And, of course, people being who they are... there would be MANY people using the fog for their gain. What does that look like? For criminals, it's cover. One recent study in NY reduced crime  by over 40% in a neighborhood just by installing lights. No more cover of darkness.

So, how much more effective is this fog in covering an escape from any nefarious activity? Much more than even darkness. No lights can penetrate this cover. So, crime soars. And, since there are fewer witnesses (nobody to see what's happening on the corner down the block), there's more mystery around those crimes. Is it the fog that's killing people? (No, but, how can we be sure?) What if a mass murderer is strangling victims, but nobody ever sees him doing it? Can the fog choke you out? Some people would think so. How would they react? Do they become "survivalists" never leaving their bunkers? Would communities of people gather in large buildings or even caves, with only the bravest among them to venture out for supplies?

And, who else would seek to benefit? Certainly there'd be con men selling glasses that let you see through the fog... just $19.99. Could we maybe have a con man that continually looks to capitalize on the weak? Or, do we have someone weak who constantly falls for the cons?

Or, perhaps one of our main characters is a detective or a cop. He'd be in the middle of all sorts of weird cases.

Might also be interesting if one of the characters is a preacher/religious sort. He/she could be a conduit for exploring religious themes.

Oh, and we should brainstorm what types of businesses might spring up in a world like this, because you know people would be looking for legitimate opportunities, too.

Would someone set up a rope tour of an area for tourism? "Just hook your carabiner to this rope and enjoy the tour!"

(The rope idea could be used in other ways, btw. A small town might set up a series of ropes that guide you from one area to another. Blue takes you to the tavern. Red to the courthouse. Green to the market, etc. etc.)

(Just throwing spaghetti at the wall here.)

Quoted from Mr. Blonde Doing both is certainly doable. 30 minutes is a lot of time. You could spend several segments with the same group of people, even time-jumping with them, if you wanted, in one segment. More than that, if people enjoy it, tell even more of their story. Lots of possibilities, before anything is made concrete.

Yeah, not a bad idea what Dustin said about everyone picking their own survival group to write. Long as there's an agreed upon timeline of events we can find a way to put it all together in the end, hopefully.

I'll be heading to bed shortly.


It's been a great response! The world is already feeling like its taking shape.


For those finding the thread, or just coming to the thread, I reckon it's best to concentrate on getting an agreed time line together.

After that we can work out the direction the story will take, and whether we want to split into groups.

One thing that needs to be hashed out is satellites. They're obviously above the Fog, but they may become useless if the Fog is radar-opaque or radio-opaque. The most obvious immediate impact would be GPS, but it affects a lot of other back-haul communications that make world a single place.

I'm going to throw out a couple thoughts here:
- In regards to the WWZ premise: this would allow individual shorts based upon agreed conditions surrounding the time/place/attributes of the fog/mist and the general global response;
- I think the fog/mist needs to have some mysterious quality other than a lasting fog/mist. I like the thought that there are no creatures but what if the fog/mist had, for example, a phosphorescent quality to it like algae in water? Movement through the fog/mist lights it up temporarily so you wouldn't easily sneak around in it. With this condition, you could only see silhouettes of whatever is approaching and people are now known by their shape. It could be used by people wearing fearsome disguises too (e.g. horns or carrying claymore swords...).
- I'm all in but this process needs refining. I go away for a moment and 20 long comments are posted.  

Fog/Mist = Mog? Can't call it fist!

Question Rick, (for later, cause you're no doubt in bed):

Is this quoted text an excerpt from an established written work, or did you write it?

It began with a certain vagueness. A mist, a 'shimmer' around things that made them seem unreal. Romantic, mystical even; Adding a softness to the edges of life that didn't otherwise exist.

But then it grew thicker.

The sun disappeared from the sky. The curling tendrils of cloud and mist swallowed the streets, the buildings and the people. The entire world became a vague, shifting, intangible grey.

Fear set in, then panic, depression, then mania.

The roads became graveyards of burned out, skeletal wreckages. Planes lay silent on the runway.

Trade ground to a halt. Food production suffered. Food riots began. Canned food became a priceless commodity and people were willing to do anything, and everything to get it.

With the mist came the return of superstition. People reported hearing strange noises, or things moving in the mist, but no-one knew for sure.

Governments talked, splintered, but did...could do...nothing.

Scientists spoke of climate change, but their attempts to solve the problem failed, catastrophically.

The religious claimed it was a Divine Judgement. Such ideas no longer seemed quite so silly.

Cults formed as people flocked to those who claimed to know the truth, or merely provided the promise of food.

Hope came and went...

...But the Fog remained

A narrative opening like this might be a good idea.

I wrote it, to set the tone.

Very nice, Rick.  
It certainly does that.

I work best on my own or with another writer. Perhaps groups of two or three would be best? We could then switch our drafts for others to read and review.

I also feel, that for many of the writers here, writing for sound only is going to be a learning curve. You need to be really good at writing dialogue... telling a story through exposition without it sounding like exposition. You need to become very 'sound' aware. I'd actually suggest that writing for sound only is more difficult than writing visuals.

