Project Review

The six founders of our group, Crowdsourcing Collaborative Creativity, wanted to create a novel online.  Our goal was to have a solid and coherent plot, copy edited, and published on Amazon.com.  We didn't get that far, but we discovered and learned a lot in the process of the making.  We started by choosing a plot and assigning characters to each co-author.

Overview (Christina)
Our goal was to have a full-length, coherent, novel published on Amazon by the end of the semester. We started by choosing a plot and creating characters but the big idea of the project was to have as many collaborators as possible to help write the sections. We also included a virtual world in our plot, to bring the digital culture home. We obtained social proof from friends, professors, and other writers.

Story of the Project (Jason)
The project started out as just a few of us with a passion for creative writing who wanted to simplify the novel writing process so that it didn't place so much work on one author, making it easier to write a cohesive novel.  The challenge was to include as many people as possible while still maintaining a cohesiveness to it.  We set out to do it, and found it challenging but possible.  Six of us were able to come up with the characters and the outline (already a collaborative effort).  The actual writing was done by 20+ authors.  We were able to get about 30,000 words completed in just a few weeks.  This was a huge accomplishment.  With a few minor exceptions, it was pretty cohesive too.  Although we didn't manage to completely finish the novel we were able to get close enough to finish it in the near future.

Group Collaboration (Ashley)
Before we could send out invitations or advertise for collaboration on the novel, we had to do some collaboration of our own within the group.  We needed to decide on a plot and characters, develop the chapters, and then split those chapters into more detailed segments.  In order to accomplish all this, we used three main points of contact between our group members: Google Plus, our blog, and group meetings.

Our initial point of contact was Google Plus.  We used this as a tool to field ideas to one another, and it also a useful way to get immediate feedback from our peers.  As we moved deeper into the project we developed a blog to use as a base for our more developed ideas, such as our character and plot ideas.  Finally, to make final decisions and to settle on things such as a final plot and a timeline we had group meetings where we met face-to-face.

Public Collaboration (Rebecca)
We tried various ways of gathering participants. Early on Jason made a Youtube video trailer for the project and created a Facebook page which we invited people to join. We sent out emails to creative writing professors, writing groups and clubs, friends, and family. We had our project mentioned in the BYU English Department (I believe) newsletter. We visited classes and meetings to present our project and invite collaborators. We bothered our classmates and others we hoped to have join. At least one of the professors we contacted offered extra credit to the students who participated.

Tools (Heather)
We used multiple tools in the process of our project as we developed our ideas and created our product, Chaotic Connections. We began with a few google docs to get input and decide our story. Afterwards, we used a facebook page and blog, but that was still confusing. Finally, we created a website/wiki where we could inform the public as well as allow for submissions. We couldn’t do any of it without the tools offered by digital culture.


Feedback and Outcomes (Hillary)
One of our greatest challenges was creating a user-friendly site.  Many commented that our initial blog was a little confusing and too much was going on.  We then created a website with everything in one place.  We received more feedback, and learned that while the site was more helpful to those already committed to the project, it didn’t draw in newcomers.  This became one of our highest priorities; with the help of Dr. Gideon Burton, we added prezis that explained our basic ideas, plot, and characters.

Another problem was finding enough collaborators.  Although we tried to attract online writers through Facebook, our blog, and the site itself, most of our collaborators were people we personally contacted.  By the end of the semester, we had a large portion of the novel finished, but not enough to publish.  We will leave the site open, however, and we hope to publish it next semester.

Digital Culture
Our project was based on the ideas of online collaboration and open sourcing. We attempted to connect to our collaborators through different media - as mentioned above - and attempted to draw them in further through transmedia by creating profiles for characters and different ways to interact. We used social proof in every step as we tried to get popular votes for how our project would continue. Also, due to the collaboration, our entire project was user-generated content.

A short synopsis of our story

 Polly the covert agent was going about her daily life--infiltrating threatening organizations, gathering information, and reporting back to her team. Then she was assigned to the case of Dr. Herron, who is known to have hacked into the hugely popular and virtual reality game (a game you can completely immerse yourself in if you have the equipment and the desire). The case isn't the easiest she's ever been handed and her life is further complicated by her two crushes: one crush on the leader of her team (Grant) and the other on a guy she's met through the virtual reality game (James).

The investigation proceeds slowly. Then one day something Dr. Herron says something so very similar to something James had said, and suddenly she knows that they are the same person. She confronts him. Her team arrives (they'd been listening in without her even being aware of it). There's a struggle and Grant is thrown into the virtual reality and a computer virus that Dr. Herron had made years ago and was in the process of disabling kicks in throughout the system and everyone in the virtual reality is stuck there.

Polly and the most tech-oriented member of the team, Micro, enter the game to find the glitches on that side, as Dr. Herron and the other members of the team work from outside of the game to finish disabling the virus. They succeed and everyone lives happily ever after (except Grant, who doesn't make it out of the virtual reality).

Don't forget to check out the site!:
https://sites.google.com/site/collaborationfornovels/

Our Prezi Presentation

I have created a short Prezi presentation to help explain our project and plans.

Admins are welcome to edit it at:
http://prezi.com/4yiydlxzza0z/edit/?auth_key=0rvvkx6&follow=xqya983fmkm7

Outlines

Prologue: Heather

1. Jason

2. Jason

3. Ashley

4. Christina

5. Rebecca

6. Hillary

7. Christina

8. Ashley

9. Hillary

10. Hillary

11. Jason

12. Rebecca

12. Ashley

Meanwhile: Christina

Lets get these done by Wednesday night. I'll work on the prezi for then as well.

