The Collab Cage Chronicler (#1) · 1:10am Nov 26th, 2012
Greetings, friends and collaborators! Welcome to the very first official bit of news from The Collab Cage. In the future, these will probably be done by various Admins, depending on how we have things set up at that point--but for now, it's just me, Peregrine Caged.
So, I meant to do this a little bit ago, after we had hit three weeks relatively even. But work, life, and general things getting in the way...bah. I can do better. I'm not one of those to use that as an excuse (though often it is a legitimate one, I'm not saying it isn't).
And here we are, about a month old. We've 129 members (most of those gained in that first week). And ten collabs are in currently being ran! This is so very pleasing, even though there's been some hiccups and I'm already going to have to think about implementing some changes--mostly behind the scenes, general run-of-the-day type things, nothing that should really affect anything actively.
Now, as awesome as all that is, I must admit to some small disappointment. Maybe a fifth of you comment. How can I reasonably say that? I know only a fifth of you are watching this profile--you're the ones that have started/joined collabs, or at least talked a little. So nothing on you guys, you're fine.
But why so many joined and yet the collaborations are sitting at something of a standstill baffles me. Are they bad or unenjoyable ideas? Really? Over a hundred people, and so many of you dislike all of them? I find that very hard to believe (and I personally love all the ideas, even if I can't do them myself). It's not because there are so many, despite what some of you think. Because honestly, there just aren't that many right now. Perhaps a lot considering we've only just started, but even still. They are all there, easy to see, with very little to get in their way. Ten is not a big number--I fully expect to have more collabs than that running at once in the future, once the group is bigger and active. Granted, we will be ensuring there is a mixture of sizes of collabs, the big, long-term projects beside the quick little write offs.
So I'm open to suggestion as to what's up with that. As well, to any of you Organizers reading this. I'll be talking to you about the 'time limits'. This was my bad, but I poorly explained this. Now, one of the things that will keep this group interesting is variety. To help that, I want to ensure that new Collab Organizers can get in every now and then, hopefully bringing with them fresh and exciting ideas. So what I mean by time limits is this is how long you will be allowed to keep a thread up (though you can ALSO set your own collab time limit)--when the limit is up, we'll ask you to delete your thread and keep your organization somewhere else. I shall probably add a new thread though, a place to keep a list of all Collabs currently still ongoing (and links to their respective areas), including those whose limit has been up. So, look for that.
Alright, so, I can't offhand think of anything else in that sort of vein. So, moving on. As I said before, we have ten collabs going right now--I shall now list them and give a brief explanation of them. If you haven't taken a look, go ahead and do so now! Join something! Spread the word!
1. The Good Ship Macintosh ... A Romance, shipfic character exercise collab. Each author takes one pony and attempts to realistically ship them with our resident Stallion's stallion, Big Mac, in a variety of relationship stages. Really think there's some good potential here, plus Romance practice is always good.
2. Music is Life ... An inspiration exercise--what's filled with more potential than music? The trick here is to take a song and let it inspire a short story out of you. There's almost infinite potential here, so find your favorite song and effectively turn it into a story!
3. The Album: Twisted Memories ... Another character and genre exercise, this one focuses on the Dark genre, specifically the literary twist. There's two sides to this--you can either do a random partner or a single writer bit. With a random partner, you'll write a normal beginning, then randomly draw someone else's beginning to twist and turn dark, while someone does the same with yours. If you choose to do it yourself, the whole thing is on you: write a story that starts off normal and fine, then twist it into something dark before the end.
4. The Dream Team ... Sounds like an interesting Adventure, dealing with ponies who are being taught how to enter other ponies' dreams. Still early on in development, go to the thread and help flesh it out!
5. Tales of Equestria ... A Crossover collab with Namco's Tales series (an excellent series of JRPGs that I highly recommend). Lot of potential here, especially for interesting characters. Still early on in development, again, get to discussing and helping out!
6. Hearth's Warming Carol ... A cute little collab for the upcoming holiday. Pretty simple--just write about ponies in regards to Hearth's Warming!
7. "And that's how Equestria was made!" ... A Random collab. The idea here being to take a pony and have them basically explain 'How Equestria was made'...even villains are allowed! Excellent chance for some world building and character practice here.
