Thursday, November 21, 2013

Fabi: Dimension-Writing

So, I think Ember is writing the first dimension, but I'm putting some general guidelines for dimension-posts here. You don't have to follow them 24/7, but they're probably good things to keep in mind.
  1. You don't need to say every detail. It's okay to let other writers put their creativity into adding to your idea. If you don't care who runs the grocery store, you can let the person who writes the scene in the grocery store decide.
  2. Specify anything that's really important to your idea so that people don't have to bother you about it later. 
  3. Give a brief description of any important characters in the dimension. Like, if Mevolent in your dimension is Supreme Galactic Commander, then his personality, values and ruling style are important to the dimension and should be included. If you want to use the alternate version of someone's character, ask permission.
  4. Current events are also good. If the Supreme Galactic Commander is facing rebellion from the Leprechaun People, and the entire country of Ireland is in the middle of a war, that's important.
  5. Check the comments on your dimension post. This is probably the best place for questions. 
  6. If something is the same as it is in the real world or in the SP-world, you can just say that instead of describing it in detail.
  7. Be creative! Your dimension can be as normal or weird as you want it to be! I don't really want to assign a template for how everything should be done/presented.
Generally, I'd prefer it if you were to stick with ideas based on
  • Your own imagination
  • Real World
  • SP World
I mean, I'm not going to enforce that, and if you explain enough about what your dimension is like, it doesn't matter, but please don't say "This dimension is like The Hunger Games only without Katniss." For one, I'm not sure if everyone in the collab has read the Hunger Games, and for another, just taking an idea that's already out there is sort of boring. If you want to have a dimension where Mevolent runs a country with a Capitol full of rich people and some smaller, poorer, outlying settlements, that's actually sort of cool, and if you explain it well enough for people who haven't read THG, if there are any, you could actually do that.

So I guess the rule isn't "stick to those three sources," but more like
     8. Make your dimension original
     9. Make sure other people can understand it

Actually, at the end of the day, those two are the important guidelines. Sorry for all the rambling.

1 comment:

Valice said...

Yes, that seems to be a good guideline!
Btw if anyone wants to write about THG, please leave Liam as Gale in it! ;)