Protocol, Part Fifteen

( Protocol, Part Fifteen. Hyppogryffs enjoy private social discourse. )

A brain? That works? No, don't think I ever had one

Note to self: taking a nap the previous day does not, contrary to your belief, mean you can stay up late on a work night and not feel the effects the next day.

Case in point, I'm certain that if I were more awake I would not be pondering the insanity of doing a virtual season six of Angel, in true virtual season fashion, which would mean 22 stories, quite possibly told in the "Teaser, 4 act, trailer" fashion (though this may get jettisoned but fast considering narrative story != script), definitely with an effort to adhere to the season-long pattern that they follow for stories (dick around for a few eps, sweeps, intermediate eps that may expand on plotlines introduced in sweeps, hardcore sweeps, intermediate eps that gear up for finale, finale which involves at least a four part story arc that includes some new element not previously seen), and with, of course, an attempt to introduce onscreen slash in a way that it could have plausibly been introduced on the show. Maybe with moving Angel to Showtime, maybe with staying with network.

All that and possibly posting one installment a week as though it were a true series.

Someone please stop me.

(sekrit note to co-writers - I'm talking in addition to any other virtual series I might have chatted about with you. you'll recall I prefaced this by talking about having no mind.)

I'm sure taking another nap of some sort will cure me of this illness. Sadly, I'm currently at work. This is what I get for not bringing a pillow to my desk.

THIS is my brain today

True story - I'm driving home for lunch, I see a sign, the sign says: "Giant plant sale"

My first thought: "What do you do if you don't want giant plants?"

THIS is what I'm working with, people! You see what I'm saying about the insanity?

That being said... ahem.

Basically my feelings re: virtual seasons are this. I'm all for them. I want tons. I want the virtual season equivilant of the Heathen Gods challenge, and anybody who wants to make a virtual Angel s6 should definitely feel free to pounce on me and ask me to join if they want to.

WRT what I can do for a virtual season, I have discovered based on past efforts that I cannot organize one. I suck at organizing writers, I'm horrible at it, any project that involves me and writer organization will die a horrible flamiing death. So I can't do that. If someone else wants to organize writers for a virtual season, well see my above comment about being happy to be one of the organise-ees. =)

Now I've already chatted with a couple of people about doing smaller versions of virtual seaons, like co-writing projects, and I'm definitely on board with doing those. That hasn't changed.

Then I got my new plot bunny. And I thought to myself "Self, why not try to see if you could do one on your own to boot? See if you've got the writing stones to put your money where your fannish mouth is."

And then we were back to giant plant insanity.

I don't know that I could pull it off, but at this particular point in time I'm at least open to brainstorming ideas to try. For those of you who've heard me natter on about the writing process before this would be the stage where I've got the idea and I'm writing and rewriting and rewriting it in my head, and we'll see if it sticks long enough and forms into something good enough for me to actually start hitting the keyboard. I don't wanna do this as a hyppogryff fic, I'd like this to be a bit more "real".

That being said - I wouldn't mind some brainstorming help. Though sadly this might involve spoilers for s5, 'cause if I'm doing it as an actual virtual season obviously the events of the final two (SHUT UP!) eps will need to be taken into account. OTOH I'm already fairly certain as to how I'll handle those, so mostly what I need is random suggestions for throwaway plotlines. (Can you tell I'm thinking this out as I type it, btw? Giant plants, I'm telling you.)

Okay, so let's try this - totally ignoring spoilers for the last two eps (meaning don't give away any spoilers in the comments, please), toss some ideas at me. What are one-shot eps you'd love to see? Mini-arcs you'd like? Plot points that'd be great to hit if possible? I'm not swearing I could do it all, but the brainstorming could be fun. And any ideas I steal use I'd definitely give credit for should I end up going ahead with this.

Also, who out there would like to contribute artwork? B/c I'd love for pictures to help with the visuals, and if somebody out there can imitate the WB's ad style (I'm talking about the black and white ads they put in TV Guide for specific eps) and wants to offer those mad photoshop skillz I might love you forever.

And... gotta go back to work. But will check in, promise. (Er - in my off time, of course. Not while on the company clock. Ahem.)

ETA: I've unfortunately realized that some things I can't help brainstorm with because I know how the final two eps go. So don't mind me if I keep mum on suggested plot points. Don't want to give the real season away after all =)

First call for volunteers

Okay, after debating and thinking and kicking it around, I've decided I'm going to try my hand at this virutal season thing. But! Not just on my own. There's reasons for that which I'll get into later, but suffice it to say I'm now throwing open the doors for thems who might want to help.

First up? I need somebody to help organize this. Or possibly somebodies. A David Fury to my Jeff Bell, as it were. ;)

Basically I need someone with good organization skills. Writing skills are not a requirement. In fact I think it might even be better if the person doing this wasn't one of the writers because then they can focus on keeping everyone else up to date and not have to worry about falling behind themselves in the process. But that's not a hard and fast rule. Don't not volunteer if you think you'd rather write. I'm just saying that writing skills are not needed for this job, so it might be ideal for those of you who are great with organizing stuff but not as great with putting together a narrative =)

Responsibilities would include keeping track of the writers, keeping track of who's doing what ep, and most importantly poking the writers (myself included) to make sure they stay on schedule and get their stories in on time. If we have enough people doing artwork for this then it would include keeping on top of the artists as well. I may also ask for your help in reassigning episodes should writers need to drop out at some point.

I need somebody who is the anti-me for this job. I procrastinate like a mofo, so if you're as anal retentive about organization as I'm planning on being about the story guidelines, then I want YOU. I need somebody who can watch the deadlines and not be shy about using sharp sticks to get the writers to do their thing. Experience with things like RPGs, ficathons, or other large co-writing projects will be considered a plus but again it's not a requirement. Also possibly experience working with others because I may have more than one person doing this, so that that way it's not too much for a single human being. Plus that way if real life gets in the way and somebody needs to bow out, there's still other people there to help take care of it.

So! If you're interested, send me an email at thebratqueen at livejournal dot com. Again this is just for organizers. Writers and artwork will have their own cattle calls later, so to speak. Right now I'm just asking for those who think they can take on the task of herding the cats that we like to call fanficcers ;) Send me an email, lemme know you're interested, and also let me know how you'd handle it. Do you have any previous experience with stuff like this? How would you keep track of everything? What's your comfort level as far as emailing people and nagging them? What ideas do you have about making sure stuff gets done? What would you do? What would you definitely not do? Is there anything in your schedule that we might need to be aware of (eg will you be going back to school in the fall but are you otherwise free this summer?). Anything else I haven't thought of? C'mon, gimme your best shot! =)

I've gone insane and you're all going down with me, people! ;)

Okay, now to make dinner. And yay for insanity!