DO’S & DON’T’S IN STORY RELAY – TIPS FROM MY EXPERIENCES AND OBSERVATIONS

Dear Readers,

Greetings from Candles Online!

Hope you all are enjoying being on here and getting motivated by our articles.

As you all know, Story Relay has been a new initiation by us on Candles Online and it’s an absolutely new experience for the whole team. And all of us enjoyed writing a story together day after day till it finishes on the 7th day (14th day for the last relay) of the week. Moreover, the readers also appreciated the endeavor. Some of them also said that they could relate well with the stories that we wrote.

Till now we could write 3 stories in a relay format. And all three stories reflected the problems of females. The first one was of a frustrated married lady, the second one was of a desperate mom and the third one was of a single woman in despair.  My co-authors were amazing in building all three stories to bring out some moral out of them.

After the successful completion of these story relays I thought of jotting down few tips and observations for all of us to know and understand. These tips might be helpful for my co-authors as well as many bloggers and writers those who visit our sites regularly or occasionally.

1. The starter of a story has to be absolutely bland in my opinion but it has to incite interests in the minds of the next writers as well as the readers to explore the openings creatively.
2. The title of the starter should be such on which a novella can be built. The title should guide an extender to extend the story further.
3. Each extension should contain maximum of two or three scenes… not more than that or else it will be very boring and confusing for the next writer.
4. Each scene should be dealt well, realistically… not just in a touch and move ahead style. Each scene should be carefully explained with minute to minute details.
5. Twists in an extension are good but it should always align with the theme of the starter or the title.
6. Unnecessary twists are troublesome. And a twist is not always appreciable. In fact, a lead is more important than a twist.
7. A story relay is not a competition between writers but a team work. Sometimes, a writer has to just extend the story further by detailing the same scene as left by the previous writer.
8. Keeping the minute details in mind about the places, times, dates and days mentioned by the previous writers is of utmost importance.
9. Never bring the obvious at an early stage, instead leave it open for the subsequent writers. Keep the suspense intact in your piece. Learn the art of postponing the obvious interestingly poised for the next writer to extend.
10. At the end I would like to encourage you all to do little research about the scenario you are planning to write. You need to know “Why Research Is Important For A Fiction Writer“.  Follow the link and read the article written by my co-author Pradita. She has given some very valid points which can help in story relays as well.

I am pleased to write this article addressing you, my valuable readers on behalf of my team. And henceforth, I will keep in touch with you time to time through such bulletins.

Till then, Good Night!

Chiradeep