Challenge Dear Diary Challenge 2016|December discussion and mini-challenge now up

Two. Mine would continue to be Fives and CheckSix is planning on writing Kix, a 501st medic. I can't say much more than that because we only floated the idea today and didn't want to make any solid plans until we'd checked with yourself and the other DDC writers. The advantage of having two characters is that we can look at the same situation from a different angle or separate them for a while to examine different issues in the overall story. As for whether we have enough content... well you could ask that of any DDC author really. Certainly I have an idea for where I wanted my entry to go and with CheckSix supplying her ideas I think we should be alright.

 

that's the one I'm thinking of. It was shared between Mara and Mirax..... I remember Mara had written in a few comments herself. I think it was mainly Mirax writing in the entries and thats what most people do with multiple characters, only one character writes the chapters.

with two characters and two different authors it feels like it might be a bit too complicated and confusing I could be wrong. I'm not a hundred percent sure this is a good idea to be honest because it is written in an I format.

I'm really going to have think on this one.

 

Oi. I just found the diary via googe (damn you search being down). NOW I remember, it was largely written by Mara, but it was said that Mirax stole the diary and put her own short comments at the end of each entry (and one time put a full entry in).

But that's a bit different than two characters, with two different authors, sharing diary, so it is really up to you.

 

For us who have no idea what you're talking about, where can we read it? Since it's used as an example here and all, would be nice to. Thanks.

 

Ewok Poet Truncated, but here: Exonerated by JediMara77

 

Here is the FF.net version since the one here is truncated: https://www.fanfiction.net/s/6658396/1/EXONERATED-The-Jade-Terrik-Adventures

Just quickly skimming, 26 of the entries were "written" by Mara and more often than not, Mirax's comments were one liners, then 2 of the entries were letters written by Mirax and put in the diary. So I'm not sure if it's the best example for the question at hand.

 

Just remembered the very obvious: Kahara's 2015 diary features New Republic Intelligence comments in earlier chapters. They're reading through it and commenting on some things on it.

BTW, thank you, both of you.

 

Okay, this conversation went completely elsewhere while I was pondering a better answer to the original question. The downside of being asleep while things happen on the boards

I think we're discussing at the same time two issues that are not necessarily related to each other, i.e. the writing process vs narrative unity.

The principle of this challenge if I understand it correctly is that each participant writes a single diary from beginning to end, but there are a gazillion ways to have more than one character in there. For instance, the narration by one character becomes a framing device to include narration by the other(s), e.g. pasted letters, reader's notes, in the case of my diary retweets, etc. Another option could be that the diary itself is in such a format that it's a framing device, e.g. a ship's log where one character writes the day shift and another writes the night shift. There are many other ways to do it so that the fic is a single, continuous diary regardless of the number of characters, and it should be a single diary whether it's written by one or multiple authors.

A separate issue is how to handle a co-authored diary under the rules of this challenge, and that question applies whether the diary is a single character or not. The two authors are expected to write the same, single, continuous diary, and part of the work of co-authoring is to agree on the outline, the plot details, the characterisation, the just-about-everything, plus, if it's a multi-character diary, on how to manage the framing device so that the result is a single diary and not two parallel diaries. IMO expecting each author to write two entries every month is assuming that they are writing in parallel instead of writing together, and that fails to give them credit for co-authoring a single work -- which is why I would opt for two entries per diary per month regardless of the number of authors, provided however that it is a single narrative.

This was written half-way though the first cup of coffee of the day and may therefore not make much sense

 

Your post brings up more questions for me though and I'm going back on what I have been told so far. Chyntuck

If I'm understanding this now correctly since I had time to sleep on it that they want to do the same scene from two different perspectives, to me it sounds like it's parallel instead of one continuous stream like most stories are. The only time you ever see it from more then one angel is in the RP's and not fan fiction.

any co-author story I have seen sticks to one stream, each main character takes turn telling the story going forward and not repeating the same scene which in my opinion would be boring if it was the same scene from two different angles. Not to mention, there's not much room for true character or growth development.

Correct me if I'm wrong on this.

Is the two characters telling the same scene? Or are they taking turns narrating the story which would make more sense.

CheckSix, gaarastar58

What happens if one of you drop out, would the other have permission to carry the story forward using the same characters?

How would you plan to carry the story forward if RL gets in the way or would I be pulling it from the competition at that point??

Just a note: I have a funneral to attend to this morning and won't be back on until later tonight It's a two hour drive one way.

 

Good morning, all. Doing this from my handheld, so forgive any typos. My original thought was to write a diary from Kix's standpoint. I liked the idea of a medic having his say. When I saw Gaararstar had a 501st diary from Fives already started, I thought it would be interesting to view the same event from two different angles in the same unit. My thought was two separate threads. Gaararstar and I also agreed it would be cool to include posts not based off the other author, or as he put it, "dipping in and out of each other's story lines." I do not believe the two viewpoints would make the diaries redundant or boring; rather I think it would add depth and insight to the events. Whenever two people witness the same event, they have divergent recollections, and the battlefield is a big place. Since the main story is Gaararstar's, I don't believe his diary would suffer at all if suddenly Kix were to find himself, er, incapacitated. Fives diary would continue regardless of whether or not Kix was around, just as a real diary would. That being said, I don't plan on bailing. Creative writing is one of my greatest passions. It takes a lot to stop me from writing when I'm interested in a topic. Gaararstar and I seem to share some common ground re: the clones. I hope this clarifies at least my viewpoint

 

Just gonna write something really quickly before I head out to do some coaching so this might seem a bit rushed.
I had envisioned the two characters following the same story, sometimes telling the same scene from alternate points of view (which could be very interesting if the characters are in disagreement over the correct course of action) or they can separate for awhile (say if Fives remains at the front and Kix is called back the field hospital). I agree with Falcon that if every entry was simply the same scene from two different POVs it would get dull quickly.

