From Jen Re: Olivia's Third Cent

Hey. Sorry just read down further. Seriously, Olivia, John and all, if your hesitations are just disorientation, relax. It's starting to come together.

We pick a starting post topic. (please weigh in on this before anything else)
We take one day and treat it like a real topic here and all post thoughts on that topic.
Then we go write 10 pages (see below in earlier post) of dialogue (two five-minute scenes) for our character, which includes them posting to that topic.
At some point in our first scenes (not necessarily at the opening), we have our character responding to that topic.
At some point in our second scene, we find out that one of the regular contributors has died (by reading it on the blog) and that his funeral is (where Trask?) Lexington? Louisville?
We make sure that somehow our two scenes lay appropriate groundwork for making it believable that our character would attend. For whatever reason. You could even have ulterior motives.
Then, when those scenes are written, we read each others, understanding they are merely first drafts, and workshop them a bit. We talk to each other and firm them up a bit. We also get to know each others' characters this way.

Then we 'show up' at the funeral, armed (as writers) with a knowledge of these six fictional (to at least some extent) characters and we work those last 12 scenes together. As though we are actually all together in that place, at that event.

Making more sense?

I really want to encourage ya'll to embrace the disorientation. I told my mother about this project over the weekend. She responded as I thought she would, "But that's risky. What if the plan all falls apart and things go badly?"

Me: "Well, you've just described the basic trajectory of every Coen brothers' movie. A plan goes badly. And they do pretty well at this racket."

What have we got to lose? And the 'life imitating art—art imitating life' aspect of this is interesting, right?

But AGAIN, I can't stress this enough, I would much rather have you just shoot me an email letting me know this is not for you, than have you stay on board and not enjoy it. It's not for everyone. I totally get that. This project will 'project' the enthusism of the crew. If you don't got it, it won't have it. Right? And Miss Ive is way to busy to get her panties in a bunch about a changed mind. I always respect straightforwardness. Is that even a word? Bedtime!