How many writers here are confident they can pull this off if they worked alone?

Hello everyone. I signed up recently and was looking forward to a One Week Challenge so this format was a surprise. Would love to contribute in any way if I can.

For the script format, we can use the radio play format used in War of the Worlds.

Also Rick should we define what the fog is or is not first and how you see this story ending?

Quoted from DustinBowcot I work best on my own or with another writer. Perhaps groups of two or three would be best? We could then switch our drafts for others to read and review. I also feel, that for many of the writers here, writing for sound only is going to be a learning curve. You need to be really good at writing dialogue... telling a story through exposition without it sounding like exposition. You need to become very 'sound' aware. I'd actually suggest that writing for sound only is more difficult than writing visuals. How many writers here are confident they can pull this off if they worked alone?

I will post an update later in order to refine and structure everything more clearly.

But basically the steps will be:

Establish the definitive time line, so we'll have a solid framework for everyone's work to for into.

A lead discussion about characters, storylines etc including whether we're focusing on a small contained story, or something with a wider spread. (I think the best way would be to start off with one main character or family who we will follow throughout, use them as a vehicle to introduce us to the local community, then once they're established, they can lead us off into the wider world, where anything can happen, but at some point those side stories will collide with the central story) .

Then we can see who is going to partake and how they want to do it.

In terms of the writing.. It'll be a challenge for sure. Ultimately it will be a case of writing is rewriting and all that. People do the best they can, then we review, make suggestions, edit it. At some point I can even get people to record it so we can listen to it and see what's unclear.

Quoted from stephen Hello everyone. I signed up recently and was looking forward to a One Week Challenge so this format was a surprise. Would love to contribute in any way if I can. For the script format, we can use the radio play format used in War of the Worlds. Also Rick should we define what the fog is or is not first and how you see this story ending?

Welcome, Stephen! Yes, agreed that this is a bit outside the usual OWC box.

A couple of links for you to help navigate the site etc.

https://www.simplyscripts.net/cgi-bin/Blah/Blah.pl?m-1124159895/s-0/
https://www.simplyscripts.net/cgi-bin/Blah/Blah.pl?b-screenwrite/

You can also introduce yourself, if you feel so inclined:

https://www.simplyscripts.net/cgi-bin/Blah/Blah.pl?b-knowyou/

Quoted from PKCardinal And, of course, people being who they are... there would be MANY people using the fog for their gain. What does that look like? For criminals, it's cover. One recent study in NY reduced crime  by over 40% in a neighborhood just by installing lights. No more cover of darkness. So, how much more effective is this fog in covering an escape from any nefarious activity? Much more than even darkness. No lights can penetrate this cover. So, crime soars. And, since there are fewer witnesses (nobody to see what's happening on the corner down the block), there's more mystery around those crimes. Is it the fog that's killing people? (No, but, how can we be sure?) What if a mass murderer is strangling victims, but nobody ever sees him doing it? Can the fog choke you out? Some people would think so. How would they react? Do they become "survivalists" never leaving their bunkers? Would communities of people gather in large buildings or even caves, with only the bravest among them to venture out for supplies? And, who else would seek to benefit? Certainly there'd be con men selling glasses that let you see through the fog... just $19.99. Could we maybe have a con man that continually looks to capitalize on the weak? Or, do we have someone weak who constantly falls for the cons? Or, perhaps one of our main characters is a detective or a cop. He'd be in the middle of all sorts of weird cases. Might also be interesting if one of the characters is a preacher/religious sort. He/she could be a conduit for exploring religious themes. Oh, and we should brainstorm what types of businesses might spring up in a world like this, because you know people would be looking for legitimate opportunities, too. Would someone set up a rope tour of an area for tourism? "Just hook your carabiner to this rope and enjoy the tour!" (The rope idea could be used in other ways, btw. A small town might set up a series of ropes that guide you from one area to another. Blue takes you to the tavern. Red to the courthouse. Green to the market, etc. etc.) (Just throwing spaghetti at the wall here.)

All good ideas, PK and all are noted.

The murderer angle might be particularly useful to create fear and a sense something terrible is in the fog.

I had a similar idea about ropes, though I imagined people using Christmas style rope lights, linking places.

A nice beat could be that someone moves one at some point.. Leading an unsuspecting victim somewhere...

Quoted from MarkItZero Had a chance to listen for a few minutes to one of these podcasts (Homecoming) and was surprised how close it is to a regular tv show. Starts with two people talking in a therapist office, then goes to a coffee shop, then a phone conversation. They've got ambient noise and other things to clue you in to where you are. Wouldn't it be easier to focus on one family going through these events? Or a very small community of people. They're holed up in their home, everyone is terrified, not sure it's safe to venture out. We could thread it all together with scenes of the family arguing/planning, radio reports, characters reading diary entries aloud, conversations with increasingly unhinged neighbors, etc. Not saying a chronicle of the whole world's reaction with lots of different storylines (World War Z) wouldn't work, it just might get unfocused, especially in a collaborative effort.

Those were my initial thoughts, also.

It's something we'll have to discuss more fully later.