On Collaborative Storytelling

A couple of years ago, my niece Savannah had the idea, one which some might call brilliant or inspired or visionary (none to my knowledge have labeled it as such, but they might have), to write a story together online. At first, the idea was that we would each write one word before passing off to the other person. This initial iteration of the idea, while giving each author ample opportunity to reflect on the direction of the story, quickly showed itself to be inefficient at best, as it would have taken weeks just to build the introductory sentence. It was then decided that perhaps the best approach was to allow each author one entire sentence (or in my case, a series of run on or complex sentences which clearly stretched the rules of the effort, as well as irked my cohort, much like this unnecessarily long and explanatory sentence must be irking you, oh patient reader; as I now reflect on this sentence, my suggestion is that you should go back to the beginning of the sentence, i.e. to that beginning "It was then decided . . . " and start this sentence anew, leaving out all that is parenthetical, meaning all verbage surrounded by parentheses -- otherwise, the meaning might be lost, or at least severely wounded, which in hindsight is a poor personification in light of the fact that being "lost" is not necessarily worse than being "wounded," unless of course "lost" implies "presumed dead," in which case "wounded" is the better of the two, and in which case the chosen personification works as written) to further the plot of the story.

You can see the potential issues that I, at least, encountered when it came to sticking to single sentences. Savannah was a trooper, however, and stuck with it for longer than she perhaps should have. If interested, you can read the beginning of the effort here. Hopefully SP can be draw out of her early retirement so that the saga of the students at AfSwAT can continue. . .