Would this work or not?

[nii07]

Imagine a character in a story who could read the comments of the readers. This would be a fourth wall-breaking Deadpool-type character without the silliness. So the comment section would actively play an important role in the story. Do you think a story like that would work?

 

[Cipiteca396]

I can't see why it wouldn't.

There are plenty of interactive stories where the author asks the readers how they want the story to progress, either through polls or comments. This would honestly be a more immersive version of that.

 

[Indicterra]

I mean the idea can be implemented, though I guess it would illogical if the readers didn't figured out the gimmick at one point, and if the mc actively evade it, then it will quickly turn into cat and mouse all over.

And there is fact there readers who generally retarded when it comes to many things

 

[ChronicSleeper]

Make the chat an eldritch hivemind/collective entity. Power for a consequence type stuff, but your patron is a bunch of scribble hub users.

 

[Indicterra]

Make the chat an eldritch hivemind/collective entity. Power for a consequence type stuff, but your patron is a bunch of scribble hub users.

This would be cool as fuck..........make us the commentators, and write the story.

I can cook up so many funny shit bro

 

[Cipiteca396]

Ah, the main problem would be getting enough commenters to keep the story alive.

Imagine being the protagonist, able to read the comments and seeing- Nothing... "Is the author terrible? Is the author doing great, but I'm the failure? Am I too boring? Why don't they like me? Did I do something wrong?"

Is that better or worse than having your private moments broadcast to hundreds of people?

 

[LilRora]

It would be a challenge to start. If you manage to get at least about five active commenters, it can work nicely if only because of the novelty, but getting even so few might be difficult, and keeping them interested even more so.

 

[Jocelyn_Uasal]

"Without the silliness" is the difficult part, because the concept seems innately silly in my opinion. Not that it's impossible though, nothing is in writing

 

[nii07]

It would be a challenge to start. If you manage to get at least about five active commenters, it can work nicely if only because of the novelty, but getting even so few might be difficult, and keeping them interested even more so.

Yes, the start would be quite difficult because most people rarely comment on stories. Getting five might be enough to attract more but if it doesn't then the story fails.

Ah, the main problem would be getting enough commenters to keep the story alive.

Imagine being the protagonist, able to read the comments and seeing- Nothing... "Is the author terrible? Is the author doing great, but I'm the failure? Am I too boring? Why don't they like me? Did I do something wrong?"

Is that better or worse than having your private moments broadcast to hundreds of people?

There's a problem of not having enough and a problem of also having too many. If there are two hundred comments about what the MC should do next chapter but they can only choose one then readers might wonder why comment at all. Especially if there is a commenter who clearly always has the best idea to benefit the MC.

Make the chat an eldritch hivemind/collective entity. Power for a consequence type stuff, but your patron is a bunch of scribble hub users.

So basically it'd be like those constellation novels but the readers would be the constellations.

 

[CharlesEBrown]

Imagine a character in a story who could read the comments of the readers. This would be a fourth wall-breaking Deadpool-type character without the silliness. So the comment section would actively play an important role in the story. Do you think a story like that would work?

A serious version would require a moderately active community discussing the story, and would probably wind up either with some ticked off fans or looking more like the old "Choose Your Own Adventure" stories than a novel.

A half-serious version is what they used to (maybe they still do; have not really been active there for five years) call "Role-Play" on Twitter (now X), where people take on characters from shows or other media (one of the coolest and most surreal moments I have ever been in was seeing Tess Garritsen (author of the books) exchanging tweets with "Jane Rizzoli" as well as both of the lead actresses from "Rizzoli & Isles" with, in addition to fans, occasional comments from lead actresses from NCIS and Castle during an actual broadcast of the Rizzoli and Isle show).

Anything else is bound to devolve to silliness unless everyone involved is deadly serious (and that may end up being funnier than intentional comedy in the long run).

One interesting way to pull this off (I heard someone actually did this a few years ago but never checked into it myself) is to have two consistent commenters who are the author under different names and writing styles, and those are used to "seed" the discussion and "help" the writer "decide" which path to take - so it is a directed conversation with the author and as many fans as can be drawn in.

 

[nii07]

A serious version would require a moderately active community discussing the story, and would probably wind up either with some ticked off fans or looking more like the old "Choose Your Own Adventure" stories than a novel.

A half-serious version is what they used to (maybe they still do; have not really been active there for five years) call "Role-Play" on Twitter (now X), where people take on characters from shows or other media (one of the coolest and most surreal moments I have ever been in was seeing Tess Garritsen (author of the books) exchanging tweets with "Jane Rizzoli" as well as both of the lead actresses from "Rizzoli & Isles" with, in addition to fans, occasional comments from lead actresses from NCIS and Castle during an actual broadcast of the Rizzoli and Isle show).

Anything else is bound to devolve to silliness unless everyone involved is deadly serious (and that may end up being funnier than intentional comedy in the long run).

