StoryMash

March 9th, 2009 in Writing, by Head Honcho

http://storymash.com

StoryMash was launched on November 1, 2007. The model is based on crowd-sourcing where a creative community of like-minded writers and readers, specifically lovers of fiction, work on a story - chapter by chapter - and collaborating to create a profitable end-story or piece.

It is a platform for either new or adept writers, authors or lovers of fiction to gather up and work together on creating short stories, screenplays, or novels.

Aside from collaboration, it is also a venue for writers to explore different writing styles and receive feedback and constructive criticism from the community.

The chapter is the basic authorship unit on StoryMash and each chapter has a forum open for discussion where readers of a chapter can add in their comments, feedback, ideas and encouragement to the author of the chapter thus the collaboration. There is a chapter ranking system available once the author publishes a chapter after being convinced with its content or quality.

Other readers and writers can then come together and add new or follow-up chapters. This ends up with branches and branches of chapters creating multiple middles and, of course, multiple endings.

For Writers
All interested authors and writers out there can get wonderful benefits from participating.
Writers, new or experienced, are given the opportunity to work with other like-minded writers that they have never encountered or met before thus encouraging learning through constructive criticism
StoryMash has a generous arrangement with the writers. They are allowed to keep the copyright to their work and give StoryMash a non-exclusive license allowing StoryMash to adapt and resell the combined output.

With every piece written comes the possibility of income through ratings by peers and readers as based on the success of their work. You share 50% of the advertisement revenue as a reward for your writing.

The site also hosts writing contests that earn up to $1000 of cash prizes awarded at the end of the period for a contest.

StoryMash is also a venue for writers to show a sneak preview of their work to possible readers and audience. This benefits the writer or author for the free advertisement for their work.

For Readers
Chapters are rated by readers. They are encouraged to rate and choose the best branches of chapters producing a fiction work that is most entertaining.

Readers are encouraged to vote the best chapter from a handful of proposed chapters. They influence which story idea gets written next. The praise and encouragement or feedback and criticism offered to the authors are very much beneficial for the author’s creative writing.

Aside from that, the readers get to read the most interesting fiction stories they can find. If the story read is not the way you want it to turn out, don’t fret! You can register and write the follow-up chapter of your liking.