Blogject Is A Word I Just Made Up, Crowdsourcing Is Not

Please excuse this interruption from your regularly scheduled programming (regularly meaning, in this case, extremely intermittently).

This is a Blogject.

My goal with this blog is to force myself to write on a semi-frequent basis and explore different voices, styles and framing devices. One of the projects I want to try is an idea I've had for a while now: to write a crowdsourced story, using ideas suggested by friends/strangers/foreign dignitaries to create real characters and a cohesive thruline.

To be honest, I'm not sure it's actually possible. But it'll be interesting for me (and hopefully for you, if you participate) to see a story start from nothing and grow in a bunch of different directions based on a bunch of different ideas, then streamline into something that's actually readable. My initial aim is to write it in ten parts, with the end of each part offering another opportunity for suggestions.

Part One begins now. To start I need:

1. A genre
2. A location
3. An adjective that describes the main character

Leave your answers in the comments, and I'll get a-writin'.

2013: THE YEAR IN BIEBER

Wow, what a year. 

2013 really showed us the best and worst of ourselves, huh? And nobody can say that more than pop icon Justin Bieber. Let’s take a walk down memory lane and recap some of the highlights (and lowlights!) that we’ll be talking about for years to come.

January starts with great promise, as J-Biebs gives a powerful performance on Dick Clark’s Rockin’ New Year’s Eve. Fans around the world are inspired to start their new year off right – including the United States Congress, which finally reaches a deal to avoid the so-called fiscal cliff. But things take a sharp turn for the worse when Bieber is dumped by his longtime girlfriend, Selena Gomez, and caught smoking pot within a week. It’s not all bad, though, as millions of teenage girls follow Bieber’s lead, buying out smoke shops around the country and inadvertently driving an economic boom that sends unemployment rates plummeting to five-year lows.

By February, the strong economy leads President Obama to give Bieber an official Presidential commendation for his valiant and patriotic public substance abuse. However, all that glitters is not gold (though Bieber's teeth are after the federal government mints a new coin in their shape). The singer embarks on an international tour, playing arenas and stadiums around the world, but his strong association with the US government hurts foreign ticket sales.

Things only get worse in March when Bieber is interviewed by tween magazine Tiger Beat Pakistan. Answering a question about the prophet Muhammed, Bieber answers “I dunno. He’s cool, I guess,” setting off a global firestorm about what temperatures, exactly, are allowable in describing the prophet. Bieber is kidnapped following a press event with Hot 94.9 KPOP Islamabad and closes the month tied to a folding chair in an unknown location. To make matters worse, Weird Al Yankovic’s devastating “Baby” parody (“Bieb-weed”) climbs to number 37 on the Billboard charts.

The US economy continues to flourish due to record sales of Forever 21 brand commando gear. Millions of 11-15 year olds across the country plot daring BiebeRescue operations. Luckily Bieber is released by his captors after they realize that the walls of any safehouse – no matter how thick – are not enough to contain his charm. Though he spends most of April recovering from his harrowing capture, Scholastic publishes the poetry that Bieber scrawled with blood on the inside of his hoodie in order to maintain some semblance of sanity. Within weeks it becomes the most read book in the history of civilization.