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Exquisite Corpse 2021

Negrek

Play the Rain
Staff
Exquisite Corpse 2021

It's time once again to kick off our annual run of exquisite corpses! An exquisite corpse is a writing game where where participants come together to write a story... with each only being able to see the last couple sentences of the previous writer's work! Anything can happen as the story passes from one writer to the next, changing dramatically with each scene.

Once it's your turn to write for a particular corpse you'll receive a message from the organizer with the last two sentences of the previous writer's scene. (Or, if you're the first writer for a story, you'll get a simple go-ahead instead; you start with a blank slate!) At that point you will have one week to write a scene of 250-1500 words to continue the story. Once you're done, send your scene back to the organizer and wait to see how it fits into the final story.

After the last writer in a corpse has sent in their segment, the organizer will arrange a Discord voice chat where volunteers will collaborate to read the entire corpse. For extra fun, the organizer won't reveal who wrote each segment right away--we'll see if we can guess who wrote what first! If you can't make it to the voice chat or don't have Discord at all, don't worry; the full corpse will be posted here on the forums for everyone to view and come back to as often as they'd like.

Check out last year's thread for an example of how this all works in practice!

This year's theme poll ended up being pretty close! While there were clear first and second place options, there was a three-way tie for third. We'll only be running four corpses, but I'll make sure all the top themes end up getting used anyway--check out the details of the Genre Switch corpse. ;)

Genre Switch: Rather than having a consistent theme, this corpse mixes things up even further by changing genre after each scene! In addition to their usual prompt, each participant in this corpse will receive two genres to choose from and write their scene around. These genres may be mainstream (e.g. adventure or romance) or fanfic-specific (e.g. PMD or angst). And, since NPC POV and Detective Pikachu were both popular options on this year's theme poll, we'll make sure those both appear as genres in this corpse!

Pokémon POV: Witness the exquisite corpse insanity through the eyes of a Pokémon--or perhaps many Pokémon? Whether alien intelligence style or semi-humanized PMD variant, all the protagonists in this corpse will be Pokémon of one sort or another.

Reverse: Ordinarily, an exquisite corpse starts at the beginning and moves straight towards the end, with each writer using the end of the previous writer's scene as a prompt. This corpse goes in reverse: it begins with the final scene and progresses towards the beginning. Rather than using the final two sentences of the last scene as a prompt, each writer will instead receive the first two sentences of the scene by the writer that came before them. No particular genre or theme besides the backwards style--it's anything goes here!

Sinnoh Journeyfic: We're returning to Sinnoh this year to celebrate the next big pokémon game releases! Scale snowy mountains, put Galactic grunts in their place, and collect eight gym badges--or get completely derailed by a sidequest outside Sandgem Town! Enjoy a no-doubt disastrous journey through nostalgic Sinnoh scenery in this journeyfic corpse.

Sound like fun? To sign up, just post in this thread stating:

a) which corpse(s) you'd like to participate in; you can write for as many as you want
b) if there are any weeks where you're going to be busy and would prefer not to write
c) whether you're interested in being the first writer for any of the corpse(s) you're signing up for

Sign-ups are open until midnight UTC on Tuesday, July 27th (8 PM July 26th EST), and the corpses will kick off a couple days later!

Many thanks to this year's hosts: Chibi Pika, IFBench, Sinderella, SparklingEspeon, and windskull! Depending on how much interest we get, we may want to open additional iterations for some of the themes, so there may still be opportunity to run a corpse if you're interested; I'll put out a call if it turns out we need more people.

Feel free to post any questions you might have in this thread. Happy writing!
 

AbraPunk

Cosmic Guardian
Location
The Circle
Pronouns
he/him
Partners
  1. luxio
A) Would like to participate in Genre Switch, Pokemon POV, and Sinnoh Journeyfic.

B) completely free for whenever!

C) would rather not start any 😅
 

Inkedust

Harbinger of Sunrise
Location
Pokémon Square
Pronouns
she/her
Partners
  1. ninetales-inkedust
  2. solgaleo-inkedust
  3. xerneas
  4. zoroark-inkedust
Sign me up!
A) Genre Switch, Pokémon POV, and Reverse.​
B) While I'm not 100% free (especially now that my semester has started), I do have enough free time in my schedule to say that any week is fine for the time being.​
C) I would be more than happy to start the reverse corpse if there aren't any other takers, otherwise I'm good.​
 

IFBench

Rescue Team Member
Location
Pokemon Paradise
Partners
  1. chikorita-saltriv
  2. bench-gen
  3. charmander
  4. snivy
  5. treecko
  6. tropius
  7. arctozolt
  8. wartortle
I'd like to participate in all four!

I'm free anytime!

I'm ok with starting for any of them, though I'd prefer to start only one of them, if that's ok.
 