Updated Proposal

Here is the updated and revised proposal for Project CCC.

1. Project Title: Project CCC
We also have finalized the name of our collaborative novel: Chaotic Connections--Because none of us is as smart as all of us.
2. Description: We are attempting to create a novel from the ideas of many, following the ideas of crowdsourcing from our digital age. As a group, we will write detailed outlines of each chapter, and then we will crowdsource segments, or scenes, from each chapter to other creative writers.  In order to maintain the cohesiveness of the novel, the writers will send their scenes to the chapter developers for review, and the chapter developers will send the chapters to Ashley Barnes for final voice and grammar edits. Our timeline is as follows:

• Oct 20-Administrators must have basic section outlines finished, get the google doc link out to general public writers.
  Nov 1-Have the 1st draft done (that means all sections posted on the google doc).  Begin revision #1
  Nov 8-Have 2nd draft done.  Begin revision #2 (as necessary)
  Nov 15-Have 3rd draft done.  The novel will then be closed to the general public.  Administrators look over and revise according to assigned sections.
  Nov 21-Ashley begins continuity edits.
  Nov 26-Begin grammar edits.
  Nov 30-Novel must be done (editing complete).
  Dec 5-Novel must be done and published (Amazon.com, Barnes and Noble).  Present to class.

3. Project Members: Heather Andersen, Jason Hamilton, Hillary Ulmer, Christina Holt, Rebecca Ricks, and Ashley Barnes
Jake Cannon has offered to help with editing
4. Social Proof:

• Evidence of informal social proof: We've set up a facebook page, which is open to everyone. We have proof that the idea is appealing to many: Jason Hamilton, Heather Anderson, andAlexandra Crafton have all posted on Google+ about collaborative writing with a great deal of feedback. 
• Evidence of outside social proof: We have contacted professors and writers from the area (one creative writing group and a few BYU professors more particularly). Chris Crowe, a professor at BYU, has expressed interest in our project and is willing to offer further feedback. Kai Fierle-Hedrick is a woman on Google+ who works at Free Arts NYC as an educator. She works to promote collaborative creative practices to help at risk youth, and we plan to refer to her when we have more of our book. Emily Dyer, a creative writing teacher at BYU, is also excited about this project and will watch us on the way.  Heather Anderson and Hillary Ulmer will be contacting Emily Dyer to see if we can reach out to her class as a basis for the writers of the scenes.  The rest of the group will also announce the project in our English classes and various clubs (such as YPublish and Quark) to find more interested writers.  Jason Hamilton has also spoken to Shawn Speakman, an author and writer for Suvudu.com, who is interested in the project.  Jason also has connections at the Provo Library, and he will be using the connection to reach out to other authors for their input.
• Annotated list of potential sources of further social proof: Webook.com is one source where authors can share what they are writing and receive feedback; Our Facebook page, again, will also function as a way for other writers to give input.  We will also use the Facebook page to promote the book. We will be working with Amazon.com, and possibly other online bookstores such as Barnes & Noble, when the book is close to completion in order to have it published. 

5. Literature Review:

• Links to blog posts exploring the topic from group members: Rebecca Ricks, Hillary Ulmer, Jason Hamilton, Ashley Barnes, and Heather Anderson have all posted regarding the topic. 
• At least three books that establish the relevance and importance of the topic:  Marriage of Minds: Collaborative Fiction Writing; "Collaborative storytelling experiences in social media: Influence of peer-assistance mechanisms," an article by Liu, Chen-Chung et al (Discusses how much easier collaborative creative fiction is if you use hypermedia instead of a linear form); more to come...

6. Literary Component: 

• Jane Austen's Northanger Abbey (Heather Anderson): This book would provided the catalyst for our video game plot, but more importantly, it relates to identities and how media changes perceptions 
• The Future of Us (Hillary): This was written as a collaborative work by two authors, and while ours will be done in a different format, we are drawing on this tradition of collaborative creative writing. 

7. Formats and Audiences: Throughout the writing process we will be using a google doc for our writers to use.  All of the scenes will be written on the same google doc, so that all the writers can read previous scenes.  This will further help the revision process and the continuity problem.  We plan to publish our completed project on Amazon.com, making it available to anyone who is interested. We may charge up to $0.99 to purchase it, but large pieces will be available for free via our facebook page and this blog. 
8. Success Criteria: Our main goal is to successfully complete and publish a book which we have all contributed to; however, we hope to have at least one sale on Amazon from someone who has no relation to the members of our group.
9. Product: The story will be available for a public audience at all stages of production.  All of the character bios will be posted as separate pages on the project blog.  We have posted our final here, and we will also be posting more detailed chapter outlines on the blog.  The final product will be published on at least one electronic book seller's website, using self-publishing methods such as Kindle Direct Publishing with Amazon.com.

Chapter 2 Full Scene Outline

I've put up a link to the google doc overhead, which has several tabs, one of them is the outline tab and you'll notice that I've already filled out the chapter 2 sections.  This is roughly what it should look like.  Here's what I put:

Segment 1

-Harry the bar man watches the special ops team enter the bar (he doesn't know who they are)

-He thinks to himself about how close they all seem, and that they must be celebrating

-He asks them what they want and a beautiful girl (Angelina) tells him what they'll have.

