Well, did you work out the rust with the last challenge? I hope so, because this week’s challenge is a hell of a thing.

Community Story is a challenge I’ve wanted to run for a long while, but it only works if all the teams have the same number of people, and as such I’ve waited for a chance to do it after a few weeks, and that time never comes.

So, we’re doing it at the beginning, which will complicate things a lot (not for me, really. For you. Cheers!).

Each team will write a story in eight parts:

1. Exposition
2. Introduction of protagonist
3. Complication
4. Protagonist’s Decision
5. It gets worse
6. Rallying the troops
7. Climax
8. Denouement

You can take some liberties with the definitions above; you’ll find that I don’t want you to break the rules, but when you bend them, it often produces my favorite entries.

Here’s the thing, though you’ve probably figured it out already: everyone writes a different aspect of the story (each of the eight parts have a 200 word limit). So, you need to get a plot, work out the story beats and figure out who writes what. Sound simple? Of course it does!

Here’s what I’ll do for you, since I’m not completely heartless: I’ll help you with any random number generation you need. If you have three different plot ideas you can’t choose between, ask me to put the numbers 1-3 through a random number generator, and I will. If you have the story elements plotted out and you can’t figure out who’s writing what, I’ll randomly put your team members in order as well (if you end up trading or changing completely, that’s fine. Once I’ve sent you the list or the number, my part in it is over).

Each person must still send in their own section, and please mark it “Team (x), Part (x).” Scores will be from 1-5, taking into account your section. Obviously the climaxes will probably be the most exciting parts, but you’ll be judged against what you were asked to do. Additionally, a 1-5 overall score will be given to each team based on the overall flow and effectiveness of the story.

Non-submitters will get negative one point, and in the case their team loses, they’ll automatically cast an elimination vote against themselves.

There are two eliminations possible this week. If there are at least two teams with non-submitters, then the two lowest-scoring teams that have at least one non-submitter will eliminate a member. If there’s just one team with non-submitters, that team will automatically finish last and vote out a member. If everyone shows up, the lowest scoring team will vote someone out.

Alright, is that everything? No, it isn’t. We’ll keep these due on Saturday at 8pm Central, since DK might be going to another ‘Huskers game.

Cheers, Survivors. I hope my anticipation for this challenge is warranted.