On literary experiments without a definite goal

Last week I stumbled upon one of those big office supplies stores, which was convenient because I needed some clasp envelopes for my reports (those are reusable for ages and should, in theory, keep circulating through my office since it's the preferred medium to deliver "semi-private" documents between ourselves). I usually get lost in these stores, I'm part of that strange bunch that likes looking at pencils and pens and every different type of notebook available.

While deciding whether or not to buy a new batch of pencils I mistakenly took a package of gummed envelopes (the ones with a strip of glue like a regular mailing envelope). I only noticed the mistake only after the clerk had already checked and bagged most of my cart. I decided that I could use those envelopes for something else and someone else could buy the clasp ones.

When I got home I got the idea of using the envelopes as an archive of sorts for all my "adult papers" (medical records, social security, paychecks, rent receipts, official identifications and so on). I thought it was a major step in the right direction towards a responsible life when I found another archive I'd done months ago, except this was properly filed in a plastic box, with proper tabs and everything properly stored in chronological order.

So my archive was superseded from the past, which is both an accomplishment and a great letdown. I still wanted to archive things in those envelopes, but I had nothing to file, or so I thought. On the last, unnamed tab of the plastic archive there was a short story a friend of mine wrote last year. Ths friend knows that "I like writing" and asked me to revise her story.

Papers are powerful memory anchors. To me, one movie ticket stub alone is enough to remember a whole night of holding hands, an awkward conversation at a café and a long night of crying. This story was no exception: the first thing I wrote on that story was a simple red ink sentence: "Cool down before reading" and I remembered a long discussion that almost ended our friendship then and there. Fortunately, that wasn't the case.

I smiled very hard and proceeded to review the story to the best of my knowledge before emailing it back. She was surprised, thought that story was lost forever. We talked and went to bed with a smile on our faces.

This was one of the rare occasions when a paper from the past is a good, shared memory. This memory had two protagonists instead of the usual formula of me and a supporting cast. I'd like to repeat that, and the good people of e2 and envelopes are just the way to do it.

Would you like to help?

My goal is to build 50 shared memories with whoever wants to in a Time Capsule of sorts. It will be written and sealed in November 2013 and opened in November 2014. I'm looking for people who wants to see things differently a year from now.

What would I need to do?

The rules are simple:

1. Sign up (duh): me a message of some kind saying that you want in
2. Sometime before October 15th (2013) you send me something written: a poem, story, anecdote, news story, joke, memory or whatever other material of reasonable length. It'd be much better if you have the (copy-)rights to that something, if it's on the Public Domain or has some sort of Creative Commons-like license
3. You must request me to do one of these to your writing:
   • Opinion / Review
   • Advice (as long as it's not medical or legal)
   • Remix (use part of it with other things to create a new writing)
   • Derivative work (a writing based on whatever you sent me: essay, short story)
   • Sequel
   • Other similar and reasonable request
4. On November, I will write 1,000 words filling your request. I will put both writings in the envelope, date it and keep it away. A year later, I will (hopefully) open and publish on the internet whatever I wrote (I will only publish your writing if you want me to, but by default they will be kept private)
5. Limited to 50 entries among all the internet, first come, first serve. This is because there are 50 envelopes in the box and coincidentally 50,000 words is the requirement for winning NaNoWriMo
6. If the list fills up and you still want to participate, you may enter as a reserve. You will replace anyone who doesn't send me their writing before the deadline. If everyone sends their writings on time, you can be considered for round 2 of this experiment (which would start in December, maybe)
7. I may invite whoever I want on this list, so the actual number of participants is 50 - (invitational positions)

Sign me up!

The list so far UPDATE this list is obsolete. The most recent versioncan be found here:

1. Xime (FB friend)
2. Mich (FB friend)
3. Psanchez (FB friend)
4. ChrisChar (FB friend)
5. Sh Alex (FB friend)
6. MarcTre (FB friend)
7. Calcazar (FB friend)
8. ehdez (FB friend)
9. Mundo (Meatworld friend)
10. Diego (Meatworld friend)
11. AValencia (FB friend)
12. waverider37 (e2)
13. decoy hunches (e2)
14. teleny (e2)
15. pending
16. pending
17. pending
18. pending
19. pending
20. pending
21. pending
22. pending
23. pending
24. pending
25. pending
26. pending
27. pending
28. pending
29. pending
30. pending
31. pending
32. pending
33. pending
34. pending
35. pending
36. pending
37. pending
38. pending
39. pending
40. pending
41. pending
42. pending
43. pending
44. pending
45. pending
46. pending
47. pending
48. pending
49. pending
50. pending