-Harry gets what they need, and hands it to them

-Harry overhears them talking about why they're celebrating and is curious but decides to ignore it.

Segment 2

-Micro gets talking about some nerdy new product that came out, and people start hushing him up Angelina especially

-Jared sits and drinks his drink quietly, while listening to Angelina talk...and talk

-Polly moves over to Grant and flirts with him subtly but he doesn't notice

-Grant begins to tell her about a man called Dr. Herron, that they've been searching for Herron for years; they don’t know what he’s planning, but he’s a hacker who shows up every now and then online, getting into copyrighted work and stealing codes.

-He mentiones that they've finally tracked him to an address.

Segment 3

-Micro comes into the conversation and explains how they found Dr. Herron, much to the annoyance of Grant who wants Micro to shut up so he can talk more personally with Polly

-Micro expresses his admiration for a hacker like Dr. Herron

-Polly politely redirects Micro to the bar for another drink to distract him

-Grant has a “moment” with Polly where he says something flattering about her abilities, and she takes it as a come on.

-Grant asks her to go to the address to find out more about Dr. Herron.

-The night goes on, as Harry the bartender continues to wash glasses and serve drinks.

the Game

I've added a page with the specs of the game, but it is certainly up for changes. If you have ANY questions about how it works or what something does, please let me know so I can make it more clear. Also, if you want to change anything, let me know how and what and I'll see it done!

I kinda ran out of things to say about it, but I'm sure more will come as we begin to engage the game and characters. I'm thinking the ad could be a kind of hook or attention grabber for the book idea.

Feedback is wonderful!

Also, do we want this to be the prologue, do we want to know more about how the characters interact on there - I had something, but wasn't sure this was the right place if this is also the prologue - do we want a separate prologue with a more basic gist of the Game?

thanks all, and again I'm sorry I couldn't make the meeting Saturday. 

Some Social Proof

I will likely have more of this in the next day or two, but I got a response back from Shawn Speakman who is an author, writer for Suvudu.com, and works directly with authors like Terry Brooks and Naomi Noviks.  Here's what he said:

Hi Jason,

I think it is a solid idea and worth pursuing.  Will be interesting to see how uniform the final product is though.  Too many chefs in one kitchen usually spells disaster.  ;)  But from a sociological point of view, it should be fascinating.

Good luck!

Shawn Speakman

Timeline

Hey, guys, here's our timeline for when we want things done.

Oct 20-Administrators must have basic section outlines finished, get the google doc link out to general public writers.
Nov 1-Have the 1st draft done (that means all sections posted on the google doc).  Begin revision #1
Nov 8-Have 2nd draft done.  Begin revision #2 (as necessary)
Nov 15-Have 3rd draft done.  The novel will then be closed to the general public.  Administrators look over and revise according to assigned sections.
Nov 21-Ashley begins continuity edits.
Nov 26-Begin grammar edits.
Nov 30-Novel must be done (editing complete)
Dec 5-Novel must be done and published (Amazon.com, Barnes and Noble).  Present to class.

Final Chapter Outline for Chaotic Connections!

This is it! The final chapter outline for the project.  From now on we will work on more specific scene outlines, and actual writing.

Title: Chaotic Connections.
Tagline: one of us is not as smart as all of us.

Prologue: Basic history of the technology used in the video game.  Description of how the equipment works, and how the structure of the game works on the inside.

Chapter 1: We begin with Polly in the middle of a job.  She is in disguise once again, acting as a member of a drug ring.  She just needs the drug lord to reveal more information (who else is involved, where they’re getting the drugs, and a clear, recorded statement that they can use in court).  At last, the man says the last thing she needs, and then the special ops team comes in and incapacitates the members of the ring/arrests them.  Introduce various characters and their specialties (Micro uses tech to sneak inside/prevent escape/set cool gadgets to catch bad guys, Jared tackles/throws stuff, Polly uses karate, Grant shoots and directs action, and Angelina… well, she does whatever she feels like).  They cart the bad guys off to jail

Chapter 2: The team celebrates at a bar.  We see some of their personalities and interactions.  We also see Polly’s crush on Grant, and how she acts when around her teammates (as we see later, Polly acts differently depending on whom she’s with—comes from having to constantly change who she is as a spy).  As they’re leaving for the night, Grant takes Polly aside and tells her he and Micro have tracked Dr. Herron to an address.  They’ve been searching for Herron for years; they don’t know what he’s planning, but he’s a hacker who shows up every now and then online, getting into copyrighted work and stealing codes.  Grant assigns Polly to go to the address and start finding out about him.

Chapter 3: Polly returns home and talks to her roommate, Jenna (Jenny?).  We see that she acts differently around Jenna than around her coworkers.  Then she hooks up to her online game.  We see some of her life there.  She meets up with James, another player in the 2nd life game who has been talking to Polly for a couple of months now.  She talks to him about Grant, but of course can’t tell James about her real line of work. Perhaps we also see Angelina’s online identity (though we don’t know it’s her), who has also befriended Polly in the game. 

Chapter 4: The next day or so, Polly contacts Dr. Herron.  She claims to be his new neighbor (she’s renting the house next door as a ruse) and tries to become friends with him.  He acts nice enough, but she’s unable to get inside the house.  But she’s used to jobs taking a long time. 

