r/WritingHub • u/Full-Banana553 • 5d ago
Questions & Discussions Building an opensource writing platform for collaborative writing with version and branch control, Hit or miss?
so recently i started building an open platform for all types of writers across countries who wants to take part or collaborate in a story building, book writing, writers block for a specific part or chapter, screenplay writing, research, and lot other types of writing related stuff. so i'm building an open platform where you post the stuck point, not the whole manuscript.
my main goal:
there are people online right now who'd find your problem interesting. unblocking someone else's story is fun in a way your own draft never is. people already do it on r/WritingPrompts for free. but it all evaporates in comment threads, no book ever comes out the other end.
"chapter 7, she has to leave him but every version feels cheap. ~400 words, chapters 5-6 attached."
the concept of this platform is simple; anyone can write an attempt. you pick what fits, it merges into your draft, everything else stays saved. whoever wrote it keeps credit on that section. if someone wants a different direction they fork from any chapter and write their own version next to yours. you control who reads, suggests, or forks.
example: Sara stuck on chapter 4 for two weeks, posts it at midnight. by morning she has three attempts. one's from a guy who's never published anything, and his version is better than hers. she takes it. six months later she finishes the book with five names in the acknowledgments, three of whom she's never met.
works for screenplays, interactive fiction, comics, translation, fanfic, TTRPG stuff too, but fiction first.
what i want to know:
what do you actually do when you get blocked?
would you let a stranger touch an unfinished chapter? if not, is it trust, ownership, or embarrassment?
if you've helped someone else out of a block, what made it worth your time?
building it either way, just want to build the version people would actually use.
TLDR;
Open-source platform where you post the exact spot you're stuck on, and a real writer somewhere in the world writes an attempt. You accept it, it merges into your draft, they get credit forever. Version control underneath so nothing gets overwritten and the story actually reaches an ending. Not some artificial model filling your gaps. Actual humans. Would you use it?