Get Stitched // The Stitch Blog

Around The World In A Stitch Collective Story

Stitch members have recently written a rollicking, rampaging short story together that travels from the forest to the air and beyond. 

It started as part of the Let’s Strike Up A Conversation group on Stitch. Gary created this group shortly after he joined Stitch. He had just finished working and was looking for new ways to meet people and spark his interests. 

Stitch member Gary, who organizes the group

Gary has a background in Standup Comedy and loves hosting things. He went to a few Virtual Stitch Events and thought, “Why not do one myself?”

The global group meets at virtual Stitch activities called Chatathons that run a couple of times a week. “It’s very casual, people join when they can and stay for as long as they can.” Gary runs games and activities to get the Chatathons started, and then lets the conversation bubble. 

His activities range widely from week to week, and have included everything from multichoice quizzes that he creates about group members and their interests, to online games where members have to guess which movie was more successful, or whether a surprising death is true or false!

In late July last year he proposed the project of writing a collaborative story between members. The group were thrilled at the idea, and 16 Stitch members from all over the world signed up to write.

“I thought we would all get it out quickly and it would be done by September, but people really liked to ponder over their contributions.”

The quality of this consideration really shows in the astonishing nature of the story, as the characters move from a hot air balloon to a castle to a microscopic house. 

Gary wrote the opening introduction about a reluctant husband being dragged on to an adventurous hot air balloon ride by his excited wife, Carol. He noted that the first image he chose for his virtual Stitch Chatathon event was a photo of hot air balloons, and that this had made its way into the story. 

The story starts with a hot air balloon ride

After that, Gary put all the members’ names in a box, and drew the next writer’s name each time a person completed their contribution. 

“Some people ended their story paragraph with a cliffhanger, forcing the next person to write something new.”

The story ranges through time and space, but remains cohesive and integrated thanks to the help of an unnamed professional writer, who helped pull it all together and formatted it at the end. 

In May, once it was finished, Gary set up a reading event and every writer read their own contribution.

Gary has now organized over 330 Stitch events, and says this amazing story just goes to show what can happen when a group of people form connections and work together.

“It’s a feeling of family. I have a core group of people that come all the time. Everyone feels welcome.” 

Thanks to Gary, Karen, Donna, Debbie, Nancy, Cynthia, Lynmarie, Michael, Leanne, Marianne (NJ), Gina, Chris, Marianne (CA), Marcia, Susan and Muir for creating this masterpiece of adventurous collaborative fiction. 

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