The Shared World as Serial Literature
Oct. 22nd, 2012 04:27 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
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poetreeA shared world is a setting created by multiple contributors working together. It may include poetry, fiction, artwork, worldbuilding descriptions, and/or whatever else people feel inspired to make. The Cthulhu Mythos is one famous example, and it includes poetry. While the basic concept has existed for many years, cyberspace makes it much easier to create and share material collectively. So shared worlds are thriving online.
This is good news for poetry. Plenty of shared worlds allow poetry as a contribution. Poems can be short and easy to write, making it feasible to build up a lot of material quickly, showing different parts of a world and its people. They can also be longer and more detailed, which adds to the depth. Furthermore, collaborative work facilitates inspiration, allowing items to "chain" together as one person's creation inspires another. Poems may cluster together around a given character, location, or event in the shared world. When you add up all the different pieces, the poems created within the project then function as a series; they may share a common timeline as well as setting and overall theme.
Torn World is a science fantasy shared world launched by Ellen Million, with a large number of other contributors. It features poetry, fiction, artwork, and a lot of worldbuilding articles all hosted on a custom website. Some of the poems relate events that are anchored to a specific date in the timeline. Others don't have a date, existing as cultural material within the setting itself. If you look on the Poetry page, you can see all the poems listed by date of publication. Visit the Timeline to find all the poems and stories listed in chronological order within the setting.
The Silk Road Allies is a smaller shared world project that grew between three creators, and it's alternate history about Italy and China forming an alliance. So far it spans about a thousand years of history. The poetic forms draw from Italian and Chinese traditions. Many of the poems focus on specific turning points in history and how the alliance changed the way they played out. If you look on the Poetry page, you can see a list of poems in the series with links to those published online.
A key aspect that distinguishes shared worlds is the use of collaboration. Because poetry isn't very popular in the mainstream right now, there are few opportunities for poets to work together, receive detailed feedback, and hone their craft. Shared worlds often include mechanisms for encouraging contributors to team up on individual projects. They may have contests or challenges that require teamwork, or prompt calls when anyone can put out ideas for someone else to write/draw. It's also common for one thing to inspire another, such as going from a forum discussion to a picture to a story and a poem. Two poets might collaborate to write a merged poem, each of them portraying the perspective of a different character. There are many possibilities.
Shared worlds also need to consider the issue of canon -- that is, what counts as part of the official content. Most shared worlds have one or more people designated to make such rulings; often they have a set of guidelines for canon qualification. The details vary, though. Torn World has a Canon Board. The Silk Road Allies is less formal and simply involves discussion among the three members, all of whom have different relevant credentials. Some shared worlds also have a separate listing for non-canon materials, things inspired by the same setting but with some parts that don't entirely match established features. This correlates to a similar issue in serial poetry generally -- the need to maintain consistency over a set of poems, often quite long, so that errors don't creep in to distract readers from the storyline.
What do you like about shared worlds? How do you think poetry contributes to the shared world phenomenon, as contrasted with other formats such as fiction and art?
Further Reading
"The Beauty of the Shared Universe"
"Collaboration -- Working with a Writing Partner"
"Collaborative Creative Writing Community"
"Collaborative Poetry"
"Collaborative Poetry Resources"
"Combining trad publishing, shared world, CC"
"Poetry and Collaboration"
"Shared Story Worlds"
"Shared Universe (Fanlore)"
"Shared Universe (TV Tropes)"
"What You Need to Know about Shared Worlds"
"Writing in a Shared Universe"
This is good news for poetry. Plenty of shared worlds allow poetry as a contribution. Poems can be short and easy to write, making it feasible to build up a lot of material quickly, showing different parts of a world and its people. They can also be longer and more detailed, which adds to the depth. Furthermore, collaborative work facilitates inspiration, allowing items to "chain" together as one person's creation inspires another. Poems may cluster together around a given character, location, or event in the shared world. When you add up all the different pieces, the poems created within the project then function as a series; they may share a common timeline as well as setting and overall theme.
Torn World is a science fantasy shared world launched by Ellen Million, with a large number of other contributors. It features poetry, fiction, artwork, and a lot of worldbuilding articles all hosted on a custom website. Some of the poems relate events that are anchored to a specific date in the timeline. Others don't have a date, existing as cultural material within the setting itself. If you look on the Poetry page, you can see all the poems listed by date of publication. Visit the Timeline to find all the poems and stories listed in chronological order within the setting.
