Writers

Are you a writer looking for new and interesting challanges? Are you brave enough to let your readers be part of the creative process? Well then, Spineless Fiction is what you’re looking for. Spineless Fiction is for all adventurous writers. And if you’re already a published writer of spiny fiction, why not treat your fans with a free Spineless story? Chances are it will give you a lot of new readers and boost the sales of your spiny stories.

The idea
Come up with a really good story that suits the Spinless format. One strong main story, some sort of add-on story and a chance for your readers to influence the story through a forum. Reader participation is a very important aspect of Spineless fiction. If you want to give the readers even more influence, you can also add a wiki or a chat.

Create the blogs you need
You need at least one for the main story and one for the add-on story. There are countless different blog tools. Spineless Fiction and Not-So-Jolly Roger use self-hosted Wordpress.

Create a forum
One of the things that separates Spineless Fiction from other types of fiction is the reader’s chance to influence the story by hanging out with it’s characters. So, you need a forum to facilitate this interaction. Spineless Fiction and Not-So-Jolly Roger use a phpBB forum.

You can also set up a project and tell me about it. Then I’ll set up a forum for your project at the Spineless HQ.

Create a wiki (Optional)
A wiki is a perfect platform to collect information about your story and its characters. It also gives your readers the opportunity to add to the story on yet another level. Not-So-Jolly Roger uses a PM-Wiki.

Create a chat room (Optional)
A chat room provides yet another opportunity for your readers to mingle with the characters of your story.

Create a shop and/or donation buttons (Optional)
Spineless fiction is always free to read and influence. If you want to charge your readers, you have to call your writing something else. However, most readers are willing to show their appreciation anyway. A merchandise shop and /or donation buttons give your readers the opportunity to give something back to you, if they want.

Write!
All fiction, Spineless or not, requires good writing to get and keep readers. Make sure to involve the reader influence in your writing. It will create a fun and creative bond between you and your readers.

Promote your Spineless project
Don’t forget to promote your Spineless project. First, send your project URL to us and we’ll make sure to link to it if you link back to us. Visit other sites and tell them about your work. E-mail your friends and ask them to pass the link on to everyone they know. Internet is big, no-one will read your story if they don’t know it exists. Tell us to add your Spineless project in the Spineless feed widget. Then download the widget and place a copy of it on your own site. (The widget can be customised to fit your design.)