Plot, Plot, Plot

[coalitiongirl]

 So we now have our writers and you've looked through all the technical details, and now it's time to talk plot! We've got seven days to suggest and discuss any ideas you have in the comments, and here are two things to keep in mind:

• Each chapter should ideally be a story in itself. We're each getting one opportunity to write and so we want a plot that allows for each writer to play within the 'verse without being caught up in transitional chapters or the like!
• At the same time, we also want to have one coherent ongoing plot that allows for development so it doesn't read like a series of short stories.

So this can work in several ways.

• We could rewrite a season. We have exactly as many writers as there are episodes, and we could each tackle one. (I'm wary of this option simply because there's the OUATVS and because I don't know about the rest of you, but I find episode rewrites kind of dull, especially when we have many stronger writers than the OUAT ones?)
• We can settle on a theme with stronger individual chapter plots and a weaker overall plot. I suggested tropes before- it could be something like "some kind of magical trickster has come to town and keeps casting wacky spells," and then we go from there. (I've seen people do that way back when SQW did magical mishaps.) In that, the story would be very much about individual chapters and character/relationship development, but it's tricky because the latter sometimes gets lost in the process.
• We can settle on one standard plot that we like and write to it- this is generally easy and straightforward, though you do need a more intricately organized outline from the start so you don't run out of plot along the way. 

Please drop your suggestions in the comments and discuss them! Reply to each other and talk about what you want to write and what you think might work for a story like this. This post closes on May 2, and we'll poll for your favorite option of the ones suggested from May 3-5.

Oh, and I don't think we'll do a totally alternate universe this time around because many people aren't used to writing out of the 'verse. Anything that takes place within the OUAT universe, even if it's a complete deviation from canon, is fair game.

Comments

[coalitiongirl]

Yeah, I mean that would still make the story really only one of theirs- but tbh, I've almost exclusively written fics like that in the past- with one main character and one supporting but the relationship as the focus- and I think they generally can work? I worry a little about too much spreading out character-wise when there are so many writers- it might be easier to zero in on one character and have it her journey while the other shares in it.

[snarkingturtle]

I think it can work when done well--I've never felt like E or R was a sidekick in one of your fics. But I have read SQ fics that very much felt like a character study of one of them, with the other just kind of there in the background, that didn't work for me.

Part of where it gets complicated is that since there are so many of us we might have different allegiances--like, I love Emma, but at the end of the day I am here for Regina, so writing an Emma centric fic where Regina isn't doing much would be hard for me. And others are probably the opposite! Which is cool! But means that if we're only focusing on one of them, it might not be the one that at least some writers are attached to.

[coalitiongirl]

Hm. I think that in this case- if we're dealing with other worlds and journeys, it almost requires that the other character is super prominently there? Like you can't fade Emma out of a story when the story is Emma and Regina is the one traveling through it.

I think we'd have to see where people took it! I'd rather read this as Regina's journey because I feel like that'd be a more extreme shift in worldview for her (whereas Emma's would go from, "eh, terrible person" to "I LOVE HER SO MUCH" without as much conflict, lbr), but the plus side to having lots of writers is that some will focus on Emma automatically, some will focus on Regina automatically. And so the story itself becomes both of them. (We could also have the POV option any time for Emma, too, even as an observer to another world.)

[(Anonymous)]

Sorry I'm butting in, I'm not even a writer) maybe Emma and Regina could both travel to other realms, but separately? Emma's in one realm while Regina's in another, so every writer can choose the character they want to write about. Emma and Regina could have different experiences, different arcs, but still be somehow connected? Maybe they finally meet in one of the realms and don't recognize each other as "real" E & R at first? But then they do and they come together and that's what finally brings them home?
L.

[allaine]

I like this idea, I have experience with this kind of story. I wrote a version of this for the Justice League universe :)