Authoring & Playwriting

Such an interesting topic Kat Spencer . Similarly to Lauren Hackney my project requires researching dark subject matter. I find I'm overwhelmed by the amount of information out there and it becomes increasingly difficult to choose what to use and what to exclude.

I live in research rabbit holes.

Researching what prison inmates are given to eat & how few times they see the sky or get any exercise... and rarely a fresh piece of fruit - took me down the rabbit hole into a groundhog burrow that smells like a skunk's den. It's criminal the way prisons treat criminals like animals. Hence, one of my books in process...

When I was writing my project Fast as a Fly, the story centered on a struggling boxer who drinks an elixir made from flies, created by his scientist father. The elixir gives him incredible strength and speed, and allows him to see everything in slow motion, making him virtually unbeatable.

While developing this project, I started researching the anatomy of flies, and I went really deep down that rabbit hole! I studied how flies see, what they can sense, how their bodies are structured, why they have such short lifespans, and how they manage to dodge a swat so quickly.

The more I learned, the more fascinating it became. I spent a long time studying flies, and what started as research for a screenplay turned into a genuine fascination with these tiny creatures. It was amazing to discover just how extraordinary their abilities are!

Oh for sure! I researched what foods could be grown in space while transporting humans to a new terraformed planet. The info DEFINITELY made it in there

Courage à toi Raven Willow Riley...

Thank you :)

Welcome Marie, nice to meet you. Your story sounds lovely, brave undermice always make for the best protagonists. I am a screenwriter and editor, and what I love most about children's content is the visual imagination. Kids see the world so vividly, so writing for them allows you to create really distinct, memorable imagery and punchy dialogue that resonates. Great to meet you here!

... Victoria

Marie Geffrard Welcome to Stage 32, I love the message behind Mr. Little Brown Mouse. Stories that show children that even the smallest voice can make a difference can be truly meaningful. One of my favorite things about children's stories is how they can teach courage and kindness in a simple, memorable way. What inspired you to create this little mouse and his story?

My male protagonist likes to talk to his racing trophies.

Ali Kobanbay The amount of pages generated by Co-Pilot suggestions caused me to print any legitimate idea it generated for later mental digestion... so many ideas!

How was your week???

No.

Never

Not really I prefer getting people to help me on the storyline and then work together to make it a full script

Madilynn Dale thanks for letting me know your thoughts on the Goodreads Platform. My book was released 4 weeks ago so once the figures come in I can tell you how effective Goodreads was for sales. I too would like to hear from other authors with how their sales went using review platforms like Goodreads.

Lauren Hackney You’re welcome! I hope Goodreads brings some good results for your book. By the way, where do you currently publish your books? Do you publish through Amazon KDP as well?

Im with a traditional publisher for this one. I have previously self published with my own imprint. What about yourself?

Lauren Hackney That’s wonderful! I’ve published 16 novels on Amazon KDP, and I’m currently working on another fantasy novel. I always enjoy connecting with fellow authors, sharing experiences, and exchanging creative ideas that can help us grow in our writing journeys. I’d love for us to connect through our inboxes so we can keep in touch and share ideas more easily. It would be lovely to learn from each other!

Yes.

Congratulations on publishing Subway Ride! I love this reminder that a good story doesn't have to remain in one format. Sometimes, changing the medium gives a story a new opportunity to reach the audience it deserves. As a fellow writer, I believe it's important not to give up on a story simply because one path doesn't work out. Wishing you continued success with the book, and I hope it finds the readers who will connect with your world!

A simple explanation of what I am doing:

This is similar to a Hollywood writers’ room, except there is one major difference:

I provide an open-source science-fiction universe.

I am the worldbuilding architect, consultant, and writer.

We write together — but we do not write the same story.

Each writer writes their own story, with their own characters, conflicts, and endings, inside the same open-source universe.

That creates something traditional writers’ rooms often cannot easily produce:

Different protagonists

Different interests

Different interpretations

Different conflicts

Different consequences

The possibility of genuinely incompatible stories existing in the same world

That friction is intentional.

The goal is to reduce familiar formulas, recycled settings, and predictable plots — and create stories with enough tension and originality to have stronger potential for film and theatrical audiences.

The Narrative Wind Tunnel

The “Narrative Wind Tunnel” does not mean that every protagonist has to change American society.

They don't.

Your protagonist can completely ignore the larger world.