8. The Foals of Nightmare Night ... A collab that hasn't gotten the attention I feel it deserves. There are several foals in the show, but few are truly characterized. Here's your chance to do so! This collab follows the foals as they are going around on Nightmare Night--this can be SoL, Adventure, maybe even a little (very) minor horror! Please, check it out and give it some love. Nightmare Night/Halloween never really gets old, don't you think?
9. My Little Pony: Friendship is Musical ... A very ambitious project. Not only is the Organizer seeking to write a fairly massive story with this, but also do a real musical. This is something that could really go down in history in this fandom if successfully pulled off--wouldn't you like to be a part of that?
10. The Great Shipping Collab ... Yes, it's another Romance collab....but this one's a bit different--as are the ships involved! There's still some very odd pairings left, so why not stretch yourself as a writer and sign up for one.
And that's what we have so far. Ten very solid, very different ideas. Or so they seem to me. Please, check them out, spread the word. We're all in this together, after all.
One last thing, if you talk to anyone who is a member of The Collab Cage but isn't watching this profile, let 'em know it's a good idea to do so. Hopefully things will pick up, and news could start coming at a much faster click.
Anyways, best of luck to all of us! And thank you for your time. PC for the CC, out.
Hark, A Blog Approacheth!
Anyway, if anyone wants to check out The Great Shipping Collab, the first two stories are out. And yeah, I have some fun ships left. Like Granny Smith x Gizmo. Or Screwball x Steven Magnet.*
*any alliteration in those pairings was a complete accident, I swear
Yay! Will look at collaborations.
Also, how is the group logo coming? Any ideas?
-Plyxe
I'VE BEEN ADVERTISED!
Bah! I'm already writing for "How Equestria was Made". I'm finding it hard to get through just this one collab! These idea's look so good but I am pretty sure I just won't be able to find the time for another month or so! It makes me sad
... I'm gonna have to start copying SS&E's writing habits...
It's not that none of the ideas for collaborations interest me. I just look at the list and can't see any way for me to contribute. I don't ship, I'm not a musician, I can't plot-twist on demand, I use the "dark" label primarily to indicate fics that aren't as warm/fuzzy/happy as the canon but aren't particularly scary or depressing, and JRPGs are my mortal nemesis. I'm not against anything persay, I just don't see how I could usefully contribute.
I think there should be a thread where each collaboration is listed. That way, we can build up a small archive of the collabs that have happened. Just a small thing that I thought may be handy.
So...many...collabs...
WE CAN DO THIS.
540636
This is what we call PRACTICE. Stretch your abilities and do something new. So what if you fail, you gave it your best. Come on, as a writer, you should always be striving to do BETTER, to go FARTHER--don't stick to your comfort bubble. Wield the needle (read: pen) and do something amazing and unknown! Also, slightly opinioned, but that's a terrible use for the Dark tag, heh.
541822
Hahah, that's kinda, sorta what I meant by the thread I was talking about in the blog. Thanks for the support of it though, I'll definitely get around to getting that up!
542066
Bah, it's not that many--especially considering that my own aren't even technically 'active' yet.
539659
I'll work on getting a link up for you, shortly.
539782
...never even thought to do something like that. I mean, I figured we'd get a banner eventually...but my few artist friends would probably say their skills are insufficient for such things. I wouldn't even know what to do for something like that, haha. I think I'd rather figure out how to get all these people a little more active...
540603
Well, the joy is there isn't any rush, really (depending on the individual Organizer). I know I like having a few projects going at once, myself. But it's not to everyone's taste, heh.
542871 Maybe someone can start a thread, where people post suggestions and such.
542885
We do have an art thread, for both requesting art and artists to volunteer their talents. But this could be something to do, maybe. Thanks.
542871 Stretching is great but if someone had suggested that Claude Monet stop painting lilies and take up interpretive dance to "stretch himself" should he have listened? Obviously, I'm not the Monet of writing (nor am I even in the same universe) but the comfort bubble exists for a very good reason: you will always fail if you're writing something that you yourself do not like even as you're writing it. And frankly, based on feedback (or, more specifically, an apparent refusal on the part of readers to offer it) and views and other things, I wouldn't know "amazing and unknown" writing if I whacked me in the face with a baseball bat. I'm happy to go further and make a good-faith attempt but none of what appears to be available is something I can contribute to. Nor, I think, would any of the collaboration organizers want my contribution because based on the descriptions, I don't understand their vision at all.
