Collaborative Role Play Writing

Pandemic Playtime

Here’s your chance to join in on the fun

Want to play a game?

Background

Jimmy Doom is a talented writer and musician who has come up with a variation on a writing game I’ve been playing the last couple of months over at Xavier Van Holde’s The Bad Influence in their IdeaStream topic.

I’ll get to his exciting variation in a few paragraphs. I must give you some background to get you up to speed so you can fully appreciate the beauty of what Xavier Van Holde has contributed to our world and to which Jimmy Doom has creatively added his own flair in “Flight of the Yellow Teeth.”

Collaborative writing role playing games are the perfect diversion for writers

It has been a joy to me to just get lost in the role playing, so I wanted to share it with all of you.

X comes up with writing prompts to inspire people to write.

Sometimes when I’m trying to think of something to write, X will come up with a couple of writing prompts or 15 that get my creativity flowing.

Writing prompt games are mutating

In recent times, X was contemplating passing the torch and held a competition to find an IdeaStream creator to take over. The competition became a collaboration and two new IdeaStream content creators — Marla Bishop and Kat Lehmkuhl —who have been playing the writing prompt creation game with their own variations on the theme.

Marla has followed the traditional format set forth by Xavier by creating a list of poetry and prose prompts.

Kat has made a secret agent game based on poem prompts.

All three are genius, creative and inspiring.

In fact, Xavier is making a publication dedicated to writing role playing the Never End Tavern.

Jimmy Doom’s innovation has been to take Kat’s poetry prompt and suggest that they be crafted into a short story.

I love how everyone has built on the work of each other to create something that is growing and spreading joy and happiness to writers and readers alike.

Here’s where Jimmy Doom took Kat’s idea which was inspired by Xavier to craft something new that complements the work of all:

This Challenge was created by Kat Lehmkuhl. Agent went rogue and wrote prose instead of poetry.

I challenge Chris Hedges 🦄, Lori Brown and the challenger herself Kat to do the same.

— Jimmy Doom, “Flight of the Yellow Teeth.”

This is a lesson in innovation

This is a lesson that fits into Dr Mehmet Yildiz’s spirit of innovation.

Take an idea, give credit where it is due, and build something that fits your needs or advances the art and science.

I love that we’re witnessing the development of new strains of a writing game before our eyes. The rules aren’t set in stone. There isn’t a central gaming authority. The game changes when people find inspiration.

The beautiful thing is that the game is collaborative.

It isn’t competitive.

Joining one game does not exclude participation in another game.

If you want to make your variation of the game, you’re free to build upon it using your own imagination and creativity.

It’s exciting.

That’s why I bring the idea to you.

I am curious to see what our ILLUMINATION writers and readers do. Will you join existing games? Will you create your own? It’s a fun way to reach out and build a writing game community in whatever vision you have.

Of course, you are always welcome to join the existing games — I would encourage that to show appreciation for the creators of the various games.

The nice thing is that the stories can be short. In fact, the majority are under 5 minutes. The poetry contributions are usually under two minutes. Jimmy Doom specializes in short fiction that packs a punch in a few paragraphs. But, those few paragraphs create a movie in my mind.

I’m tagging some people who I know participate in the games so you can look through their work to see what they’ve written:

Meeta Seth, Jezebel, Christine Graves, Kira Dawn, Kat Lehmkuhl, Lori Brown, Kristen Hill, Marilyn Flower, Marla Bishop, Edward Anderson, Nanci Arvizu, NaNa'sworld, Gurpreet Dhariwal

Also, Sherry McGuinn has also started her own versions of collaborative writing games with her fun “If I wasn’t a Writer…” prompts that have gone viral here!

I know I’m missing a bunch of others, but wanted to give you a sense of some of the players.

Lots of love to everyone! Play a writing game with us — or make up your own. If you do, make sure to tag me, so I can join in on the fun.

Chris Hedges 🦄, BA, JD, is an editor here at ILLUMINATION, The Bad Influence, and Red Curtain Erotica (where other fun mind games are also played).

I’m also the owner/creator of Illumination Spotlight where you can spread the word about your stories and gain another incoming link to help in your search results.