They can have almost no effect on the world at all.

If the story does not require worldbuilding review, you simply write your story.

At the same time, you can continuously incorporate new developments in the open-source science-fiction setting into your own work.

Think of it as a competition where you cannot be eliminated simply because your story takes a different direction.

I design the rules.

But here is the important part:

You are supposed to look for loopholes in my rules.

If you find a gray area that gives your story an advantage, use it.

Follow the rules.

Follow the law.

But if I deliberately leave a loophole open, I am not necessarily going to close it.

Sometimes I will actually be impressed that you found it.

We are all writers.

The difference is simply that one of us happened to build an open-source science-fiction world and establish a new set of rules.

And whenever you create a new set of rules, new loopholes inevitably appear.

Finding them is part of the game.

So please don't approach this thinking:

“I'm just a writer. I probably don't belong here.”

No.

You are a writer. I'm a writer.

The only difference is that I built the playground.

Now try to break the rules — legally and creatively, of course.

The Architecture Is Public. What Happens Next Is Up to You.

The core architecture of the Risk Management Alliance is now publicly available through my personal website.

I have provided a public entry point and shared the relevant files through Google Drive. The files are available for reading and examination, while the shared folder does not grant general editing access to the originals.

The publication method is deliberately simple. There is no need to build an expensive distribution infrastructure before establishing whether people actually want to use the architecture.

A few facts are worth stating plainly.

The Discord server has not yet received enough applications to reach three members. The application form requires Google account verification. Applicants may participate under anonymous public identities, but anonymity is not a promise of immunity from applicable laws or legal responsibilities.

There is no need to disguise these facts or inflate the project's current level of participation.

Why Are So Many Core Documents Not in English?

The architecture was not developed entirely in English. It could be translated, but doing so would also require me to work through concepts in a language that is not always the most precise medium for my own thinking.

I have chosen to publish the architecture rather than postpone publication until every document has been rewritten in English.

Readers are welcome to use AI tools for translation, analysis, and comparison. They are also welcome to question the assumptions, identify inconsistencies, propose alternative interpretations, or build independent implementations.

A translation is not automatically a correct interpretation, and an interpretation is not automatically an endorsement.

Open Architecture Does Not Mean Managed Implementation

The architecture is available for examination and independent use, subject to the applicable terms and law.

You may study it, reproduce it, challenge it, modify it, or build something different from it. Independent implementations remain the responsibility of the people and organizations that undertake them.

I am not promising to supervise every version, resolve every disagreement, or provide ongoing consulting to every user.

The original Narrative Wind Tunnel experiment will continue on its own track. The public release of the architecture does not mean that every outside implementation becomes part of the original experiment.

The files are public. You do not need to wait for an invitation to read them.

If you want to understand the architecture, start with the documents on my personal website.

What happens after publication is part of the experiment.

The core architecture is now open-source.

I'm shifting my attention from explaining the project to developing it. If you're genuinely interested, the materials are available on my personal website.

I'll continue building and let the work speak for itself.

While everyone is arguing about a divided America, I think I can see a frontier taking shape.

To me, isolationism and westward expansion have always been two sides of the same coin.

And lately, I’ve been getting that strange feeling you get when you stumble through an old wardrobe and discover Narnia.

Everyone talks about Elon Musk as a genius, as though innovation were a rare miracle that only happens when an extraordinary person comes along.

But what if the real mystery isn’t the genius, but the vast, untamed wilderness of possibilities we still haven’t explored?

I don’t want to wait for another miracle; I want to gather a crew of ambitious, capable people and venture into that wilderness together.

Maybe there’s a whole new West out there, and the map hasn’t been drawn yet.

Congratulations to the Stage 32 team on the launch of the new Marketplace. Wishing you continued success as you build new opportunities for the creative community.

just a thought - I'm not editing books, I write and edit screenplay. Re words - write one complete cycle with no syntax or strict grammar constraints. Then every review cycle - Less. edit out. simpler phrasing. Let 2 or 3 cycles happen - the Word Count reduces. By enough? IDK. but kind of like (I think a Ben Franklin quote) "When I have more time, I write a shorter letter."

I think this is one of the trickiest parts of editing! Sometimes, a sentence feels too important to cut, but you have to look at what truly serves the story. As an editor, I’ve come to appreciate that good editing isn’t just about removing words; it’s about keeping the heart of the story while making every word count.