The Silk Road Allies is a smaller shared world project that grew between three creators, and it's alternate history about Italy and China forming an alliance. So far it spans about a thousand years of history. The poetic forms draw from Italian and Chinese traditions. Many of the poems focus on specific turning points in history and how the alliance changed the way they played out. If you look on the Poetry page, you can see a list of poems in the series with links to those published online.
A key aspect that distinguishes shared worlds is the use of collaboration. Because poetry isn't very popular in the mainstream right now, there are few opportunities for poets to work together, receive detailed feedback, and hone their craft. Shared worlds often include mechanisms for encouraging contributors to team up on individual projects. They may have contests or challenges that require teamwork, or prompt calls when anyone can put out ideas for someone else to write/draw. It's also common for one thing to inspire another, such as going from a forum discussion to a picture to a story and a poem. Two poets might collaborate to write a merged poem, each of them portraying the perspective of a different character. There are many possibilities.
Shared worlds also need to consider the issue of canon -- that is, what counts as part of the official content. Most shared worlds have one or more people designated to make such rulings; often they have a set of guidelines for canon qualification. The details vary, though. Torn World has a Canon Board. The Silk Road Allies is less formal and simply involves discussion among the three members, all of whom have different relevant credentials. Some shared worlds also have a separate listing for non-canon materials, things inspired by the same setting but with some parts that don't entirely match established features. This correlates to a similar issue in serial poetry generally -- the need to maintain consistency over a set of poems, often quite long, so that errors don't creep in to distract readers from the storyline.
What do you like about shared worlds? How do you think poetry contributes to the shared world phenomenon, as contrasted with other formats such as fiction and art?
Further Reading
"The Beauty of the Shared Universe"
"Collaboration -- Working with a Writing Partner"
"Collaborative Creative Writing Community"
"Collaborative Poetry"
"Collaborative Poetry Resources"
"Combining trad publishing, shared world, CC"
"Poetry and Collaboration"
"Shared Story Worlds"
"Shared Universe (Fanlore)"
"Shared Universe (TV Tropes)"
"What You Need to Know about Shared Worlds"
"Writing in a Shared Universe"
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no subject
Date: 2012-10-23 12:43 am (UTC)It was a bit intimidating for me, on the canon board, because I didn't have a lot of experience with the format, but I found that it was a natural fit, and a lot of the same criteria applies as to prose. (Primarily - watch for grammar that conflicts internally, make sure events all fit chronologically and check for proper use of setting elements.) It's even inspired me to fits of poetry as a writer. >.>
Related, one of our contests running now is to write a poem based on an existing story - it can show the events of the story from a new POV, or build off it tangentially, or show events caused by the story... anything that spins things onward. http://www.tornworld.net/forum/viewtopic.php?f=20&t=1104 (New members always welcome!)
no subject
Date: 2012-10-23 01:18 am (UTC)Yes...
Date: 2012-10-23 02:12 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2012-10-23 05:48 am (UTC)On the Rocks is a good example of it - Elizabeth shared a prompt (at Sketch Fest) for a unicorn climbing up on a cliff, I sketched this piece: http://www.ellenmilliongraphics.com/sketchfest/sketchfestart.php?id=1400
Elizabeth started a story for it, here: http://www.tornworld.net/storypageview.php?id=248
Which inspired me to finish it in ink: http://www.ellenmilliongraphics.com/sketchfest/sketchfestart.php?id=2145
Backwards from that, Elizabeth's poem 'The String of Beads' inspired this artwork: http://emg-zine.com/item.php?id=465&page=&access=Y (Not Torn World related. Also, trigger warning, if you fear spiders.)
I've actually been toying with the idea of running a project, alternating writers and artists, where one item inspires another, inspires another not necessarily related in any fashion - sort of like the old telephone game where you can't see further back than just the last work... just to see where we ended up.
Yes...
Date: 2012-10-23 06:14 am (UTC)That sounds like fun.
no subject
Date: 2012-10-23 10:04 am (UTC)Thoughts
Date: 2012-10-23 02:11 am (UTC)Part of the fun in shared worlds is the unexpected turns they take.
>>It was a bit intimidating for me, on the canon board, because I didn't have a lot of experience with the format, but I found that it was a natural fit, and a lot of the same criteria applies as to prose.<<
I'm glad to hear that. Too many people refuse to consider poetry, or will accept submissions but shirk editing them, rather than try to figure out how to handle a new type of writing for real.
>>It's even inspired me to fits of poetry as a writer.<<
Yay! It's good to see more people writing poetry.