I love how things are categorized and organized into groups by distinguishing characteristics and given definition by being in those groups. In my life, I've gone out of my way to collect collections, even if they hold no personal interest for me. Books seem to be my biggest guilty pleasure this way; I've bought and still continue to buy whole series and collections of books even if I can't get past the first, awful one simply because in my heart and mind, a collection needs to be kept together to hold onto some theoretical synergistic magic. Anne Rice has profited significantly from me based on that crack-pot theory.
In thinking about a writing project I wanted to work on, I decided to focus on using collective nouns as an engine for starting stories. Collective nouns, as we all know, are nouns that give names to groups of things or people: bunch, group, handful, swarm, bundle, etc.. In historical times, they took these collective nouns and made them into a language to help describe the groups of animals they were hunting: a flock of geese, a pride of lions, a bevy of quail. Known as 'terms of venery', the language has expanded outside hunted animals to include just about everything and anyone imaginable. So my little brain latched on the idea and the almost poetic nature of these groups and the idea of a Collective Noun Writing Project started forming. Getting excited, I thought I could use up the rest of my natural born life writing short stories using all the venery terms as titles and subjects but being basically a good-natured and social member of the worker bee class, I started thinking with so many talented writers out in the Blog, I'd really be missing out on an opportunity if I didn't open it up to people interested in taking on a writing project with me.
So here's the deal. I'm looking for interested persons who'd like to participate in this amateur writing project. You need not be an experienced, published writer to participate; for God's sake, I'm not. This isn't a writing workshop and this isn't about group critiques. Private critiques can be ferreted out behind the scenes at the author's discretion on their own time. Fun is the word. I figure keeping the group to about a manageable 20-25. The concept is pretty simple: Go to one of the collective noun collection sites I have listed along the right, find a phrase that strikes your fancy and using it as the title (or in your title somehow), build a short story around the concept. It might have nothing to do with the actual animal you chose or it might be used as a metaphor or it might be anything as loosely or as closely tied to the term as you prefer.
1. Fun, fun, fun rules the roost. Live by it.
2. This is an open writing project to anyone who wants to participate. No age limit, blah, blah, blah. Adult material can be included but will carry one of those stupid adult disclaimers as appropriate.
3. Preferably, use only a venereal term associated with an animal, bird, or insect. You'll note in some sites, the terms are either cited or suggested. You can use either.
4. There is no word limit. I appreciate those of us who are long-winded as much as others who are succinct, Hemmingway-esque scribblers. Let the creativity flow.
5. All submissions should be in Word or plain text format with spelling and grammar the way you want it posted. My grasp on basic grammatical punctuation is tenuous enough that I can't be everyone's 7th grade English teacher.
6. Submissions should include an afterward which is publishable or not depending on the author's preference, about the idea behind their story, why they chose their particular theme, and any other fascinating details that would interest other aspiring writers.
7. All entries should be in by October 20th, 2003 giving everyone plenty of time to get the story written, re-written, scrapped, and written again in a totally different direction for final submission.
I'll be posting the completed project sometime after October 20th, 2003 on
this site for public consumption. Submitting authors will be noted on this
page along with their chosen venereal phrase as soon as I receive their information.
You don't necessarily need to have your title/story/venereal phrase chosen
at the time you sign up to participate however I will be bugging the shit
out of you to give me your title/phrase/etc. as soon as you know.
LEGAL STUFF: All submissions remain the property of the submitting author who, by participating in this project, authorizes publication of their submission on this site, properly cited of course, for an indefinite period of time.
I reserve the right to add appropriate coding for readability purposes (i.e. breaking longer stories down into manageable, readable pages, etc.). Any content change will be authorized explicitly by the author.