A Good Question

Ronda asked a good question:

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I know this is a strange comment, but I'm a little confused. What are you doing with this? Are you going to write the next exerpt to the chosen story? If so, that's a pretty brave, fun, and quite unique idea. Kinda like a "choose your own adventure."
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I bet a lot of people are wondering the same thing, so here's the answer, I hope it's clearer than mud!

It's not just me writing a next excerpt ... it's anyone who wants to throw one into the ring. I did enter one into the first chapter, so did a few other people (some sent more than one entry). But no one knows who is who, they are just voting on the story.

Next, anyone who wants to will send in a 'what happens next' bit to the story and we'll vote on that to see where the story will take us.

Exactly like a 'choose your own adventure' thing.

The winning story, "Finding Hope" might appear to be clearcut .... a tragedy, a romance. But I've been thinking about it and there are so many ways it could go; it could be a romance, sure, it could also be and LDS or other religiously uplifting story about finding faith, it could be a conspiracy theory, a thriller ... I'm sure the list goes on and on.

Anyone can submit a continuation to the story, whether they consider themselves a 'writer' or not, whether they are professional or not. This is just a fun exercise I think more in what readers want than in our skill, although I think "Not From Around Here" had a lot of potential but was probably robbed because only one paragraph was submitted so the story didn't have a chance to 'present' itself properly.

I'm writing very badly tonight myself. I've been paying bills for the last hour. Can you say 'brain cramp'? So forgive me if this really is no more clear than mud. Please, ask questions. Remember elementary school? There are no dumb questions. (only dumb answers ... oops!)