On the move...

I'm pretty late for an update. The reason is: I'm moving. Very excited about that. :D

Today I transported a total of 40 boxes from my old flat to the new one. And all of them were books and manga. Too much, you think? On the contrary, one can never have too many stuff to read. :D
I don't remember who said it, but I second the statement: "Nothing is as sexy as a room filled with books."

Be that as it may, I don't know if I'm going to be able to update my writing exercise on time or if I'm going to have internet access next week, but I'll try. Because writers should be able to make time to write, right?
Even if everything is packed up in boxes, which pile up to the ceiling, even if you hardly take a break from moving stuff, even if you're almost out the door and still not at your new home yet. Inspiration can still happen in between. Take that break -- because you need it -- and just sit down and let it flow. You might be surprised what you can achieve. ;)

Writing as a group project

As I have told you about the literature project I joined, writing is bound to happen.

Then how do you create texts as a group?

There's the proverb that too many cooks spoil the broth. But it doesn't necessarily have to be like this. You can write as a team if everybody knows their part and acts accordingly.

The easiest way to write together is the RPG approach to split and interact; this means every participating author chooses characters they want to write and writes only these characters. Now they let the characters meet, talk and act. Soon a rough first draft will spring into creation as every author only has to react to what another wrote in the previous paragraph. The text will be pretty dynamic and dialogue-heavy, but this is a nice by-product.

This setting works best for groups of two to four people, so there won't be confusions when one's turn to write is. There will be breaks when only a few characters are present, but this gives the others time to reread what has been done by now.
Generally, four is a good group size. And while text creation happens relatively quickly, editing is also very important. The first draft needs to be polished until it can be published. This process can be split also: this time the authors take turns to comment and edit what they have so far.

Like this writing as a team is not as hard as it might seem. And the result is a consensus with which everyone is satisfied.

Something to read

As promised in another blog post, I'm going to bring you into the loop of what I'm currently up to:
recently I joined a German literature project called Dembelo.


So what is Dembelo?

The concept takes a different view on authors: they are not some genius in their quaint room conjuring up brilliant words, but service providers to their readers.

The idea is to provide episodical stories (text knots) with the length of approximately 20 minutes of reading -- something which shortens the time waiting on the bus or in an anteroom or on a train ride or when nothing is on TV an you don't want to read a whole book. At the end of the text the reader decides how the story should continue; they click on one of eight choices to keep on reading for another 20 minutes, and another, and another... if they so wish.

The readers fund the text knots they want to read via micro purchases and see their wishes come true as soon as the worth of another text knot is reached. Theoretically like this an endlessly deep-rooted tree of stories is created as more and more episodes are created and the possibilities branch further and further; the contents of these episodes are supposed to reflect the readers' demands. So everyone can read what they want to read instead of paging through something that doesn't interest them.

Any excess profit is invested in new jobs to support the author teams working on the stories. We believe in social growth rather than profit. The system also considers that authors are creative, so coworkers are paid according to their efforts instead of fixed working hours.


Isn't this exciting and new? Doesn't that sound like something you might want to see?
If you like the idea you can support us on Patreon so we can make it happen (the page is in German though).

Writing Exercise 053

This week my writing exercise is about something I didn't think I had, but which runs undeniably in my family -- the entrepreneurial spirit.
So I recently joined a literature project, which I will tell you about in another blogpost. And this project excites me to no end because I find this idea so fascinating, and I want to see it happen! It is still in its fledgling state, but it wants to be founded -- and I intend to be there when it's time. And of course I'll let you know how it goes.
For now I want to share my excitement with you. So here is my drabble:

2016/12/13 – entrepreneurial spirit (Drabble)

So far I have never thought I might decide to just start something from nothing, to follow an idea and found a company, to take the risks and plunge in at the deep end. But somewhere inside me I found a spark of excitement and enthusiasm which I can't deny. The idea of something new – of something revolutionary even – fills me, thrills me; and I want to follow and see where it leads me. The project might fail, the idea might soar. But I don't know that yet. I have never done this before. And yet I want to try.