Community Profile

This is a community dedicated to Round Table writing exercises (AKA: Round Robin), with a focus on the series Hetalia.

HERE'S HOW THE GAME WORKS!

Someone posts an introduction- it can be at minimum a sentence in length and as long as a paragraph. Next, posters respond in as much or as little as they need to (no longer than a single post in length, and ideally shorter- however, I understand that each addition could very well become a post's length as the story progresses, writers develop a dynamic). Each poster takes over from where the last left off and adds a little bit to the story at a time.

Example:

Original Poster - Germany sometimes didn't understand why he put up with Italy.

Poster #2 - Other times, he didn't think he could do without him. There was something about the sense that he lived in the moment and grabbed happiness where he could that countered Germany's long embedded sense of doom.

Poster #3 - Italy let him suspend belief for a second at a time, let him see that there was something right with the world. Even if it was just a moment, he felt as though it kept him sane.
(end)

This is the general idea. You post the beginnings of a story, and then the idea is to get a group collaborative fic in the works, with each writer trading parts.

RULES

You Can:
-Post a new Round Table at any time following the guidelines and descriptions listed above.

-Jump into a Round Table at any time.

-Post more than once to the same Round Table. THIS IS STRONGLY ENCOURAGED! The fics that turn out the best will generally have a dynamic emerge between an eventually small group of writers that stay with the story and see it through to the end (wherever that may be).

-As a group, declare the story finished at any time. You don't need the approval of everyone who posted, since someone could post in the beginning and take absence from the comm later on, but mods will read the story to make sure it has a sense of completion before adding it to the index. The criteria for this will not be very high, I assure you. If it has a beginning, a middle, and an end, it will get added to the index.

-NOT FEEL THE PRESSURE OF NEEDING TO RESPOND. There is no sense of turn-taking, no obligation, and you can write as much or as little as you want (unless you make some sort of arrangement with the other people you know to be involved).

You Probably Shouldn't (but won't really get penalized for):
-Collaborate on fics with other people that have become involved. Mods won't penalize you for this, because I want to keep this as free form as possible and I understand that writing tools can sometimes lead to some really, really cool fics that you, as a group, decide to refine and focus. However, remember that other people CAN jump into the story at any time, people who may not have been involved through most of the project. Part of the fun of Round Table is the spontaneity that can arise, and developing a plan only to have it change direction. To me, it's about writing in the moment- and if you collaborate with people, understand that those plans could change in a minute should a new writer emerge.

Remember though, that it is possible for people to bring a story through to the complete beginning, middle, and end without collaboration, simply through intuition and sense of story pacing...or you could take the risk and plan out the story. As a group, you CAN declare your story finished at any time. There will be an index of completed Round Table fics.

Do Not
-Make separate entries for responses to stories. Respond to the stories within their entry.

-Wank within the story. If there's a conflict, either contact me or work it out in the Discussion Post. There is a chance of non-story related comments being deleted should they show up on the responses to the story entry.

-Insert random things in the story. The idea of this is to maintain some sense of storytelling and prose. Your writing styles don't have to be the same, but if the OP starts with something like...

OP - "America was in a plane over Siberia, and he was disheartened to see that his fuel was running low."

Poster #2 - "And then a ninja penguin jumped out and stabbed him in the eye with a fork!"
(end)

Please, try to stay true to the original idea and tone. If it is as blatent as the Likewise, for a less extreme example later in the story, a character is killed off. The response cannot include that character respawning without proper, context-friendly explanation.

- If the story begins with a stated rating, main characters, and genre, don't stray from it. More on that in the next section.

RATING, CHARACTERS, AND GENRE

I was really hesitant to throw this part in here, but considering the diversity of interests among Hetalia fans, among genre, among character, and rating, I wanted to try out an outline by the OP of characters, desired genre, and rating as an attempt to make sure that all facets of the fandom can be included and won't feel blindsided by something they're uncomfortable with. This is ESPECIALLY true of rating. If your intro has strong implications of potential trigger situations, then warn people about it. Remember that the alternative is banning things altogether,

You don't have to put all three. Remember that you don't have to stick to that list of characters should the story evolve to include others, you can bend genre if the story develops in a different direction. The only one that I ask remain very steadfast is rating, should the OP anticipate a certain rating. For instance, if you want to have a smut-based round table, you can, but the rating had damned well better stay NC-17.

Pairings can be included in the initial outlines should the OP choose.

OR, you could throw ALL OF THIS SHEISSE OUT THE WINDOW AND INCLUDE IN YOUR ENTRY, IN BIG, BOLDED LETTERS: "FREE FOR ALL", in which anything could happen, and often does. Remember the sense of narrative, but other than that...go nuts.

~~~

A final word. About now, you're probably saying "Gee Qualapec, those are a whole lot of words for something that's supposed to be spontaneous and challenging to writers". The above list may look like a lot of RULES for something that's supposed to be so gosh-darned free form, but I've never seen a community quite like this before. I wanted to make it as inclusive as possible with degrees of personalization for what people are comfortable with and the stories they would be interested in participating in. There is a lot of diversity in this fandom. My goal with these rules was to both play to that and still allow for a less controlled writing environment if that's what people want.

In that same spirit...KEEP AN OPEN MIND. Go with the flow.

Remember, this is supposed to be fun, it's supposed to be a way to experiment with different writing styles, characters and situations that you might not have found yourself writing about on your own.

Please, have fun and direct any questions to me or one of the other mods.

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