Community Property

Chapter 1
Foreword

Chapter Description: Read this first: Questions Not Yet Asked

COMMUNITY PROPERTY

-----===== foreword

QNYA (questions not-yet-asked)

=====-----

1. What is "Community Property?"

- "Community Property" is the title of an Age Regression story currently being written and in the process of being posted.

- It is a writing project, an experiment, and a means to an end.

- It is an exercise in memetic creativity.

- It is assembled in the minds of anybody in the Age Regression community who chooses to participate.

- It is written by little trip and modeled on a combination of the collected and evaluated ideas of the community actualized via prose.

- It is delivered to the reader as a single, linear, episodic, cohesive narrative.

- It is a story, transcribed by a man, told as a tale by an unlimited number of minds.

2. What makes "Community Property" unique among collaborative writing projects?

- At any given moment in time, any number of minds -- ours -- are working on the story. The minimum number of participants is one (myself) and the maximum number of participants is infinite. The number of participants is fluid and by no means constant. You may come and go as you please. You may contribute what you wish. You may choose to sit back and do nothing, or you may choose to shape the story by outwardly reflecting on what might happen, based on the elements that have accrued up to that point, and characters’ motivations in reaction to them.

- The story has not yet been told. You are going to tell it. I am going to write it.

3. How do I participate?

- First, read "Prologue," posted on Tuesday, 8 April 2014. This is the beginning of the story.

- The story is going somewhere, but only you know where. Any details in the story that are nonspecific are up for grabs.

For example... The protagonist, Jack Brite, contemplates whether he should call Chris. (This is what I have written.) Chris could be male or female, because that has not been specified. He or she could be Jack’s mother, best friend, boyfriend, or little brother. The possibilities are endless because the specific detail has not yet been written into the story.

- After you have read "Prologue," think long on the tale. What have you seen? What have you sensed? Where should the story go?

- Discuss your ideas openly in the review section. In the review, think out loud. Because YOU are helping to direct, or tell, the story.

An example review could be... "I think Jack is cautious about opening the door, but he’ll obsess over it until he opens it. He’ll make the phone call, first, so that Chris knows where he is. Chris is Jack’s girlfriend; she gets nervous about his constant adventuring, fearing more for his freedom than for his physical safety."

- An unlimited number of participants can submit an unlimited number of ideas in the review section. They can be complementary or contradictory. They can be realistic or fantastic. As in brainstorming, there are no wrong answers.

4. Then what?

- Each Friday, I (little trip) will take all of the ideas, ruminations, think-out-louds, predictions, possible scenarios, and what-have-yous... and consider them over the course of the weekend, shaping the story as the chimera of every participant’s ideas.

- On Sunday and Monday, I will write the next chapter of the story -- the tale you all have told. On Tuesday, I will post what I have written as a new chapter.

- The cycle repeats in perpetuity.

- The visible product will be one AR story, a single cohesive narrative, titled "Community Property," written by little trip, insofar as I am the person transcribing the prose. As for telling the story, I am but one of a hundred voices.

- Behind the scenes, in the Reviews section, is the forum wherein readers may ruminate, predict, contribute... may help mold and help shape... may tell the story. With total transparency, this pool of ideas can be referenced at any time.

- If you need any clarifications, write to me at littletrip at live dot com. The Reviews section is meant for accumulating ideas for where the story goes next.

5. WTF?

- Go ahead. Read "Prologue" now. Then reread this foreword.

Perhaps you will be inspired to fill in the box and click "Leave Review." While not all submissions and contributions can be used concomitantly, for obvious reasons, all of them will be considered as the story proceeds.

At the very least... what does he look like?

So, my friends... tell me a story. I’ve got some writing to do.

~luvs

lt