open Design / patronage experiment to the next level with Kobold Quarterly, a journal devoted to Open Design and D&D. I haven't ponied up for my subscription yet, but interested parties should definitely check it out. Wolf's Open Design project is a fascinating - and by all accounts, successful - experiment, so it's great to see the next chapter in that particular story.

Which reminds me: Open Design was nominated for an ENnie Award, a really big deal in the gaming world. Voting is done by the public and starts July 16. Maybe you should give non-Corporate, people-driven game writing a nod this year.

Blogging Habits

I've noticed a change in my blogging habits as of late - say, in the past six months. Before I used to use my blog as a kind of first-response sounding board. Which is to say, I would pretty much post my first reactions to whatever was on my mind. But in the last six months or so, I've tried to be far more thoughtful in my posts. I noticed that I've started planning them out in the shower (where I do my best thinking), or on the ride into work. I'm treating them more like mini-essays than "thoughts of the moment." Hopefully the extra planning has shown through as quality in my posts.

I started this blog almost four years ago at a suggestion from fellow Alliterate Jeff Grubb as a way to improve my writing - specifically through practice. I think I've succeeded in that regard, because my writing has certainly gotten stronger. Now I simply need to force myself to direct my output towards more creative kinds of things, and my novel should be done in no time.

Actually I hope to have an update on that soon. Stand by.

Mythos Madness

Jeff made a great post over at Grubb Street regarding what he sees as six stages (or categories) of development of the Cthulhu mythos. His first five seem pretty spot-on based on my understand of the mythos' history. The sixth (Generation 5: The Gamers II?) - the one I would be a member of (or, the one preceding me) - is everything Jeff describes, but with an interesting added bonus: there have been a variety of mythos-inspired video games and interactive fictions that have taken story development into new places.

I don't want to get into a video games vs. pencil & paper games debate, but I can say that video games have had an influence on the mythos in my mind. True, I read every Lovecraft story I could find in the Granville Middle School library in the sixth grade, but the narrative graphic adventure games I played in my younger days had as much of an impact on my developing creativity than the books I read and the movies I watched.

Rather than write an essay, here are some mythos-inspired games that jump out in my mind:

• Alone in the Dark - Started the survival horror genre. Investigators enter an old house, discover secrets, end up dealing with a pissed off demon.
  
• Phantasmagoria - Created by Roberta Williams (of King's Quest fame), a full motion video graphic adventure spanning seven CDs (!) about a demonic presence let loose in a New England house. Fun fact: fellow Allit Lorelei Shannon wrote the sequel.
  
• Eternal Darkness: Sanity's Requiem - One of the five or so decent Gamecube games, Eternal Darkness was a hell of a trip and featured an insanity system I haven't seen duplicated anywhere else. It would often break down the fourth wall, telling you your controller was unplugged, pretending to delete your save file, and screwing around with your sound settings.
  
• Call of Cthulhu: Dark Corners of the Earth - And here we have the only 'real' Cthulhu game (by name anyway) on the list. Dark Corners of the Earth was "The Shadow Over Innsmouth" in interactive form, and if it weren't for an absolutely impossible 20-minute stretch where you're being hunted and cannot save your game and die if you so much as screw up once, it would probably be one of the best 1st-person games ever made.
  

Those are the four that leap to mind. Silent Hill should probably be on the list too - does anyone have any others?

Old Spice

This was going around a few weeks ago, but it came up at last night's Alliterates meeting so I figured I'd post it here. Bruce Campbell doing an ad for Old Spice. Things to watch for: the chainsaw, the book on the mantle, and the sheer length of the painting. Brilliant.

Michael and Me

As promised during last night's Alliterates meeting, the photo of me with Michael Moore is up on my Flickr stream, rescued from a (thankfully cached) version of my old website using the Wayback Machine.