Chapter 5: Meanwhile, Polly is secretly commuting back to her real apartment so Jenna doesn’t get suspicious, and goes to work to collaborate with teammates about how to get Dr. Herron to reveal his secret.  Micro explains more about what Dr. Herron has done in the past.  They know he’s stealing codes, and that many of his activities seem to relate to the online game Polly is involved in.  But they can’t tell exactly what Dr. Herron is up to.  Everyone is assigned various jobs to find out what he’s doing according to their specialties.  She still likes Grant, but we see that he’s not responding to her flirts.

Chapter 6: Polly continues to try to get Dr. Herron to trust her during the next week(s).  Every day she talks to him just a little, then invites him for dinner at her place.  He comes.  There’s a dinner scene, and Polly can tell he’s beginning to see her as a friend.  But when she offers to come to his house to look at a plumbing problem he mentions (she says she knows a little about that) he declines, saying he can figure it out.  Still won’t let her in.

Chapter 7: Polly goes online to unwind and talk to James (she, of course, does this everyday, but this will be a scene rather than a summary).  While talking to James today, Polly realizes she’s falling for him.  She’s conflicted between her virtual life and reality with Grant - although Grant still doesn’t like her back, and James returns her flirts.  She talks to Angelina’s avatar (again, doesn’t know it’s her, she’s just another online friend who knows James) about it, and she tells her to go for James.

Chapter 8: Polly goes over to Dr. Herron’s house to “borrow a cup of sugar.”  He tells her to wait at the door.  She’s frustrated with how he won’t let her in.  When he returns they talk for a minute on the doorstep, then she goes to her house, with nothing to show for her work but an unneeded cup of sugar.  She goes online again, and while talking to James, he says something that Dr. Herron said earlier.  She realizes Dr. Herron and James are the same person.

Chapter 9: She’s conflicted between her fondness for James and her duty to work against Dr. Herron.  She consults with Jenna without revealing too much, explaining that she’s fallen in love with a guy online, but she’s met him in real life, too, and he’s a jerk.  How does she reconcile that?  Jenna suggests she find out which part of him is his real personality—the online sweetheart, or the real life jerk.  We’re different people online and offline, and one or the other can be a front. (sort of blatantly stating the theme).  Tells Polly to get to know him better and then decide what do to.

Chapter 10: Polly decides she needs to find out exactly what Dr. Herron’s plot is before she can figure out what part of him is his real self.  She finally gets inside by going over to his house and confronts him telling him who she is (digitally) and demands he let her in.  He is slow to let her in, but does.  She notices several areas of the house he seems to be protecting.  Asks him about it, but he makes excuses.  She says she knows he’s up to something—he’s obviously hiding something (doesn’t reveal she’s with the government)—and he can trust her.  James/Dr. Herron explains that years ago, he was a hacker, and he was trying to use the codes he stole to control the people who were connected to the second life game (it would have made them into vegetables, their conscious minds trapped in the game.  Anyone that logged on would have been stuck, and he could have used it to get ransoms from some very important people).  However, Dr. Herron’s life was turned upside down when his best friend, the only person left in his life who cared about him, was killed by a random, petty thief.  (see Herron’s bio for more).  After years of mourning and soul-searching, he realized that little men, men like that petty thief, can do great harm.  If he was a great man, he should be able to great things.  So for the past couple of years, he’s been trying to not only right his wrongs, but secretly upgrade the security on the second life game so that no one could ever do what he tried years ago.  The rooms he was trying to hide are full of electronic equipment and codes meant to reverse the damage he’s done.  She’s relieved, but it’s very momentary because...

Chapter 11: Angelina and Micro run inside the house.  They explain they were listening in.  Micro tells Polly that Grant planted a recording device on Polly (he was getting suspicious and impatient with the job) and Micro found out and hacked the bug so he could listen as well.  Micro was sitting with Angelina at work this morning when they overheard Polly’s conversation.  Angelina quickly understood what was really going on (Angelina is the girl she’s been talking to online, James, who is her friend, too, is Dr. Herron) and they came running to warn them: Grant is on his way.  As soon as he heard Dr. Herron admit to hacking into those data bases years ago, he called the special ops team members and told them to head to Dr. Herron’s address.  They want to help Dr. Herron because 1) Angelina knows he’s a good guy and 2) he has to close up those security holes he created.  

However, before they can act, Grant and Jared arrive.  Grant orders Jared (who doesn't know anything about Dr. Herron’s confession) to grab Dr. Herron.  Polly puts herself between Herron and Jared, as a shield and Angelina tries to stop Jared by talking to him (they’re good friends and he listens to her).  Grant gets mad that Jared won’t do as he was ordered, and can’t understand why Angelina is defending Dr. Herron.  Micro confesses that they heard the conversation between Polly and they know the real story: Herron is reformed, and they need to let him finish his work

Grant, however, is not willing to give up on a case he’s been working on for years.  He shouts that Herron is a criminal for hacking codes and needs to be punished.  He orders Jared again to grab Herron and for the others to start packing up the equipment for evidence.  Herron tells them he was in the middle of something before Polly arrived, however, and if they try to unplug anything there could be a lot of problems.  Grant thinks that’s ridiculous, that he’s just trying to stall, and Grant decides to get the job done himself.  He tries to turn off one of the switchboards, James tries to stop him, Polly steps in as well.  Grant is thrown into the equipment and the virus is accidently activated.  Grant is knocked unconscious despite the fact that he was not thrown very hard.

