RoundRobins.info
On this site, “round robin” is used in the sense that refers to a form of
collaborative story-telling in which a group of people take turns to advance the story.
Done properly, a round robin can be fun for the writers while it’s in progress
and result in a story that’s fun for others to read.
Round robins come in many shapes. I’ve participated in round robins that were
carefully planned in advance, where the size and composition of the writing group, the number
of turns, and the order in which the turns were taken, were decided before the first writer
put pen to paper or finger to keyboard. I’ve participated in round robins where the
first writer posted the beginning of the story to an online writing group and invited
contributions from anyone who wanted to join in, with no length more fixed than “go on
until we reach the end, and then stop”. (I don’t recommend any one type
particularly. While the set of rules governing a particular round robin undeniably has an
effect, I find that the quality of the result tends to rely more on the quality of the
participants.)
Some sites about round robins
- Subreality Central
- Official web site and story archive of the Subreality writers community, who do Round
Robins from time to time. (Over sixty are listed in the archive, but not all are complete.)
- Doctor Who: The Internet Adventures
- The Internet Adventures are a series of round robins associated with the newsgroup
alt.drwho.creative, now up to 28 completed stories (with at least as many more produced by
the five spin-off series). Note: The official site is in the middle of renovations, with
the attendant set of broken links, etc.
- The Pro-Fun Troll Hoedown series
- An annual event on the alt.drwho.creative newsgroup, a rather anarchic round robin on the
theme of “Doctor Who characters and fanfic writers get together to have a big party,
and somehow wind up having to save the universe”.
- This Time Round Round Robins
- Round robin stories set in the environs of This Time Round, the pub outside continuity,
where Doctor Who characters go to unwind between stories.
- Improfanfic
- Moderated round robins on an anime theme, some using characters from existing anime and
some using original characters.
- The Round Robin Storybook
- “The Public Archives of the Round Robin Storybook Creative Writing Group”,
maintained by Jenni A. M. Merrifield.
- Treasures of the Indies
- Swashbuckling adventure, unexpected friendships, dishonest doings, unimaginable
riches—and sudden death!
A round robin written by fans of the movie
Pirates of the Caribbean (but with original characters,
and not set in the Caribbean).
If you know of any other web sites devoted to round robins, we would be very pleased if you
would let us know about them.