I was minding my own business at the 2011 Femslash Con and listening to docwho2100 talk about a shared story world (SSW). She asked if anyone would be interested in maybe getting together and starting one. I said I would because, really, the idea was intriguing and I figured I’d find out more about it if nothing else. Seven months later I find myself an Executive Producer and up to my eyebrows in coding, writing, advertising, and one of a hundred varied pieces that make up creating and launching a shared story world.
You might ask what in my credentials makes me a viable choice as an Executive Producer besides a love of writing fanfiction, and I’ll happily answer – Not one danged thing! I somewhat fell into this as I have bits and pieces of the knowledge and experience needed to get Tales of Ryh’na off the ground. Mostly, what I have is a lot of really good friends with a great deal of experience in the varied areas of expertise we need to make this work. They are a group of amazing women who really love a good project.
It’s been an interesting journey; one that’s not yet completed. I’ve learned, taught, pulled out my hair, and screamed at the top of my lungs, but mostly, I’ve had a great deal of fun. We almost came to blows creating the base storyline. We’ve lost a few original members along the way, and picked up a few new ones. We’ve talked story, business, graphics, merchandising, advertising, HTML/CSS, javascript, PHP/MySql, maps, layout, themes, beta editing, and canon development. We’ve periodically stomped off in anger or frustration and came back with new ideas and compromises. We’ve found that explaining magic to the tech-minded causes gray hair and neck strain. On the other hand, discussing tech advances with the magic thinkers causes migraines and upset stomachs.
But through it all we persevered, never doubting the knowledge that we, as a group, could do this, and now our fledgling baby has begun to take steps and speak in sentences. There’s still a lot to do before we launch, but I don’t doubt for a moment that we will do so. These women are just too awesome not to succeed.
