Outline collaboration
DoneYou can already do so implicitly if you want via comments, but it might be a thing that the app/ui actively supports. Constructing a skeleton in parallel with the segments you're fleshing out, to overuse an analogy.
Comments
I think of it as setting some goals on the horizon that you're both improvising towards/in between. Improv is fun while you're both engaged and playing off each other, but it can be frustrating if you both don't really have an idea of where to go.
Hm yeah you're right. I initially thought it would be fun creatively to just "see where it is going" but you might be right that this could be a little confrontational or could feel like you're imposing onto someone's work. I'll give it some real thought.
Oh, enter submits. I still like my spine/skeleton analogy - you can add plot beats and then flesh out story segments in between them, mayb even rearrange them. It's a different app than we have now for sure, just planting little seeds ;)
I've been thinking this over since last night so get ready for a lengthy comment. My vision for Half Quill is that it is a creative playground. The goal is to build a writing habit and use it to flex your creative muscles. The unpredictability of humans is at the core of this. The emotion I am chasing is that someone goes in a direction I did not expect but we can roll with it. I've been calling this "Playful, not precious". The thought is that the end result of the story shouldn't matter. It is about the fun of the process of exploration and improvisation. Now the enemy to this, is someone going in a different direction and the other writer feeling like they ruined the story. When would they feel like that? When they feel ownership over the story. Because then they ruined "my" story. So my aim is to kill ownership and the value of the story to make space for a real "there are no mistakes, only surprises" culture.
I think an outline section WOULD alleviate the fear that you could take the story the wrong way. But I'm also afraid that it would increase the sense of ownership, reinforcing that there is a wrong way to take a story in the first place. I think what we feel right now is a gap between the desired culture and the felt culture. I could do a much better job with the copy in the app to make clear that it isn't about the story, it's about the human interaction. But I also have a specific feature suggestion that could maybe help writers bridge that fear of writing the wrong thing.
I've released the ephemeral branch idea I mentioned earlier this week. Let's see if this helps people get through the nerves of adding to a story. If not, then I'll revisit this.
Interesting. What feeling do you want to invoke (or take away) with this? I've considered it last week but to me it gave a little too much "productivity planning" and not as much improv / go with the flow. But you're not the first one to mention this. So maybe the end result / guidance is valued a little higher than the experience on its own? If you get what I mean.