TO ALL NEWCOMERS: BE SURE YOU READ THE RULES IN DETAIL IF YOU WISH TO BE A WRITER ON THIS STORY

Hey all! I was looking over some fan fics that have been posted up, and I got an idea for a fan fic in which every one who wants to can collaborate.
I know there are several of these sorts of stories already out there, but I thought I'd try to start a new one, to get a fresh perspective, I think. As far as I've seen all the Matrix 4 stories are pretty old, and I think it would be cool to get a new one going. Let me all know you what you think and we can go through with it. Hopefully this will turn out good, with all the good authors collaborating.
I was also looking over Matrix Rebooted, and I like how the leader of the thread made certain ground rules, so that's what I'm gonna do too.

1. You can create only up to five characters, because anymore than that, and they will become hard to keep track of, resulting in possible plot holes. I've dealt with plot holes before, in other fan fiction sites, and let me tell you, they're a pain in the ass to repair. Anyone who's worked on a multi-author story should know what I'm talking about.

2. If you have five characters, you can kill one, making it drop down to four, and bring along another, bringing it back up to five, but not so much it becomes ridiculous.

3. When you create a character, I would appreciate it greatly if you could do your best to flesh out that character, and make him or her different from the rest of the characters you have created. NO CHARACTERS can be all-powerful. Obvioulsy, some characters, such as Exiles and Machines, can be very powerful, but not to the point of ludicracy.

4. Plot holes. Please do not post if you have not read all of the story so far. Read over the whole story so far thoroughly, and then post, doing your best to avoid all possible plotholes. As I said, these are a pain in the ass to repair.

5. You may use other people's characters, and you may injure them, but you may not kill them. If you want to kill them, PM THE PERSON WHO CREATED THE CHARACTER, do not post it in the thread. Then they will PM you back if it is okay with them or not, and if it is, go ahead. If not, however, you may not kill their character. And, of course, you may not completely incapacitate them.

6. When writing somebody else's character, or even with writing your own, stay true to the character traits. Do not make someone act out of character, but if you feel it is necessary to advance a certain aspect of the storyline, proceed as you would if you were killing them, and PM the creator of that character.

7. You may not write absolutely inexplicable plot points. Example: "Neo appeared and saved everybody. The end." You are not allowed to end the story. Nobody is. When I feel we have reached a conclusion of sorts, I will post up a post that says people may begin to draw things to a close.

8. As for old characters, such as Smith, Trinity, Neo, Mifune, and so on....as of now, they are not allowed to come back, and nobody may set the stage for them coming back. Maybe later on in the story they could, but as of right now, let's try not to do the cheap sequel thing and bring the good and bad guy back from the dead. (And let's not get into any "is neo REALLY dead?" debates.)

9. As for killing characters that are still alive at the end of the third movie, such as Morpheus, Niobe, Locke, Kid, Link.....this is a toughie. So here are the ground rules: There are two people you may not kill: Kid and Morpheus. Later on the in the story I will introduce a point where you may kill them, but do not do it so rashly. If you plan on killing the other characters, you may do so, but again, not rashly. It must fit in with the present plotline.

10. When you make a post, fit it in with the previous post that somebody has made. If one post is about a blue pill working on his computer in the Matrix, the next post could only be about Zion if it somehow related to this. Draw a common thread between the two. It does not have to be super strong, just enough there so people can see the connection.

11. Proper grammar and punctuation. I noticed this in the Matrix Rebooted story, and I must agree with its starter. Please please please do your best to put on your best grammar behavior. It makes it easier for everyone to follow, and easier to keep this story free of plotholes. Obviously, some mistakes are going to happen, and that's okay, but do your best to keep your posts mistake free.

Well those are the basic rules. I'm sure there are some I probably haven't thought of, and if there are, I will post them later. If anybody has any questions post here or PM me.
I will write the first post of the story as soon as we get some writers on this bandwagon. So.....anybody up for it? I hope this turns out the a fruitful collaboration among the authors here at MatrixMania.

EDIT: Here are more rules that must be followed.

Once the story gets going, any person who wishes to be a writer will have to come to me and PM me and discuss it with me, then they will write it. You may NOT just up and start posting in the story.

We have four writers. Everyone who is a writer, and everyone who wishes to be a writer: This story will hopefully take a while, stretching out into an epic, which means it will take much time on your part, and please don't subscribe to writing in this story if you are not willing to give your time and effort to it, and read all the previous posts.

