When my kids were little we used to play a game where one of us would make up the beginning of a story, then pass it to the other person to continue the telling, and so forth. Author John Scalzi improves upon this idea. The ficlets website is brand new and appears to be taking off like crazy.
"Ficlets" you ask?
A ficlet is a short story that enables you to collaborate with the world.
Once you’ve written and shared your ficlet, any other user can pick up the narrative thread by adding a prequel or sequel. In this manner, you may know where the story begins, but you’ll never guess where (or even if!) it ends.
Intrigued? Here's more from the site:
About Ficlets
ficlets are shorter than short stories. Well, no, actually, they are short stories, but they’re really short stories. Really short, as in there’s not a maximum word count … there’s actually a maximum character count (1,024). There is also a minimum character count, and the number of that beast is 64.
If you wish, we’ll provide you with inspiration (photos, themes, suggested beginnings and endings, even other ficlets), but you’re completely free to blaze your own trail. Now, here’s where the real fun comes in: Each and every ficlet is modular in that, though you may have written a stand-alone story with a beginning, middle, and ending, your fellow ficleteers may choose to write a prequel or sequel to your story. In this respect, you can think of ficlets as literary Legos.
All ficlets are covered under Creative Commons, which means that if you wrote it, you own it. Period.
To give you an idea of what you can do with 1,024 characters, that is the exact length of this “About Ficlets” description.
A related blog highlights story contributions by successful authors, author interviews, and improvements to the site.
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