Hello There, or "What is this and why do I care?"

Note: Because people kept whining, I actually proofread this and corrected some typos, but very likely not them all.

What is this?

A blog, naturally. What is it for? Writing.
This is a blog created just for writing. There isn't anything special about it. If it's anything, it's a motivational tool. People often come across writer's block or a general lack of motivation and inspiration. This is a way to keep writers writing without having to worry much about the quality or length of their work, or even the content. it's just a tool to keep you writing.

How will this work?

Pretty simply. Each blogger is expected to write one story a week. It doesn't matter what day you post, or how long the story is, or what it's about. The important thing is this: that you actually wrote it, and that you finished it. As long as the story cleanly comes to an end, you can quite proudly proclaim "I wrote this!" (unless it's awful and you decide to pretend somebody else did it).
There will be weekly 'deadlines', and by that all I mean is that each week starts on Sunday, and ends on Saturday. As long as you post one story within that timeframe, you're safe. This means that, no matter what day you post your story, you have a minimum of 7 days to post another - but usually people will probably have around 10 days per story, I think.

Guidlines

As mentioned, there really aren't any rules other than "make it complete," but I'll mention a few things people should have in mind.

• Try and keep the story focused! Don't stray too much from your themes (unless that's your focus), because we have limited time to write this stuff and limited space to throw it on (<- this second statement is not true). Try and remember what you were thinking of conveying when you started and stick to that!
• Don't rush the ending! I want the stories to be complete so they don't feel half-assed, but this doesn't mean you should abruptly close the story. If you are working on something and just kill it partway through, you're hurting both yourself and the reader. If you can't end the story in a logical way, maybe you should try to write something else. The deadlines are there to guide you; it's fine if you miss one (although I will be disappointed if you do.)
• Serials are fine. You can write a story that's actually chapters from a book you're working on or whatever else, and publish a chapter every week or so, or every few weeks (in between unrelated works!) But make sure each chapter ends; you don't want to leave people hanging. View this more as a weekly magazine (maybe a monthly, if a week is too short), rather than a way for you to vent your ideas.
• Have fun. If you stop enjoying this, or view it as a chore, it'll ultimately defeat its purpose. If you get worn out, you can take a break. If you need some time in between stories, go ahead. If week is too much for you, why not just make it a month? Ultimately, each blogger can determine their own deadlines.

Who's doing this?

Nobody important, sadly. We're all amateurs here, which is both good and bad. It's good because we should be able to critique each other accurately, and nobody should really be knocking it out as superior in their stories - but it's bad because we're amateurs. We're more likely to make grammatical errors than professionals and, naturally having never been published, probably will mostly produce sub-par stuff at best. But who cares? This is about improving and writing more.
If you want to join in (which is fine by me!) just drop an e-mail. Mention why you want to join, maybe prove you'll do it every week, and you'll probably be approved. It'd be great to spread this a bit.

Anything else?

Not really. I'd like to give some words of encouragement, but I haven't even finished my first piece yet, so what can do I?
The first deadline will start Sunday - tomorrow (2/7/15, or 7/2/15 for you Yuropians), so hopefully we'll see some stuff being added between tomorrow and next Saturday.
Other things to note...it's extremely likely that 90% of my stories will have similar settings to one another, or even downright bizarre themes. I like to screw around but I also like to stick with what I know - so I imagine that, looking at things in bulk, most of my stories will be set in the stOPverse (which is a sci-fi realm you've never heard of)  or on Azetta (which is a fantasy realm you've never heard of it). I will tag such stories appropriately, mostly just for my own reference.

Closing Comments?

 

About me

Uh, I'd like to talk about myself but I'm not very interesting. Other bloggers, feel free to throw up an introduction post before you get started - just tag it! Let's keep things as organized as possible.
Now, about me... as mentioned, the majority of my stories will probably be in the same world. I'm not too unique when it comes to my own tastes; I mostly read fantasy books and historical fiction. You will very likely see that reflected in my works.
I am a programmer too, so I am forced to enjoy sci-fi. Even I don't particularly write it.
Also, I've done something similar to this before. But I am an awful, awful artist. If you think my prose is bad, you will blown away by the quality of my artwork.
In summation, I hope you like swords and sorcery, because you'll be seeing a lot of it.
Also, anything that takes a minute to think about - or has a hidden meaning - I love that, too. But I am not very good at subtlety, so we'll see how well I can accomplish such things on my own.

 

About the Site

I actually originally was going to make this website through Wordpress, just so we had more options at our disposal, but I am an extremely cheap person (contrary to my careless spending habits), so I've opted to stick with the completely free blogger/blogspot/whatever instead. That said, I will still be making changes here and there to the site - probably producer a logo, maybe make a proper page about each blogger, things like that. I'd like this blog to have a unique flavor to it, even if it's nothing special (and I stole the template off the internet), so if I ever stop being lazy I imagine there'll be some interesting changes here and there.

I may also change the format from "a story a week" to "a long story a month," with other things being published during this month - previews of your longer work, shorter stories by minor characters, or anything you want to write. It may be easier for creative flow if people are given a longer period in between works, but still are encouraged to write something during that work's gestation period. I'll probably think about it a bit more and talk with the other bloggers to determine a real format.
For now, though, you'd best be writing one 30,000 word story a week, or we're goign to have problems.