Chapter 12: Herron runs to the equipment.  That shouldn't have killed Grant.  While the others try to revive Grant, Herron checks the monitors, and realized Grant actually activated the code he created years ago to trap everyone inside the game.  He also realizes that Grant must be inside the game, and since Grant never created an avatar he exists in the game as pure consciousness.  Anyone who is logged on, or who does log on, will turn into a vegetable.  There is a way to reverse it, but someone would have to go inside the game and alter the internal security settings while he worked in the physical world. Polly volunteers to go in, and so does Micro (at this point it is revealed that Micro's avatar is a superhero version of himself).  Angelina, Jared, and Herron will stay outside and try to help Herron reverse it.  Polly and Micro meet up with Jenna in the virtual world, and all of them save the day by reversing the codes and everyone gets out alive.  At one point they are mysteriously directed by an unseen power manifesting itself through various glitches in the game.

Chapter 13: Grant does not regain consciousness.  They confront James/Dr. Herron about what he’s done.  He might make a valuable asset to the team.  James says he'll consider the idea, and each goes home.  Polly and James are reluctant to leave each other, but they go home anyway.  That night Polly gets a phone call from James asking her to dinner (in the real world).  She accepts and they have a wonderful time.  Polly confesses her feelings for James, and he does the same.

Meanwhile: Micro asks Jenna out, who has become a good friend since his girlfriend broke up with him.  Jared flirts sheepishly with Angelina (dialogue: "So...do you like cheese?)  Grant begins to help people out within the game, and discovers the benefits of virtual worlds.

James Henderson/"Dr." Jason Herron

I was going to get this up yesterday but I was in Texas and my flight was delayed for three hours. 

James Henderson/"Dr." Jason Herron (turns out he hasn't yet earned his PhD.)

Born James Henderson to a single mother who then died when he was six.  His father’s identity was never known, and his maternal grandmother, his only living relative, wasn’t mentally stable, so couldn’t take him in.  He and Polly often talk about their experiences growing up.

James was always bitter that he’d gotten such a bad deal in life and that he’d never had what he’d wanted.  His mother was poor, then he lost her, and he was passed from foster home to foster home throughout middle and high school.  Because he kept moving families, he never really made friends.  Always felt like people looked down on him.  Around the age of ten he started going by Jason Herron because he wanted to forget the pain of losing his mother and start again.  He began focusing on his schoolwork and skipped several grade levels in school.  Graduated early.

In college, Herron met Karl O’Connel, who was abused and poor his whole life.  Karl influenced Jason/James for the worse, and they made plans to get rich after their years of being at the bottom of the social ladder and having to work hard to put themselves through college.  As Herron was attending graduate school and earning his Master’s in computer science, they came up with the idea to use the second life game in their plans.  They could create a virus that would prevent people from being able to log off and their minds would be trapped in the game.  Their loved ones would then have to pay a ransom to get Karl and Jason to release them.  At last Jason and Karl would have money to get what they wanted, and they wouldn’t be looked down on.  They began hacking and gathering codes from the game so they could create the virus.  This is when Herron first showed up on the government’s radar.

However, just after Herron earned his Master’s degree at age 22, and as they were finalizing their plans, Karl was shot by a random thief at a convenience store.  It was a senseless crime by a man who probably had no formal education.  This flipped Herron’s world upside down.  His only friend was dead, like everyone else he’d ever cared for.  Herron took some time off from school and work to recuperate.  This is when the government lost track of him.

Herron realized that with all his talents, he was no better than the petty thief who’d killed Karl.  All he was trying to do was get rich in whatever way he could.  He wondered about life after death, and for the first time in years, he thought about his mother.  Where was she now and would she approve of the man he’d become?

Instead of becoming even more bitter, Herron decided he needed to stop feeling sorry for himself and do something worthwhile.  He began hacking and finding codes again to undo what he’d done and make the second life game more secure so no one would be able to do what he’d once planned.

This started a year ago.  Around that time, he went back to work at the university, and created an online identity, James Henderson (his name from years ago) so he could work within the game to fix security glitches.  (This actually works against him in the end of the book because the virus gets activated but the firewalls were only partially created; he had to be inside the game to change the security settings).

He met Polly online a few months ago, along with Angelina soon after (without knowing who they really were, of course).  Immediately liked Polly; felt a connection due to their similar family backgrounds.  She always talked about Grant, though, so he never told her he liked her.

He’s an introvert, but has a sense of humor.  He’s a good listener and doesn’t think of himself much anymore.  Still feels guilt for what he almost did, and his life basically revolves around that.  If he didn’t have to eat he probably wouldn’t work at the university so he could just focus on repairing his misdeed.  He’s nice, though quiet.  Keeps a happy face.

Herron has a scruffy half-beard and messy, unkempt, light brown hair.  Eyes are blue.  He wears button-up shirts which are usually half-tucked in because when he’s not at the university, he’s trying to undo his online mistake, and it leads to a frazzled life.  No time to look good.  Often mismatched socks, buttons not done up right on his shirt.  Online avatar looks clean and neat, the way he used to look when he had time to worry about that.