One interesting way to pull this off (I heard someone actually did this a few years ago but never checked into it myself) is to have two consistent commenters who are the author under different names and writing styles, and those are used to "seed" the discussion and "help" the writer "decided" which path to take - so it is a directed conversation with the author and as many fans as can be drawn in.

That's an interesting way to go about it. I suppose another way to go about it would be a collab sort of situation where two other authors will be those constant commenters.

 

[CharlesEBrown]

That's an interesting way to go about it. I suppose another way to go about it would be a collab sort of situation where two other authors will be those constant commenters.

Now something like that could be a lot of fun to do... but would also have a weird tendency towards comedy.

There was a science fiction novel published in the mid to late 90s (I found it in the late 90s, but think it had been out for a few years then) called "The Red Tape War" - four or five authors got together, one wrote the first chapter, one the second, one the third, etc. - once they got to the first chapter after each of them had done one, they somehow randomized it so that the next author was not the one who wrote the prior chapter and that each author would get a chapter before it started over. The author who wrote the first chapter also wrote the final chapter but only after meeting with the others in person and getting their input and feedback on characterization. There were a few parts where the writers made jokes about the story itself, or about each other ("Oh look, Phillip (Jose Farmer) pulled his body swap nonsense again. What a surprise..." or "Robert (Linn Asprin I think it was) thinks he wrote me into a corner but I had no idea what to do next until I saw what he pulled." )

 

[nii07]

Now something like that could be a lot of fun to do... but would also have a weird tendency towards comedy. There was a novel published in the mid to late 90s (I found it in the late 90s, but think it had been out for a few years then) called "The Red Tape War" - four or five authors got together, one wrote the first chapter, one the second, one the third, etc. - once they got to the first chapter after each of them had done one, they somehow randomized it so that the next author was not the one who wrote the prior chapter and that each author would get a chapter before it started over. The author who wrote the first chapter also wrote the final chapter but only after meeting with the others in person and getting their input and feedback on characterization. There were a few parts where the writers made jokes about the story itself, or about each other ("Oh look, Phillip (Jose Farmer) pulled his body swap nonsense again. What a surprise..." or "Robert (Linn Asprin I think it was) thinks he wrote me into a corner but I had no idea what to do next until I saw what he pulled." )

That's sounds like a fun thing to do. I'd like to try something like that one day.

 

[CharlesEBrown]

That's sounds like a fun thing to do. I'd like to try something like that one day.

A simpler version would be the first, I think 71 Destroyer Novels (starting with "Created: The Destroyer" - the novels chronicling the adventures of Remo Williams and his teacher, the enigmatic master of Sinanju - the Sun Source of All Martial Arts - Chiun). Sapir and Murphy would meet every few months, hammer out a few story outlines, then each one would take half the list and write the first half of the story (usually a certain number of chapters, but sometimes a set number of pages; Murphy realized Sapir was ready to leave the series when he turned in a batch of drafts that all stopped mid WORD because that was where the page ended), then the other would edit the first half and finish the story from their outline, return it to the first writer who would edit it and turn it over to their publisher, after clearing any major revisions with his partner. The first two books are OK; from about 3 through 60 the series is great; it starts going downhill after that and is pretty much garbage after 100 in my opinion.

 

[nii07]

A simpler version would be the first, I think 71 Destroyer Novels (starting with "Created: The Destroyer" - the novels chronicling the adventures of Remo Williams and his teacher, the enigmatic master of Sinanju - the Sun Source of All Martial Arts - Chiun). Sapir and Murphy would meet every few months, hammer out a few story outlines, then each one would take half the list and write the first half of the story (usually a certain number of chapters, but sometimes a set number of pages; Murphy realized Sapir was ready to leave the series when he turned in a batch of drafts that all stopped mid WORD because that was where the page ended), then the other would edit the first half and finish the story from their outline, return it to the first writer who would edit it and turn it over to their publisher, after clearing any major revisions with his partner. The first two books are OK; from about 3 through 60 the series is great; it starts going downhill after that and is pretty much garbage after 100 in my opinion.

I'll have to check them out. What made it garbage after the first 100?

 

[CharlesEBrown]

I'll have to check them out. What made it garbage after the first 100?

It lost some of the sense of fun of the first hundred or so, and around 120 or so Remo and Chiun pretty much reversed personalities. I think it wound up being a "company property" farmed out to whatever new talent they had willing to write under a "house" name. Then again I have only read four books post 100, and only about 40 before that so may not be the best judge!

 

[nii07]

It lost some of the sense of fun of the first hundred or so, and around 120 or so Remo and Chiun pretty much reversed personalities. I think it wound up being a "company property" farmed out to whatever new talent they had willing to write under a "house" name. Then again I have only read four books post 100, and only about 40 before that so may not be the best judge!

Okay.