We will write in a specific order, and unless otherwise stated, will keep that order. No writing out of turn, and before you post your next part of the story, you will enter into PM discussion with the group of writers at the time, making sure to include everyone in your PMs.

The order will be:

1. Novus
2. Snoopy
3. renegade-agent
4. The Neo ghost

As I mentioned earlier, the first installment of the story will be posted MONDAY, AUGUST 29TH. We will start discussion earlier, though.

To all the writers of this story: Any conversation about the story will be kept to private PMs. Example: If Snoopy is discussing what he is going to write next turn, he will not talk about it in public, but will PM the group and talk about it. Keep all conversations confidential. This is to insure that the upcoming story remains suspenseful and spoiler-free for the readers. If a story leaks and it is found that someone has violated this privacy agreement, then they will be removed from the story.

Rule Number 10 as of now is anulled. Since all the writers will be discussing every installment by PM, the writers will decide there if it is necessary to move to another section of the story that isn't necessarily related to the previous scene.

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Hey novus,can i help write some of this? pleeeeeease???
I am capable of good grammer-it's just i usually write off the top of my head,but my grammer and spelling will be flawless i swear!
can i pleeeease help ?

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Sure, no problem! Just as long as you follow the rules! I'm sure you'll do awesome. So, there's one writer we have on board, besides me. Anybody else up for the challenge?

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I'd like to help with this, Novus.

-Snoopy

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Absolutely, Snoopy! I've been reading your Chronicles of the Thirteen and it's really good! I'd think you'd make a nice edition to the writing team. Welcome aboard!
So now we have r-a, Snoopy, and me. Anybody else want to come? You're welcome to it!
I will wait several more days to wait for writers to get on board. After we have gotten at least five writers I will set a one day deadline, and then we will start the story. If, in several days, we do not have five writers, we will start anyway.
You can sign on to start writing for this story after its started, but you must have read all of it, to keep up do date.
Thanks, guys.

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I really don't mean to bring you down Novus but what I'm going to say is constructive criticism toward the idea of creating a multi author story. Any advice I give you is not given in the view that you don't know how to write, it's simply given because that's what I do and I figure you might as well hear it. I'm not trying to say I'm better than you, I'm trying to spread the knowledge.

Firstly I'd like to say that you're going to have a hard time, regardless of what you may think at this point, it's going to get very tough to keep your story going, not because there aren't good writers here on MM but due to the fact that creating a multi author story takes alot of collaboration, cooperation and most of all organization.

I've participated in several multi author stories who've all gone down the toilet, mainly because those based on The Matrix lose their thrill after a certain amount of time mostly due to the fact that people have a static view of what the Matrix is all about and the plot line gets cought on trivialities that truly have no emotional kick to the reader.

Secondly because the authors have real lives (some anyway) and things happen in those real lives that may take them away from being able to write and unless you have a backup plan, your story will lag and drop dead.

Thirdly, some animosities may grow between the group, this could be started by something within the story or something outside the story. If you're going to lead a successful multi author story you're going to have to make sure that your group is close and comfortable with eachother and their ideals, one small arguement can pull the entire group appart and that would spell disaster for the thread.

Fourthly, you have to stick by your rules, it's going to be frustrating and perhaps even insulting to those who you're going to dictate aren't eligable to write in your peice, but if you don't stick by your rules than you're not running the show and if you're not running the show than who is?

Lastly I'd like to wish you good luck, cause god knows the Fan Fiction forum is lacking in some respect toward peices that are under good management. Although this is going to be tough, I do encourage you to try it, if not only to experience the kind of work that is needed to keep it up and running.

Basically the advice I have for you is this.

1. Get organized, get your authors on MSN or AOL or some kind of instant messenger and make sure everyone's up to date on what's going on. Know who's writing next, know the main idea of what they're supposed to be writing and make sure they know it too.

2. Get a plotline, Don't just write random crap it'll all fall apart in your face (I'm not saying you were about to do that, I'm just saying that shit happens)

3. Market your peice. Your authors may lose interest if no one is commenting or reading your peice, put links to it in your signature and try to find regular readers (There's always a few).

4. Make it interesting. Being a group of super kick ass matrix guys is wicked, but the reason why the Matrix 2 and 3 nearly flopped is because the main character was nearly invincible and people can't relate to that. Human beings are fragile, emotionally and physically. A good story is when the reader can put themselves in the hero's shoes and know that the hero can trip, fall, and bleed just like they would.