Character Bio for Grant

Sorry it took me so long to get this up.  But here it is:

Name: Grant Leonard Hardcastle
Age (at time of novel): 27
Height: 6'1"
Weight: 190lbs
General Appearance: Very dark brown hair kept short but not shaved, muscular but not large, toned, roman nose, hazel eyes, round symmetrical face, slight cleft in his chin, usually wearing darker colors.
Profession: Leader of Special Ops team
Skills:  Sharpshooter, speed reader, reading someone's character just by looking at them, athletic, martial artist
General Personality: despite being an introvert of sorts Grant inspires confidence in his people because of the way he is able to understand them and sympathize with them.  He doesn't rush ahead, instead plans carefully and is able to clearly explain his plans to others.  He's a bit hard on the outside, but really cares about all his friends, and would do almost anything to keep them safe.  This can be a conflict when in a situation where he has to put the mission first.  When he's not working or training he is usually reading, with favorite books including The Art of War, Dante's Inferno, WWII literature, and all sorts of religious texts (Bible, Koran, Torah, etc)  He's not a big fan of the second life game, or any kind of technology that takes you away from interacting face to face with real people.

When Grant was 3 years old he lost his father (Jared) in a suspicious accident (his father worked for the local police force), and therefore doesn't remember him well.  He was raised as an only child by his mother (Hannah) who wanted to ensure that he became skilled and athletic especially since he didn't have a father for a role model.  He participated in many sports and learned Karate, Jujitsu, fencing, and Kung Fu, growing up but also spent much of his time reading any book he could get his hand on.  He graduated from high school at the top of his class.  As a child he was always busy doing something (either school, training, or reading) and didn't have much time for friends.

When Grant graduated from high school he moved on immediately to a degree in Psychology from Notre Dame, while participating on their swim team.  He had an academic and athletic scholarship.  It was here that he met Jared and developed a life-long friendship.  After the first year he quit the swim team but kept up other activities, focusing mainly on the martial arts he knew.  Additionally he joined a group that helped people that were obese to loose weight.

At age 21 he was approached by a member of the government and offered a job working as a member of a special forces team.  He declined because he wanted to finish his degree, but a year later he was approached again and accepted.  He worked as a member of a team for three years, and met Micro who was a fellow member of the team.  This was good and bad for him, because a number of his companions died in combat.  He showed superior skill and responsibility though.  When he was 25 he was on a rescue mission with his team, trying to recover a California senator from an organized crime unit holding the man for ransom.  In the op, a trap was sprung and Grant's leader was killed early on in the op.  Grant was next in line, and ordered the team to retreat.  If it hadn't been for his quick thinking they would have all been killed.  It was after this that he was promoted to the leader of the team.  Since several of his team-mates were gone he recruited his old friend Jared, and Angelina (who he found through Micro).

He later met Polly after she had come up on a short list of potential candidates for the team.  He met with her personally, in disguise to get to know her better, then after a number of exchanges (during which Polly develops a small crush on him) he finally revealed his real job and asked her to join the team.  Together Grant and his team are among the most efficient and successful.

fyi

I've changed Polly's bio a tiny bit, but I'd still like to see Grant's bio before adding more info on her involvement in the ops group (and I could use some help there as well). I'd also like more on James.

I'd also like to get started on the opening scene by Friday night, but it'll be extremely rough-draft until I get some feedback, as i'm still struggling with exactly what she does for the ops group.

Also, I did a blog post on some prior art in collaborative writing. I'll add more next week, but there is at least one post: http://ourdangerouselife.blogspot.com/2012/10/collaboration.html

See you in class!

Notes for Oct 9

Our formalized proposal is due Oct 16.

We want to get all character bios and the plot outline posted on the blog by this Thursday, Oct 11.  We've already noticed that we rely on what everyone else has written to create our characters.  This indicates that when we begin assigning various sections of the book for the public to write, we should give them about a week to write their section, and then another week to revise it based on what they see others writing for their sections.  (This will mean that they have to post their sections online someone for all to see.  Should this be in a blog or public google docs?)

On Thursday, we will begin assigning various members of the group to flesh out two (or so) chapters of the outlined plot.  This doesn't mean write the chapter, of course; each section just needs to have a basic beginning, middle, and end outline so that another author can write that section more fully later.  (We're going from very basic to more and more specific until we finally have a finished novel.)  We want to have these more detailed outlines done by Saturday.

We need to get more social proof, and we need to get more people excited about writing sections of the novel for us later.  Heather said we might ask Emily Dyer, a creative writing instructor on campus, to get her students to help us out on at least a few sections.  We might want to contact more instructors and ask them to do the same.

We'll be meeting Saturday, Oct 13 at about 7 PM (more details to follow) to watch The Matrix (edited), which relates to our novel.  We will also finalize a timeline that day (when do we want to have outlines ready for the public, when do they need to have their sections done, etc.), and figure out our finalized proposal for Tuesday.  At some point we also want to create character arcs that show how each character changes throughout the novel.

Finally, we want to present our idea to the class, and we want to have it recorded so we can put it on the blog/Facebook/YouTube (or whatever) to get more people excited about working on this project.

Keep inviting people to get involved so we have lots of writers to help us out later.

Updated Plot

Here is an updated version of our plot.  This is still in the beginning stages, and I honestly don't know how I feel about the climax, so please leave comments.