542871
Ah! I want to be a part of more projects... But I have to keep telling myself to be realistic. Maybe someday I'll be able to do more than one thing at a time when I can write 2k words every day... instead of 20. I just don't want to let anyone down!
542871
Oops, my bad
543052
First off, that's a terrible comparison and isn't the same thing at all. But agree to disagree, I suppose. Granted, not everyone can do everything, obviously. But I still feel it's worth a good shot and I never said you should do anything you don't like. I guess my tastes are just generally wider than the average person. I know I'd not mind in regards to MY collabs, but if you don't like it, you don't like it (though if you don't understand it, then that's something to just talk to the Organizer about, heh). I really find it hard to imagine anyone so incredibly focused they can't find SOMEthing to add in that, but once again, I can venture around a lot more than most, so perhaps that's why I can't really imagine it. Oh well, thanks for paying attention and giving your voice on things. I wish more people would just do that, rather than nothing at all, heh.
544485
I know that feeling--at least you're smart enough to listen to it, heh. I just take on a bunch of things and kind of hope it all works out (which has mostly worked so far, haha). All things in their own time, eh?
565954 How is it terrible and not the same thing at all, pray tell?
And again, I'm very willing to try. But if you're trying to create a bridge over an inland river, you don't tap a chemical engineer, an oceanographer, and a painter; you talk to the civil engineer, the geologist, and the draftsman. I suppose a painter could get you a wonderful proof of concept picture for a city council meeting but his ability to contribute to an engineering endeavor is highly limited even if the painter himself is great at what he does and willing to try something new. I'm in that painter's position: I feel like that the collaborations available are such that my skill set doesn't fit them and even with stretching, I could do very little to make the collaboration successful.
Which is a really great disappointment because I joined this group because I badly want to collaborate with other writers, converse with them, bounce ideas off of them, get their ideas and feedback on what I'm doing, and be helpful to them in turn. Just writing by myself, I can't beg borrow or steal useful and helpful constructive criticism and I find myself feeling stunted as a writer because I've got this massive headcanon and the ability to instantly invent new headcanon in response to someone asking a question about my headcanon, yet I can't make it come out on the page in a way that interests people and induces them to vote, comment, and watch.
I also feel slightly stunted in a specialist community because I'm a generalist and when a collaboration manager comes up with a giant shipping collaboration, I can only stare dumbly because I know the Mane Six plus a few side characters (the Princesses, Spike, Shining Armor, Big Mac, Trixie) but don't have the slightest idea who the hay most of the ponies listed in the collaboration even are and the ones I do recognize, I know nothing about what their personalities are supposed to be like. The other collaborations... I don't know their intent or how I could possibly contribute in a way that will make them succeed.
I badly want to be a helpful collaborator and make a certain work better for my participation and make fellow authors better off for my presence but I don't know how I can. And if it came down to coming up with my own collaboration idea, I'd have nothing to offer that would draw interest; I'm not a Pen Stroke, Wanderer D, Anonymous Pegasus, Trinary, RainbowDoubleDash or Kkat with their astonishing epics and vast alternate universes that are highly relevant to the fandom.
567358
I had little to no writing skill at all (imo) when I asked to join The Album collab... I was extremely surprised when I got a decent amount of feedback for my character.
This character, Twinkleshine, had absolutely nothing written about her (that I could find) and yet she has had more screen time than Vinyl or Octavia. I basically created a new character: Life, family, personality, job... everything. ... And people didn't hate it, even though I thought I was terrible. (still think so)
Please take what I say next as positive encouragement/feedback
I feel like you are looking at your situation all wrong... You are giving yourself no credit by saying you are only a "painter" and think your skillset is unsuited for writing. I say you should just go for it, if writing something is what you really want to do with ponies then just sit down and begin something for your own pleasure and see how it goes.
If you need a fellow writer to just hang out with and bounce ideas off of, then just go and contact a few! I'm sure there are plenty here on the site who would jump at the chance to have someone who can throw around ideas like you. (at least, how you say you can)
I know I for one would love to have another somebody who has time on their hands for me to just throw ideas at and get quality feedback in return. (name a time and place good sir).
You don't have to be a famous author to have good ideas. All you need is a little confidence and patience.