Equitial

Ace Trainer
Pronouns
he/him
Partners
  1. espurr
  2. inkay
  3. woobat
  4. ralts
:quag::quag::quag:
A) ALL OF THEM
B) There should be no issues
C) I'd be fine starting any!
 

bluesidra

Mood
Pronouns
she/her
Partners
  1. hoppip-bluesidra-reup
  2. hoppip-bluesidra-pink
  3. hoppip-bluesidra3
I'd like to try out the Genre Switch

I'm free whenever

I think I can start...
 

windskull

Bidoof Fan
Staff
Partners
  1. sneasel-nip
  2. bidoof
  3. absol
  4. kirlia
  5. windskull-bidoof
  6. little-guy-windskull
  7. purugly
  8. mawile
I'm interested in participating in all of them (though as I'll be running a corpse, I understand that I may not be able to participate in one, depending on how many participants we have for each theme.)

I'm more or less available any week as far as I know right now.

I'd prefer not to start, but I'm open to it if needed.
 

Umbramatic

The Ghost Lord
Location
The Yangverse
Pronouns
Any
Partners
  1. reshiram
a) Genre Switch, Pokemon POV, and Sinnoh Journeyfic!
b) I absolutely cannon write during July because Artfight but can write anytime after.
c) For the above reason I cannot write first probably
 

The Walrein

Vicinal Dragging for the Truth
Partners
  1. gulpin
  2. kricketot
  3. bulbasaur
a) I'll sign up for the Pokemon POV and Reverse corpses, please.
b) Anytime should work for me.
c) I'm fine with being first writer.
 

Starlight Aurate

Ad Jesum per Mariam | pfp by kintsugi
Location
Route 123
Partners
  1. mightyena
  2. psyduck
A. I'll sign up for Pokemon POV, Reverse, and Sinnoh Journeyfic, please!
B. I should be available any time. My semester begins August 15, so I'd prefer before then, if possible.
C. I'm willing to begin the corpses!
 

Sinderella

Angy Tumbleweed
Staff
Location
In Guzma's Closet
Pronouns
She/Her
Partners
  1. sylveon-shiny
  2. gothitelle
  3. froslass
  4. chandelure
  5. mimikyu
1.) I’ll sign up for whichever ones I’m not hosting!
2.) My availability varies day-to-day but I’ll definitely be able to set aside time to do this.
3.) I’m willing to start!
 

Flyg0n

Flygon connoisseur
Pronouns
She/her
Partners
  1. flygon
  2. swampert
  3. ho-oh
  4. crobat
  5. orbeetle
  6. joltik
  7. salandit
  8. tyrantrum
I am doing this! obv Sinnoh Journeyfic, and heck, I'm down to do 'em all

I don't mind starting for any, I just naturally don't want to end up with two obligations the same week.

I don't think I have any blacked out areas of my schedule, so I'm good to go.
 

WildBoots

Don’t underestimate seeds.
Pronouns
She/Her
Partners
  1. moka-mark
  2. solrock
I’d like to hop on the Pokémon POV thread! It’ll also be easiest to reach me on Discord right now. ❤️
 

kintsugi

golden scars | pfp by sun
Location
the warmth of summer in the songs you write
Pronouns
she/her
Partners
  1. silvally-grass
  2. lapras
  3. golurk
  4. booper-kintsugi
  5. meloetta-kint-muse
  6. meloetta-kint-dancer
  7. murkrow
  8. yveltal
i can’t not ask to be on pokemon POV and reverse order lol.

would be thrilled to start either of them!
 

Chibi Pika

Stay positive
Staff
Location
somewhere in spacetime
Pronouns
they/them
Partners
  1. pikachu-chibi
  2. lugia
  3. palkia
  4. lucario-shiny
  5. incineroar-starr
a) Poke-pov, Reverse, and Sinnoh Journeyfic
b) prooobably shouldn't write for the first few weeks of August because I'll be catching up on commissions after art fight
c) would prefer not to start

Looking forward to it!
 

Captainnemo

just a small ant on a highway
Pronouns
her/hers
This sounds like fun!!! I would like to try out the Sinnoh Journeyfic. I'm also fine with beginning the corpse!😊
 

Rainfall

minVP ADC atomic step action potential
Location
blue-green spinning rock
Pronouns
he/they
Partners
  1. minior
Agree, this seems like a lot of fun!
I'm glad there's a week for every 250-1500 w entry.
Thank you to those hosting! I'm excited for the readings already.

a) I would like to participate in Genre, Reverse, Poke-POV, and Sinnoh (snow-capped mountains :oops:).
b) Not sure when weeks start/end, but I suppose I should request not to write during approx:
- weeks of Aug 15-20, Aug 22-27, Sep 9-15, Oct 25-30, Dec 11-17. Sorry if that's excessive.
c) I would prefer not be first nor last, thank you.
 
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