wisteria: WRITING WITHOUT BOUNDARIES
A project about creativity and virtual reality
Wisteria is an exercise in creativity, play, collaborative writing, and transmedia storytelling.
Wisteria the show is a science-fiction TV series available on YouTube.
Wisteria the project is the behind-the-scenes writing laboratory responsible for the creation of the show and many other projects besides.
Both sprang from creative play: the show is a story that emerged from a roleplaying game, and it was so good we thought we needed to turn it into a show, movie, or book. But instead of trying to perfect the story in one medium and sell it to a studio or publisher before we could produce it, we decided to erase all boundaries, make it on our own, and let the story extend into multiple media -- wherever it could be expressed without a big budget.
That meant we needed a way to generate and organize lots of creative output. Hence Wisteria the project.
These days readily-available technology allows creators to make quite polished work in practically any medium, so you don’t need the backing of a big company to make something great. We’ve leaned into that idea – and are seeking out folks who are interested in collaborating with us. At each stage we’re also using the principle of improv acting – the “yes and” response to whatever ideas are introduced by our collaborators or each other – and that has led to an explosion of creativity.
Here are some of the ways you can experience and interact with Wisteria:
Wisteria Tales – a collaborative writing exercise (or you could call it a turn-based roleplaying game or a choose-your-own-path adventure), in which you read short weekly installments of a 2nd-person fantasy story about a girl named Hope, and at the end of each one you answer the question “what do you do next?” then vote for your favorite responses from other readers. The most popular response becomes the writing prompt for the next installment.
Make a Thing – a making-of series on Youtube in which we discuss our creative process and the progress of Wisteria in real time as it’s being made, including our philosophy of collaboration and worldbuilding in every medium we can use. Includes advice on animation, filmmaking, illustration, podcasting, and more.
Wisteria the show – a free, as-yet-unfinished sci-fi show about a future in which everyone plays fully-immersive virtual-reality games and the boundaries are beginning to blur.
Long Live the Queen – an in-fiction podcast in which we explore the futuristic world of Wisteria while also learning about writing, game design, and other topics from real-world experts.
Coming soon: Masquerade Chess – a chess variant by Marc LeBlanc, based on his episode of the LLTQ podcast.
www.Wisteria.ai – a website written partly in-fiction and illustrated by an AI, with links to all of the above.