If for whatever reason one author is unable to continue then their character can be written out of the story pretty easily, say by suffering a severe wound and being evacuated off the battlefield.

I also think the story should be in a single thread to avoid confusion for readers. Again I want to stress that this idea was only floated yesterday after CheckSix and I read each others clone stories so we have a lot of discussion to do before we can give more definitate answers on the exact structure and narrative style of the diary.

Correct me if I'm wrong but isn't the whole point of DDC to challenge yourself? I'd like to have the opportunity to give something a shot, even if it ends up not being feasible.

 

I like the idea of having two different journals in one thread to describe one scene. I wanted to do that with Ben Skywalker and Talon Tantiss to see how each man interprets events.

I think it could be done if each individual post is one person's perspective and the entry would be something like:

Ben Skywalker Journal
Entry 2

Blah, blah, blah.


Then in the next post there can be

Talon Tantiss Journal
Entry 2


The different diary entries by different people can be further differentiated by using a different font and color.

 

Having the same general overall scene from two POVs is handy for when one of the characters isn't involved in part of the action but you want to give the reader a full perspective.

Like if the characters were a pilot and a groundside trooper, getting each side of a battle situation would be interesting, or if the characters were a Jedi Knight and the other a healer, that could really get interesting. (Obi-Wan has landed in the healer's hall again!)

 

It could be a journal of a Company Commander and in his journal he adds after-action reports from his lieutenants. So let's say you want to have a combined journal of Lieutenant Smith (Pilot) and Lieutenant Jones (ground troops). Those two men file their after action report to Captain Johnson who is the true author of the journal but he adds in these after action reports and comments on them. So it is a journal of one man who is receiving reports from other people.

Or do you think that would be more confusing.

 

These are my final 2 cents, maybe (I’m not trying to cause drama, I think this is just a rather interesting dilemma). In the past, yes, there have been several diaries that have included either commentary, notes or letters from other characters (now that I think if it, I think there was one with psychiatrist notes at the end of each entry), but the single author still had 24 (or more) entries mainly written from the POV of one character (as far as I am aware).

But the situation at hand, as I see it, is should 2 different authors writing 2 different characters [but experiencing the same scenarios (some of the time?)] have to do 12 entries each, or 24 each?

My personal opinion is, since it sounds like these diaries could technically be independent of each other (I totally understand and agree with the idea of posting these together) it is not unreasonable to ask for 24 each.


Just as an aside, if you go to the 2007 rules, you will see these lines: "The premise is to write diary entries from the point of view of one character” and "You can make as many different diaries as you want, so long as each character has their own." And, yeah, 2007 was the pilot year, and A LOT has changed since then (for example, back in 07, OC’s were ‘preferred’). I mean, some rules were meant to evolve, be broken and change. This challenge would not have lasted this long without room for innovation.

It’s, of course, partially up to Falcon as host, but you could always allow it for one year (24 entries between 2 authors writing 2 characters), then let the voters and other participants decide at the end of the year by doing what the mods have done in the past by having a survey (IE: should multi-POV pics be allowed? Should co-authors have to do 24 entries collectively or each? etc?).

 

Thanks for the tag, Falcon!

After reading through everything, I tend to agree with Bri about the number of posts each author should write. Yes, the collaboration does take more time and effort than one author, but having each author (and, thus, each character) write only 12 entries in a year seems like not very much.

I do like the idea of combining the threads; while it is not consistent with the 2007-created rules, I think it's an interesting twist! So that, I think, would be my compromise: The characters can share a thread and a diary, but each author should still write 24 entries (long or short--I know I personally entered a diary one year that was a Very Secret Diary and ha very short posts).

And at the end of the year, the group can always reevaluate!

 

24 entries each is not too much. Most of my Diaries were around 60K to 116K words with 50 + posts. lol!

 

Does anyone have the list of diaries eligible for voting this year? I know someone posted their compiled list a while ago, but it seems to have gotten lost in the shuffle. Maybe having that linked in the first post would help.

Edit: Okay, I did find it. But it could still be a little easier to find.

 

Front page Kahara

Another question pops up for me. When you say combine, you're still going to agree upon a scene and write it out right? your not copying and pasting from a previous thread are you? Between your characters? And I agree, 24 posts per author.

I know mine have more then 24 entries per diary. I know it's not that difficult to do.

CheckSix, gaarastar58

 

24 posts (at least) per author is fine with us. Content is being newly written not rehashed from an old story.

 

I'm going to make this a trial run, only you two will be allowed to do this this year and we'll set up guidelines for future authors that would like to attempt it if it works out.

Co-author Diary Rules and guidelines
2 authors per diary (I don't want to see the diary become too complicated)
24 posts per author
Scene has to be agreed upon between authors before writing up the posts
I'm assuming this will be in one thread.
entries have to remain in I format from the character putting in the entry but it has to be clearly marked on whose writing the entry

Example:

Vader's Entry

Luke's Entry

We'll see how this turns out this year and will re-evaluate this at the end of the year and hold a vote from readers and authors. If this works I will add to the rules of the first post of the guidelines for this challenge.

Does this sound good to everyone??

CheckSix, gaarastar58 do you agree?

 

Excellent discussion and fair decision.

 

I think those are fair guidelines. I'm actually feeling nervous now but much more motivated to make this diary work. Glad that this has stimulated some interesting debate, hope the diary lives up to expectations!

 

Honestly, I don't understand the point of all these detailed rules. Write a diary (whatever you interpret that to mean). Update it twice a month. If it's boring or confusing or doesn't have enough substance, it probably won't win. I don't see what it hurts to have a few extra entries that are a bit unorthodox. Just my two cents.