A chain novel or chain story is a type of
collaborative fiction
Collaborative fiction is a form of Writing style, writing by a group of authors who share creative control of a Storytelling, story.
Collaborative fiction can occur for commercial gain, as part of education, or recreationally – many collaborat ...
written collectively by a group of
authors
In legal discourse, an author is the creator of an original work that has been published, whether that work exists in written, graphic, visual, or recorded form. The act of creating such a work is referred to as authorship. Therefore, a sculpt ...
. The novel is passed along from author to author, each adding a new chapter or section to the work, with the rule that each subsequent chapter or section should elaborate and follow the plotline of preceding chapters or sections.
The story continues through the participation of others; no one knows what happens next except the next person to add to the story. This method of writing is a shared project and often leads in unexpected directions. This collaborative effort is used to stimulate creativity and the exploration of new ideas.
One problem with chain stories is they can become long and complicated due to the number of different people adding new bits and twists.
Legal theorist
Ronald Dworkin
Ronald Myles Dworkin (; December 11, 1931 – February 14, 2013) was an American legal philosopher, jurist, and scholar of United States constitutional law. At the time of his death, he was Frank Henry Sommer Professor of Law and Philosophy at ...
has compared
common law
Common law (also known as judicial precedent, judge-made law, or case law) is the body of law primarily developed through judicial decisions rather than statutes. Although common law may incorporate certain statutes, it is largely based on prece ...
jurisprudence
Jurisprudence, also known as theory of law or philosophy of law, is the examination in a general perspective of what law is and what it ought to be. It investigates issues such as the definition of law; legal validity; legal norms and values ...
to chain novels by suggesting that
judge
A judge is a person who wiktionary:preside, presides over court proceedings, either alone or as a part of a judicial panel. In an adversarial system, the judge hears all the witnesses and any other Evidence (law), evidence presented by the barris ...
s, like chain novel authors, must elaborate and follow the
laws
Law is a set of rules that are created and are law enforcement, enforceable by social or governmental institutions to regulate behavior, with its precise definition a matter of longstanding debate. It has been variously described as a Socia ...
set before them.
Examples
* ''
The Floating Admiral'', a 1931
detective novel
Detective fiction is a subgenre of crime fiction and mystery fiction in which an investigator or a detective—whether professional, amateur or retired—investigates a crime, often murder. The detective genre began around the same time as specu ...
which was written consecutively by 13 notable authors including
Agatha Christie
Dame Agatha Mary Clarissa Christie, Lady Mallowan, (; 15 September 1890 – 12 January 1976) was an English people, English author known for her 66 detective novels and 14 short story collections, particularly those revolving ...
,
Dorothy L. Sayers,
Anthony Berkeley,
G.K. Chesterton and Canon
Victor Whitechurch, with each of the authors providing their own suggested solution to the mystery as an epilogue.
* ''Wicked'' and ''Deadly'',
Australia
Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country comprising mainland Australia, the mainland of the Australia (continent), Australian continent, the island of Tasmania and list of islands of Australia, numerous smaller isl ...
n
children's fiction
Children's literature or juvenile literature includes stories, books, magazines, and poems that are created for children. In addition to conventional literary genres, modern children's literature is classified by the intended age of the reade ...
by
Paul Jennings and
Morris Gleitzman who took turns writing chapters, and then sending them on to the other.
See also
*
Exquisite corpse, a method by which a collection of words or images is collectively assembled
*
Mosaic novel
A mosaic novel is a novel in which individual chapters or short stories share a common setting or set of characters with the aim of telling a linear story from beginning to end, with the individual chapters, however, refracting a plurality of viewp ...
, a novel where individual chapters or short stories share a common setting or set of characters with the aim of telling a linear story from beginning to end, with the individual chapters, however, refracting a plurality of viewpoints and styles
*
Short story collection
A short story collection is a book of short stories and/or novellas by a single author. A short story collection is distinguished from an anthology of fiction, which would contain work by several authors (e.g., '' Les Soirées de Médan''). Th ...
*
Chain writing, relay writing technique
References
External links
Chain Stories a European Union funded education project to promote language intercomprehension in young learners.
Examples of novels and essays
Collaborative fiction
Novel forms
Writing
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