Storyteller Challenge 1.0
Let's write a story together.
Did you ever read Choose Your Own Adventure stories as a kid?
Long before multiverses became a popular staple for Marvel and DC creations, Choose Your Own Adventure books were a fun way to experience many possible story threads in one narrative. I’ve longed to recreate that experience in some form. In that spirit, I’d like to introduce the Storyteller Challenge here at Strange New Worlds.
Here’s how the first-ever Storyteller Challenge will work:
I'll start things off with an opening sentence. Each reader will then add a new sentence in the comments, constructing a story one sentence at a time. You can build a story thread underneath existing comments with your contribution or start a new thread working off my original opening sentence. Feel free to contribute as much as you want while limiting each contribution to a single sentence. Do your best to be consistent and maintain continuity with the story thread you've chosen.
Once we've built a complete story (or multiple stories) in a few days, I'll gather the results and publish what we've created together in a future edition of this newsletter.
Please do not contribute sentences lifting characters, settings, et al., from other intellectual properties. (No fanfic in other words.) I will delete those sentences since I don’t want to tread into copyright infringement territory here.
Now that I’ve outlined the parameters of the challenge, here’s your first sentence:
Saving the world is a tough way to make a living.
Have fun. Get creative. I’m excited to see what directions you all take with this storyteller challenge. Will our final story be funny? Scary? Suspenseful? Thought-provoking? Strange?
You get to choose your own adventure here.
Jasper took a moment to compose himself from the flashes of media photography, exhaling his Holden breathes while walking to an alley to search through his phone for the right contact.
“New York on line 1, Boss! They say it’s urgent!” Your assistant James hollered from the other room as you mumbled in frustration to yourself, “it better not be another alien fight, those don’t pay good.”