Chapter 1: We begin with Polly in the middle of a job.  She is in disguise once again, acting as a member of a drug ring.  She just needs the drug lord to reveal more information (who else is involved, where they’re getting the drugs, and a clear, recorded statement that they can use in court).  At last, the man says the last thing she needs, and then the special ops team comes in and incapacitates the members of the ring/arrests them.  Introduce various characters and their specialties (Micro uses tech to sneak inside/prevent escape/set cool gadgets to catch bad guys, Jared tackles/throws stuff, Polly uses karate, Grant shoots and directs action, and Angelina… well, she does whatever she feels like).  They cart the bad guys off to jail

Chapter 2: The team celebrates at a bar.  We see some of their personalities and interactions.  We also see Polly’s crush on Grant, and how she acts when around her teammates (as we see later, Polly acts differently depending on whom she’s with—comes from having to constantly change who she is as a spy).  As they’re leaving for the night, Grant takes Polly aside and tells her he and Micro have tracked Dr. Herron to an address.  They’ve been searching for Herron for years; they don’t know what he’s planning, but he’s a hacker who shows up every now and then online, getting into copyrighted work and stealing codes.  Grant assigns Polly to go to the address and start finding out about him.

Chapter 3: Polly returns home and talks to her roommate, Jenna (Jenny?).  We see that she acts differently around Jenna than around her coworkers.  Then she hooks up to her online game.  We see some of her life there.  She meets up with James, another player in the 2^nd life game who has been talking to Polly for a couple of months now.  She talks to him about Grant, but of course can’t tell James about her real line of work. Perhaps we also see Angelina’s online identity (though we don’t know it’s her), who has also befriended Polly in the game. 

Chapter 4: The next day or so, Polly contacts Dr. Herron.  She claims to be his new neighbor (she’s renting the house next door as a ruse) and tries to become friends with him.  He acts nice enough, but she’s unable to get inside the house.  But she’s used to jobs taking a long time. 

Chapter 5: Meanwhile, Polly is secretly commuting back to her real apartment so Jenna doesn’t get suspicious, and goes to work to collaborate with teammates about how to get Dr. Herron to reveal his secret.  Micro explains more about what Dr. Herron has done in the past.  They know he’s stealing codes, and that many of his activities seem to relate to the online game Polly is involved in.  But they can’t tell exactly what Dr. Herron is up to.  Everyone is assigned various jobs to find out what he’s doing according to their specialties.  She still likes Grant, but we see that he’s not responding to her flirts.

Chapter 6: Polly continues to try to get Dr. Herron to trust her during the next week(s).  Every day she talks to him just a little, then invites him for dinner at her place.  He comes.  There’s a dinner scene, and Polly can tell he’s beginning to see her as a friend.  But when she offers to come to his house to look at a plumbing problem he mentions (she says she knows a little about that) he declines, saying he can figure it out.  Still won’t let her in.

Chapter 7: Polly goes online to unwind and talk to James (she, of course, does this everyday, but this will be a scene rather than a summary).  While talking to James today, Polly realizes she’s falling for him.  She’s conflicted between her virtual life and reality with Grant - although Grant still doesn’t like her back, and James returns her flirts.  She talks to Angelina’s avatar (again, doesn’t know it’s her, she’s just another online friend who knows James) about it, and she tells her to go for James.

Chapter 8: Polly goes over to Dr. Herron’s house to “borrow a cup of sugar.”  He tells her to wait at the door.  She’s frustrated with how he won’t let her in.  When he returns they talk for a minute on the doorstep, then she goes to her house, with nothing to show for her work but an unneeded cup of sugar.  She goes online again, and while talking to James, he says something that Dr. Herron said earlier.  She realizes Dr. Herron and James are the same person.

Chapter 9: She’s conflicted between her fondness for James and her duty to work against Dr. Herron.  She consults with Jenna without revealing too much, explaining that she’s fallen in love with a guy online, but she’s met him in real life, too, and he’s a jerk.  How does she reconcile that?  Jenna suggests she find out which part of him is his real personality—the online sweetheart, or the real life jerk.  We’re different people online and offline, and one or the other can be a front. (sort of blatantly stating the theme).  Tells Polly to get to know him better and then decide what do to.

Chapter 10: Polly decides she needs to find out exactly what Dr. Herron’s plot is before she can figure out what part of him is his real self.  She finally gets inside by going over to his house and telling him her toilet is broken and she needs to use his bathroom.  He is slow to let her in, but does.  She notices several areas of the house he seems to be protecting.  Asks him about it, but he makes excuses.  Finally, Polly reveals that she is the girl he’s been talking to online.  She says she knows he’s up to something—he’s obviously hiding something (doesn’t reveal she’s with the government)—and he can trust her.  James/Dr. Herron tells her his plan to use codes stolen from the 2^nd life world to allow people to make themselves look like their online avatar.  It’s sort of a cosmetic thing.  He’s tried to get the software company to give him the codes, but they won’t release them to he public, so he did it the hacker way.  Polly can’t bring herself to tell him it’s a bad idea, since she would love to be her online identity all the time.  She’s relieved that at least he didn’t have evil plans to take over the world or something.