5. Be an ass, as Stephen King said himself " Don't be afraid to kill your babies." He means make a good character that people will like and fall in love with, then throw the poor soul to the dogs cause that'll make the reader cry and pout and get angry. The reason people read books is to be emotionally stimulated, regardless of what emotion it is you gotta make sure you can hit home and get their hearts pounding.

6. Know your story. Do some reasearch, make sure you know what you're writing about and make sure that you know where you're writing about. Even if it's something you invented make the reader think you're the smartest bastard on the planet because then it feels authentic. You think all that crap Captain Pickard is spewing out on Start Trek is real? Hell no, but it sure as hell sounds real and that's what counts.

That's about all I've got to say for now.

Remember, I'm not trying to say you don't already know all this, I'm just speaking from experience.

Good luck, and I'll see you around.

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Thanks for the info, Jaideska. Yeah, as I've mentioned, I love fan fiction, and I've noticed what you're talking about on a lot of other sites. I was involved in a multi-author story awhile back, and it fell dead because only two authors ended up remaining. So, yeah, thanks for the info.
And it's Picard, not Pickard, lol. Jk jk jk jk no seriously that is how it's spelled. I'm a big Star Trek fan, lol. Okay on with life now.
Yes, I will be marketing my piece, putting a link into my sig like I did with A Merging of Worlds. And I doubt this will fall into the slumps that Matrix 2 and 3 fell into. I absolutely love the second and third one, but I realize that they have many downfalls. (Actually M2 is my favorite movie of all time).
Lol, good Stephen King quote. I write as a hobby, and I always find it very hard to kill characters that I've created and loved along with my readers, but I've found that it's easier for me to kill characters if I plan in advance on killing them.
Thanks for the advice on the messaging other members. I'll definitely do that, to help keep the story on a basic plotline, and that way, not in actual posts, because that way, the readers don't see what's about to happen before it happens.
Yes I will enforce rules on my piece. This goes for all you potential authors in this story: Do NOT think that I will bend the rules for you. I'm not trying to be an asshole here, but it's important for a good story to emerge. r-a, this goes for you. I realize you have trouble writing good punctuation and grammar, but it's important if you want to be part of the story.
To any author: If you show a steady disregard for the rules, you will no longer be allowed to post the story. Of course, since I am not a mod or an admin, I don't have this full authority, but I am setting down these rules, and will contact a mod or admin if necessary.
Good advice on the potentially static quality of a Matrix story. I have several ideas percolating in my head, and will communicate with the authors of the story on this, and I do have a general idea of where I want my story to go, so it doesn't become all convoluted. Awhile back I was listening to the critics commentary on Reloaded, in the Ultimate Matrix set. (These commentaries are really enlightening, it made me realize how many faults there are actually in M2, even though I'm a huge fanf.) Anyways, the critics were commenting how they didn't like it when sequels recycled the storyline and didn't do anything really new.
M2 was a good movie, and the reason it worked box-officially was because of the success of the first movie, and also because it introduced a lot of new characters and new plot points and an interesting twist on the story of the One. M3 really didn't do much new at all, it just really brought the story to an end with a lot of superfluous action added in. (Though the Super Burly Brawl was awesome the the Super Punch was amazing.)
Other sequels do the exact same thing they did in the first movie, with a shallow attempt to imitate what was done in the first movie. Examples: Miss Congeniality 2 (GOD I hate that movie), Tomb Raider 2, 2 Fast 2 Furious, XXX: State of the Union. They're just pathetic.
Movies that ADD to the original, that bring in brand new plot points, are what end up making much better movies than the original. Rare examples: Shrek 2, Spider-Man 2, The Two Towers (though it is a little repetitive.)
So, to all the authors and potential authors on this story, start forming ideas in your mind right now, and don't communicate them on the board. Write me a PM. Unfortunately I don't have IM on this computer, so there's not that option. But do write me a PM, and when you write a PM, write it to all the authors on the story. So far, there's me, r-a, and Snoopy.
Just keep all these things in mind. All this brings to mind more rules, but I will post them later.
So, thanks, Jaideska, and I'll see you around the board.

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Yes sir ,i will make a mega effort here tomake sure all my grammer is perfecto i know some people out there will be going over it with a fine pick comb(you know who you are!)
come on people!we need more good writers here.

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Suggestion for all you budding writers out there: Write out your story in a word document, then copy and paste. I know some of you out there are experienced writers and you know this, this is just for the newbies. Also, separate the paragraphs; it makes it easier to read.
And don't worry, r-a, I know you'll do great.
Soooo....anyone else up for it?

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