TBC

[2014-15]

TBC was a piece of extended fiction written in Google Docs. Collaborators from around the world were able to edit, suggest additions to the work, and contribute to ideas and plot development.

The project was featured in The Quietus and WIRED.

  • The 'live' manuscript, with readers/editors visible top-right.
    The 'live' manuscript, with readers/editors visible top-right.
  • An interview with Amy Liptrot about the project
    An interview with Amy Liptrot about the project
  • An article in WIRED about the project
    An article in WIRED about the project

[Jackson] is experimenting with the boundaries of a novel when technology allows immediate interaction with readers: the possibilities of the internet are being exploited not just in allowing people to watch the multi-layered story develop, but also in the inclusion in the text of links and pictures such as Google Street View screengrabs.

– Amy Liptrot (author of the Outrun), The Quietus, August 2015

British poet Martin Jackson, 33, is writing his novel TBC live on Google Docs. (The name, like the content, will be decided by the crowd)… although Jackson has a skeleton of a storyline, the reader is invited to comment, research – and contribute. According to Jackson, the aim is to make the editing a collaborative effort…

– WIRED magazine, August 2015 issue