I mentioned in another thread about writing a collection of independent stories that are tenuously linked by a single setting that progresses in the background. This idea stems from a desperate New Year’s resolution I made in January, to write one reasonable length short story a month for the duration of the year. I know, it’s October.
Writing time is limited, so the idea was to set each story in the same setting, meaning any research or definition I did for the ‘world’ would continue to be useful for the other stories too, and I wouldn’t be starting from scratch each time.
The idea that the world itself can be following an arc and knowledge of it is optional to the understanding of the story is one that intrigues me. I see it like those Star Wars anthologies that pick up on minor characters from the movies and flesh out what happens to them.
Take Star Wars as an example, here’s the rough arc from Luke’s POV:
1. Stasis - Poor farm boy dreams of escape while beyond his backwater the universe is at war.
2. The Trigger - He acquires some escaped droids and gets Leia’s message.
3. The Quest - Rescue the princess.
4. Surprises - All that stuff that happens.
5. Critical Choice - Luke chooses to follow the Force.
6. Climax - Death Star is destroyed
7. Reversal - Luke transforms from backwater farmboy into Jedi knight.
8. Resolution - Everyone gets medals and lives happily ever after.
...so a collection of stories that happens inside this arc could be:
1. Story about the trials and tribulations of moisture farmers, with Luke as a minor character whining in the background. (stasis)
2. Story about a Jawa’s life aboard a sand crawler, ending on the sale of the droids to uncle whatsisname. (trigger)
3. Story that details Han’s failed smuggling trip and his subsequent problems with Jabba, Greedo, ending on meeting up with Luke and Ben and whizzing off into the sky. (quest)
4. Numerous opportunities present themselves in the middle part, stories about tie fighter pilots, what it’s like to be a Death Star stormtrooper, life in the final days of Alderaan etc. (surprises)
5. A poignant tale about a torture droid working his last day before retirement, ends on the Death Star getting blown up.
6. Story about a rebel technician that interweaves around events in the war room as the assault on the Death Star takes place
etc, etc.
That’s the plan, anyway.
Currently, for my own collection, I have the main arc sketched out (not Star Wars) and I’m working my way through to writing plans for 12 stories that fit into this main arc, of which I have four and a half complete.
The schedule is to have eight plans complete by the end of the month. At this point I’ll be jumping on the NaNoWriMo bandwagon to churn out the actual writing in the evenings, trying to keep to the NaNo wordcount requirements and spending the two half-hour slots I get in the daytime to complete the writing plans for the remaining four stories. At the end of November I should have first drafts of 12 stories and pretty rotten case of nervous exhaustion.