Chapter 11: Polly goes online and talks to Angelina’s avatar (she still doesn’t know it’s Angelina’s, though).  She tells her she’s met James in real life and she really likes him.  Angelina tells her she should ask him out, gives relationship advice.  Polly goes to work and tells Grant that they should drop the Dr. Herron case; it’s not a matter of national security.  Grant, however, is not willing to give up on a case he’s been working on for years.  Polly tells him Dr. Herron’s real plans, explaining it’s just not a big deal, and Grant raves that Herron is a criminal for hacking codes and must be stopped.  Angelina surprisingly defends Polly.  Micro agrees that hacking is a felony and they can’t just drop the case, though he’s intrigued by Dr. Herron’s idea, and can’t bring himself to totally turn against Polly.  Jared ponders the situation and when he tries to give his opinion, Grant dismisses him as an oaf, and Jared takes Polly’s side.  Grant storms off.

Chapter 12: Worried about the way Grant left, Polly goes to warn James.  Angelina offers to help as well, and we find out Angelina was the other friend Polly had in the game.  Jared and Micro aren’t friends with James like Polly and Angelina, but they’re worried about what Grant will do as well.  They run to James’ house; he’s just hooked himself up to the game. Polly and the other three have to go online to tell him he’s in danger (Micro happens to have a consol they can all hook up to).  When they find James in the virtual world, he tells them he’s about to test his theory of transforming himself to look like his avatar.  Grant arrives, both physically and virtually.  He has a remote consol that allows him to walk around, and as he’s physically fighting the other four, trying to get to James, he’s also mentally taking them on in the virtual world (they have to keep coming in and out of the game to stop him).  James is just starting to transform himself when Grant grabs him physically and virtually.  The electrical pulses get crossed, and instead of Herron being transformed to look like James, Grant’s consciousness is trapped in the online game.

Chapter 13: The others try to get Grant out, but he’s stuck.  They confront James/Dr. Herron about his plans, and none of them can really blame him for what he did.  Yes, he was a hacker, but he never really hurt anyone.  Grant got himself in trouble, and Dr. Herron never made any money off of the codes he hacked.  Jared, the most thoughtful person in the room, decides they should let James/Dr. Herron off the hook this time.  Meanwhile, Polly confesses her feelings for James, and he does the same.  Micro ends up with Jenna, who has become a good friend since his girlfriend broke up with him.  (Who votes Jared ends up with Angelina, since he’s the first man who is thoughtful enough to see her for the person she is?)

Micro and Leah

I haven't yet figured out a good in-world document, but I thought I should go ahead and post the backgrounds I have for Micro and Leah. Also, these pictures aren't quite right, just vague suggestions.

Michael Ian Roberts, aka Micro:

Age: 25
Birthday: September 21
Height: 6'1"
Eyes: dark brown
Hair: curly dark brown
Religion: Baptist, non-practicing
From: Sacramento, CA
Received his undergraduate from Standford University when he was 21, and his Masters from MIT when he was 23
Occupation: Computers and Internet specialist
Most notable features: a charming broad grin and thick-rimmed glasses
He wears thick-rimmed glasses despite having fairly good eyesight. He respects his parents, but is not close to them. He has two younger sisters (Tami and Sarah) whom he's protective of despite his flippant attitude, and an older brother (Nealan) who used to pick on him. He has some training at tae kwon do, but isn't very good at it. He took the tae kwon do lessons because he though it would make him more like a Jedi. He's a troper, a Whovian, a Potternerd, and he's fond of Sherlock Holmes, Star Wars, The Matrix, and lots of Super Hero movies, video and reality games, and many other fandoms. He's not fanatical about any of the fandoms. He spends a good deal of his free-time in the alternate digital life. His girlfriend gets rather annoyed. He finds her annoyance at his love for technology a bit hilarious, but he is genuinely fond of her and does try and be a good boyfriend.

Introducing Jared

Here's a brief character bio for Jared, the muscleman of our special ops team:

Jared is the oldest of five kids—he has three sisters and one brother—from Flippin, Arkansas.  He grew up with all that famous southern charm, and although he’s not much of a rodeo cowboy, he does prefer the small town life more than city life.  His mother is very religious and very Catholic, and Jared and his siblings grew up going to mass on a regular basis.  Jared’s siblings kind of fell out of their religious practices as they grew older, but although Jared is not as faithful in attendance as his mother, he still has strong Catholic roots and attends mass as often as possible. His home is just minutes from Bull Shoals Lake, and he loves to go boating with his family.

Jared is a really thought-oriented person, and it takes him a good amount of time to come to a decision.  A lot of people think that because it takes him a long time to decide, he’s not very smart—but that’s just not true.  He always led his class at school, and he was Valedictorian when he graduated from high school.  Jared has always been interested in sports, especially football, and he finds that playing sports helps him to think better.  If he has a particularly problematic situation to work out, he finds himself in the gym, thinking and weight-lifting, more often than not.  He played football throughout high school as defensive end and helped take the team to state—making him something of a local hero.  He received a full-ride football scholarship to both Notre Dame and Virginia Tech, but because of his religious inclinations, he decided to go to Notre Dame.

While at Notre Dame, he double-majored in Anthropology and Psychology. He was continually drawn to careers in government agencies, finally deciding to join the FBI’s Special Agent Career Program in the Counterintelligence Division.  He worked there for three years before joining Grant’s special ops team (with outstanding recommendations from his superiors).  Although he is relatively new to the group, Jared has taken on the role of the big brother—especially where Polly and Angelina are concerned.  He is not technologically adverse, like Micro’s girlfriend, but he’s not completely tied to his computer either.  His softer, teddy-bear side comes out through photography, and he has a “secret” Pinterest account showing his love for that art form—he would die if Micro ever found out about it, though.