Exquisite Corpse 2019
This summer we'll be getting our surrealist on with Thousand Roads' first exquisite corpse run! If you haven't tried your hand at making an exquisite corpse before, it's a classic writing game where multiple 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.
This year we're going to write three exquisite corpse stories, each with a different theme:
Anything Goes: Just what it says on the tin! A classic corpse, this one has no particular theme, and you can write about whatever you like. You'll get a prompt in the form of the previous writer's last sentences, and you can follow it wherever it takes you.
Pokémon Mystery Dungeon Story: Oh, no! You've been turned into a pokémon! Or perhaps that should be "oh, yes" instead of "oh, no?" This corpse takes place in the all-pokémon world familiar from the Mystery Dungeon games and has similar fantasy-adventure themes.
Unova Trainer Fic: Catch pokémon, defeat gyms, and become a master! Oh, and watch out for Team Plasma along the way. This corpse is a little different than the others in that it has a bit more continuity--in addition to the two-sentence prompts you'd normally receive, you'll get a list of pokémon that the protagonist has caught so far and how many badges they've earned, so their quest has at least some chance of continuing from scene to scene.
Once it's your turn to write for a particular story you'll receive a message from a moderator 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 off with a blank slate!) At that point you will have one week to write a scene of 250 words or more to continue the story. Once you're done, send your scene back to the mod and wait to see how it fits into the final story.
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'd like to be the first writer for any of the corpse(s) you're signing up for
Initial sign-ups run through June 21st, at which point the staff will finalize the order of writers for each corpse and contact the first writer in each to begin working on the opening scene. You can sign up after the initial sign-up period's closed, as long as the corpse(s) you're interested in haven't completed yet, but you'll probably be slotted in towards the end of the line.
Once the last writer in a corpse has sent in their segment, the staff member in charge will compile the scenes and post the complete corpse as a thread in the fanfic forum, one scene per post. For a little extra fun, the authors of each scene will initially be kept a secret so that readers can try to guess who wrote what. After three days the names of the writers will be added, and that corpse will be considered complete.
Feel free to post in this thread with any questions you might have. Good luck, and have fun with your writing!
