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I have been kicking around an idea in my head for a small time, and I think it's about time I feed it to the ether of the 'Net. There is this devious part of me that wants to see more stories start with "It was a dark and stormy night . . . " partly due to the bad rep that phrase got thanks to some hapless hack over a century ago.
At first I thought it would be cool to take the game "Once Upon a Time" and re-theme it for ghost/spooky/horror stories and call it "It Was a Dark and Stormy Night" but that's just too much work and a re-hash of game for no good reason (and theme just doesn't seem a good enough reason for me).
My second thought would be to hold an annual competition. Submissions are sent in by Sept. 1 and October would be the month of publication. While that's still a "good" idea there isn't enough time left in the year to build the site mechanics, find the editors/judges, and find authors who will then have the time to write something new and fresh.
My final though would be to do something like NaNoWriMo in the sense that people register a blog with a central site and [cross]post their story on Halloween. I'm not crazy about this scheme, but the general idea is to get a group of bloggers/writers who are willing to write a story that begins with The Magic Phrase (TM) and fits the Halloween theme and then post it to their blog and link that post to our central site.
What do ya'll think? The idea is really to encourage some stories that start with "It was a dark and stormy night". I would very much like to encourage good stories/literature that use that phrase, which is why I lean toward a competition. Thoughts? Comments? Hate mail?
(13:58:15) SOBy: give me more time and i will type correct some time ( like 1000 monkeys and typewriters)
(13:58:43) SOBy: here is only one and typewrite one also
(13:59:04) daglo: one monkey with a typewriter can write a John Grisham novel
Antholgoy
I think I have decided I will do an anthology (hopefully annually). I would like to aim for an Oct. 1 publication date so the first "issue" will likely be 2006. Thanks for the comments. I'm sure I will be needing some help on this in the future as I develop it. I have some time, but not as much as it would seem. I should announce it with enough time to let people write and give me (and whoever else) time to read and select the entries. I'll keep ya'll posted.
Re: It Was A Dark And Stormy Night
This is a big one.
I'll try to start from the top.
It seemed to me, that their was an actual contest (with prizes) to write stories that started with the Magic Phrase(TM), but I couldn't find evidence of it on the web. So maybe I dreamed it up. (In which case: "you owe me money", he said in his best Bob voice)
So. A competition then. To say its a large project is a little like calling a volcano a big campfire. You can fully expect that on top of site construction, rules writing, and management you will have to deal with marketing, judging, criteria, unhappy losers, unhappy winners, unhappy whiners, unhappy judges, disastrous timelines, and some really aweful prose.
There are a number of Bulwer-Lytton fan sites, and the anual Bilwer-Lytton contest you could probably use to spread the word.
Would there be prizes? Are their legal issues?
By what criteria would you judge a winner?
Do you own enough aspirin?
Another idea would be to make it an anual anthology.
Invite authors to submit their Magic Phrase(TM) stories which fit the year's theme, and compile the best of them into an ebook which you would "publish" under a CC license.
There would be a lot less administrivia to this approach, and it could develop a large fan base.
Any way, that's probably enough of my 2.25 JPY.
Competition vs. Anthology
I too searched for something like this on the Internet thinking someone else must have surely done this as well, but only found the Bulwer-Lytton contest which is not what I was thinking about. I'm not sure if that means "full steam ahead" though. This could have been done in the print media at some point, but still. . . .
As to the competition, I'm still not sure how much I've ever liked the idea, from a logistical standpoint. You point out the problems rather aptly, and I for one am not motivated enough or skilled enough to handle it all. The only thing I like about a competition is the ability to filter out the good from the bad and then present that; on that note an anthology sounds much better.
The problem I have with an e-anthology though is, "Would anyone write for it?" If people could just post their stories on their blog why write for my silly anthology? For that matter I still have the hassle of the marketing aspect (I will always have that and I'm not good at such things; does this doom it already?). Would I not still have the same problem as the competition, only I won't have to deal with the prize aspect (unless people expect to get paid).
Is there any merit to having people post on their own blogs? Is there perhaps another means of collecting, or urging people to have fun with this phrase, creating stories that might even be a little campfire-ish? And no, that was not enough of your $0.02.
re: Competition vs. Anthology
The advantage of an anthology, is an audience. Lots and lots of writers are out there who (a.) don't have blogs, or (b.) have blogs with very limited audiences. An anthology provides readers with a single place to sample a collection of writings hand picked for their value. Anthologies are good for both writers and audiences.
Additionally, an anthology can be printed or read via ebook readers on the go. Something that is considerably harder with a collection of blog entries scattered around the blogosphere.
But you are right. No matter how you do it, you will have the task of marketing. Though, I think the CC people would be interested in helping. As well as writing related web sites. A single "press release" posted to the appropriate people and places would probably be all you needed.
One more piece of advice: wait to set deadlines and such until you have the web site ready to go. That way you won't have to add the stress of web development on top of the event.
In case you wondering, I would be very pleased to write entries to try and get into an anthology. :)