And, MOST of all... I would like to end with an old adage: If at first you don't succeed; try, try again! ... If some of your work has a bumpy start, don't be discouraged! Learn from it, correct problems, and move on to create something better!
Not sure if this quite hits home on what you are struggling with... But I hope it is encouraging.
567358
*shakes head* You're being too serious about it, I feel. And hah, you throw those names around, but, what, do you think I am? Pfft, very much no, and besides, while they've reach an oppressive level of fame and success (a level I'm not ashamed to admit I'd like to hit), there's dozens more who aren't really like that but are just as talented (and occasionally even more so). But even though I'm not one of them, I try it anyways. And sure, sometimes it's bland and uninteresting and no one gives two craps about it--and then something like The Album happens, a once in a bloody lifetime event. I know insanely well what it's like to get something out there that then receives more or less nothing. And I mean, hell, that's half the reason I'm here. To get feedback, criticism. And I know the feeling of that; I can honestly say that meeting the friends I have here, having the talks I have, being exposed to the different styles and ideas has made me a much, much better writer. And I've been inspired so much by it, too.
Though I still say you should just talk to the Organizers and maybe they can explain their collabs better for you, as Sasha said, just because you can't join in the listed collabs doesn't mean you can't get involved. You can still talk to the other authors there--that's half the reason I made the group. Go to the discussion and talk ideas or characters--you say you know little of the greater expanses of this fandom, so talk about it and LEARN. That's part of being IN a fandom, of creating in one. You immerse yourself in the established community, the canon and the non-canon. Or hell, use OCs! Or go to the General Chat thread and just shoot the breeze.
I dunno, I do get what you're saying, to an extent, I just feel like you may be shutting yourself out of options. And obviously no one should do that--this place IS a community, and an excellent one at that. I know it's made not only my skill better but I've made friends and generally became much happier as a result. I dunno, I wish you the best of luck and hope that future collabs are more to your tastes and ability.
568077
As long as I don't have the muzzle of a shotgun in my mouth and my toe on the trigger, that's impossible. :P Yes, I realize I take the entire writing thing vastly too seriously but, as weird as it sounds, I enjoy taking it too seriously.
Offhoof, I'd say you're an author but appearances can be deceiving...
Good suggestions. Um... so where are these discussions and General Chats of which you speak? Does this group have a message board or something?
As long as it's not either pathetically bad or absolutely demented, I can swallow pretty much anything. Damn shame that I can't do pretty much anything or I'd be having a grand old time with this collaboration cage ("Two enter, one leaves! Two enter, one leaves!" Sorry...).
568431
Mmyes, that we do--notice the threads on the group sidebar? Check 'em out!
Handy dandy link!
Well, obviously I'll just have to give your stuff a read sometime and see what floats your boat and makes you tick.
568466 ...um...
...you're a real gem, Peregrine, you really are. Just discovered something that sounds right up my alley, totally randomly and... um... yeah I'm totally sorry for emo'ing out.
568471
Hehe, I usually don't say things unless I know what I'm talking about. Trust me, and all will be well! *insert boisterous laughter* Good luck to you and welcome...to The Collab Cage!
568490 Thankee. *beats my head against the wall to try and dislodge the voices in my head yelling " Cage match! Two go in, one comes out! Two go in, one comes out!"*
567708 By now this line is sort of redundant since it's been resolved but just in the interest of being polite and replying...
I'm afraid you sort of misunderstood my analogy with the painter thing. See, both a draftsman and a painter are people who work the "art side" of things, the draftsman by using symbolic representation of real things, the painter by creating pictures that are either in front of his eyes or inside his head. However, a painter would be poorly suited to an art that requires using symbolic representations of real things that will be used as blueprints to create those real things, whereas that art is precisely what the draftsman specializes in. I wasn't saying that I felt unable to write--I have a very large volume of work, most of it unrelated to MLPFIM--but that my writing skillset may not be suited for what a collaboration project needs.
Oh, I do! I spend most of my time writing out my headcanon. ^_^
I'm sure there are but I don't feel comfortable just popping out of nowhere and bugging a total stranger who has no reason to care who I am or what I think.
Here and now, hence and thence, before and after... whichever you prefer.
Sort of hard to do that when no one tells me what the problems are.