How to Create a Group Fiction Story

Vocal is a great platform for Creators. It gives space to write, post, showcase, anchor, stretch our wings, and participate as desired with other writers.

Most of that is done on an individual basis. The creator has a personal profile and every piece of content is allocated (so far) to just one creator. All of that speaks to the benefit to the individual.

Collectively creators can comment on the writing of others, subscribe to them, tip them, and promote them through the Raise Your Voce bi-weekly sessions: all on the Vocal platform. There is even a free Discord location that allows even more interaction. It makes it easy to ask questions, trade work for critiques, and celebrate progress. What seems harder is to collaborate with other writers.

I have good news: it is possible, and it has been done.

Is it perfect? No. Will the result be one piece with links to everyone's profiles? Also: no. But- it is an effort that can help flex your writing muscles and produce something synergistic... and it might just be what you've been waiting for.

This is a How To that shows the steps to create a fiction story. I have been part of a collaborative that was a non-fiction endeavor, and will document that later.

Step 1: The Coordinator

A rowboat goes nowhere if everyone paddles in different direction. Have just one person to coordinate the collaboration (aka collab). They:

• assemble the team
• define the process
• communicate the theme/topic
• assign the order of each person's part of the collab
• check in on group progress
• answer questions
• share and elevate the completed work

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Step 2: The Collaborators: Assembling the Team

To allow the fiction story to develop I suggest at least five Creators collaborate on writing it, one of which could be the Coordinator.

Here are three easy ways to find collaborators to get your imagination twirling:

1. Ask for interested parties on the Vocal Discord channel.
2. Ask through a Facebook/social media post.
3. Write a Vocal story about collabs and include an ask at the end for interested parties to make themselves known.

(Note: I most recently used the Discord channel, but have in the past responded to a Vocal story and used my Facebook group for Vocal and Medium writers to pull together previous collabs.)

Give people an idea of what is ahead: here is the short outline I provided in my ask:

I am seeking five people to participate in a serialized fiction story:

1) you will receive a theme

2) each person will be assigned a chapter: first through fifth chapters.

3) first person sets the foundation for the story, second , third, fourth person builds the story based on what the people before them write and the last person pulls it together and ends the story.

As we go, the second, third, fourth and fifth person will link to the preceding chapters . The first, second, third, and fourth people will link to the chapter that follow theirs once it goes live. To do that you must be a Vocal+ member, if you aren't, then the link must be shared as the first comment on your story.

If we have 10 people that want to participate we’ll run two groups. Please reply here if you are interested!

Step 3: Define the Process, Theme, and Writing Order

In order to produce results we all need a clear idea of what we are going to do. Here is the information I provided to the latest group:

Theme: Birthday Mystery

Details:

1. Must be a fiction story written specifically for this project

2. Maximum 7 days to write and post. In order to keep the momentum going, TBH, quicker is better.

3. All stories will link to each other. This means:

a. Writer one creates the foundation of the plot AND the title. At the end, they say ‘Next chapter is by XXX’, and when Chapter 2 is finished, writer 1 edits their piece to include the link to Chapter 2.

b. Chapter 2 includes a link to Chapter 1, and states ‘Chapter 3 is by YYY’, and then once chapter 3 is completed, edits the piece to include the link.. Etc...

d. All stories link back to Chapter 1.

e. Last chapter Links to the one before it, and also to the first chapter.

4. Word count: between 600 and 2000 words.

5. You can certainly work together on the story, but it’s not mandatory!

6. Email the next person on the schedule once you submit your story.

7. When all stories are done I’ll do a stacked post with links to each chapter, as well as the process for other groups to do this, too.

8. By all means- you can write about what the process was like, what you learned, what sucked, etc. (Please wait until everyone is done to say it sucked, tho…)

9. Make your piece your own:

a. You can add characters, kill them off, introduce new tangents, etc.

b. Create your own title, but the subtitle should be : Chapter x of (Name the first chapter created)

c. Your story interacts with the one(s) before it, but should standalone on its own, too.

d. You can write from a different point of view , does not need to be the same as the previous writer(s)

10. If you have questions for me, please contact me anyway you want: message on Discord, email , text me, Facebook messenger, too.

Here is the writing order.......

Step 4: Writing, Posting, Communicating

The groups in which I've participated used Facebook Chat to communicate their progress, ask questions, share plot development, etc. This most recent group created a channel on the Vocal Discord, and I think it was easier to use and follow.

The most important consideration is choosing a method everyone has access to and sticking with it through the whole collab.

Step 5: Sharing the Result

Since this is a Vocal collab, each member will post their own content on Vocal. Here are some suggestions to boost visibility:

1. Share in the biweekly Thursday Raise Your Voice discussion on Vocal. Click on the underlined link to see all past discussions, and join in every other week.
2. Share in the Story Showcase on Discord.
3. Share on social media, including your own page.
4. Create a 'stacking' story, like this one, to share all the links once it is completed.

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Here are the chapters of the Fall 2023 Birthday Mystery Fiction Collab. My thanks to the participants for embracing the challenge and creating such a cohesive story!

First Chapter : Ian Read (congratulations on this being recognized as a Top Story, Ian! What a way to launch the collab!)

Second Chapter: Doc Sherwood

Third Chapter: Ashley Lima

Fourth Chapter: Matthew Fromm

Fifth Chapter: That Writer Woman

Six Chapter Kenny Penn

Seventh Chapter Amanda Starks Congratulations on this being recognized as a Top Story!

Last Chapter: Shauna Mullen : Congratulations on having this recognized as a Top Story, Shauna!

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I hope you give it a try, and if you do, please share the links in the comments of this piece so we can easily find it.

And if you are interested in the next Fiction Collab, which will start December 1, please let me know in the comments.