May I Conduct an Experiment?
Created | Updated May 3, 2008
A little over a year and a half ago, I set the Researchers of h2g2 a challenge. I invited them to use the Infinite Improbability Drive1 five times and record whether they had read any of the five Entries they came across. The May I conduct an experiment thread has peaked and troughed, reaching just 300 replies in its time. Nonetheless it has steadily maintained the interest and periodic attention of a dedicated band of Researchers who are easily distracted from work.
Well, this brave band of souls deserves a reward for their efforts. They deserve a new challenge, something fresh and exciting to sink their teeth into. At the same time, the two great giants of the Guide, The UnderGuide and the Edited Guide, could do with some neutral ground on which to meet, merge and share their mutual interest in quality writing in the respective fields of fact, fiction, and the stuff SWL comes up with that seems to fall somewhere between the two. So here is the new challenge:
A narrative based on Edited Guide Entries. Fiction drawn, after a fashion, from fact. We will produce five random Edited Entries from the Drive and the first episode of the story will be written based on those five Entries. The author of the first episode will then draw a further five Entries and leave them for the second person to use as the basis for the continuation of the story, and so on and so on. You must pick up from where the previous Entry left off, using the existing characters and plot. You cannot contradict anything specifically stated by a previous author but you can contradict or correct that which has merely been implied, especially for dramatic or comic affect. The story will, assuming we get enough entrants, be ten episodes long. Assuming enough people offer their services a list of authors will be assembled in order and the first list of entries to follow will be chosen. You can volunteer or ask any questions here or at May I Conduct an Experiment?
Any volunteers? Please sign up below!
