Announcing the Metafilter Short Fiction Anthology! Previously
suggested by
Effigy2000, the Metafilter Short Fiction Anthology is a chance for all us writer-type or vaguely-writer-type Mefites to get together and write write write! We'll be taking a "
Thieves' World" approach to our writing with each story in the Anthology taking place in a setting
first posited by Mefi's Own
L. Fitzgerald Sjoberg and then
fleshed out by himself and members of the Mefi community. All who are interested are encouraged to join in!
Setting-wise, the links above (
initial idea;
link to setting wiki) should be enough to get you started. If you have any questions, I'm sure a bunch of us would be happy to answer them here in thread. Don't worry about being a slave to the setting, though. As we're working with a setting in which reality itself can be fluid, I'm sure nobody would mind if a few details flux from story to story.
Time-wise, I'm hoping to have the stories written and submitted by the
end of February. That gives us almost seven weeks to get our mindgrapes pressed out and on the page (me, I'm hoping to write my story on my
XO and Lord knows when that'll ever show up).
Length-wise, aim for standard shorty story length. Poe wrote that a shorty story is one that could be read in a single sitting, but if you need a word-count cap, no more than 7,500 words, please. There's no minimum length, so "For Sale: One Child's
P/Virt Machine. Never Used." would count just fine.
Once the stories are in, we'll start an editing process. Most of my editorial experience comes from editing RPGs and other nerdly stuffs, so would welcome any help on that front. I also hope to make a pass at some continuity editing to help meld minor details (Who is president? What's the name of the best selling Honda? and so on) together. Either drop me a line if you want to work on the final product or comment in this thread if you'd like to help out our writers as they get their stuff together. I'm sure people would love to have their drafts read as the end of February approaches.
When you're finished with your draft, please email it to me as an attachment. I've set up an email address: mefi.fiction.anthology@gmail.com. Most formats should be fine, but simpler is always better. I'll then distribute stories to interested editor types. I'll keep track of each story's progress through the process, so if you have any questions, feel free to hit me up!
Once the editing process is complete, we hope to self-publish online, likely with some print on demand jobber so that interested Mefites could pick up a copy at their leisure. More details on the how and what of this stage are, of course, still pending.
Finally, a big thanks to Lore and Effigy and the rest of the gang for all their work so far in the previous thread and on the setting wiki!
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posted by amro at 5:56 AM on January 7