The Sydney Morning Herald is launching a collaborative, online novel that everyone can be part of after Christmas. The project is called The Necklace: Sydney writes itself.
The team at the herald will publish their first chapter in the Summer Reading section and also on their website on Boxing Day. From there, everyone is welcome to write a chapter for the book provided it includes the necklace described in chapter 1. Every chapter needs to be 1,500 to 2,000 words long, set in a different Sydney suburb and strongly described.
So you can be as creative as you like, provided you include the necklace – which could have been stolen, sold, found, given or inherited.
The team at the Sydney Morning Herald is open to how the story develops. It can be one continuous narrative, or a group of short overlapping stories or even a series of distinct stories with no connection beyond the necklace. Chapters do not need to describe events that happen one after another, the story can jump around in time.
Not only that, you can be part of the project even if your chapter isn’t selected. Readers can contribute comments (not critical) about the chapters, information about the suburbs, pictures and videos. These will be published with each chapter as the ‘novel’ develops.
All entries will need to be submitted within two days of the last chapter. So you can have one ready to go and wait for a link, or get inspired and write one on a very tight deadline.
Entries can be sent to: thenecklace@smh.com.au
This is a really exciting project for Sydney. It’s a new and exciting way to weave a story for audiences of tens of thousands. We’ll add a link to an info website as soon as we have one.
Will you be entering a chapter? What suburb do you live in, and are you looking forward to describing it?
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Posted on: 7 December 2011
