Remix Project

To all aspiring writers: an idea, an experiment.

Music gets remixed all the time, where an original track is altered by someone else. The new version can enhance that original piece, or sometimes tarnish it – but, mostly, something interesting is produced.

Does the same work for literature? Is it simply re-writing? Who knows.

So here’s the deal.

If I posted a short story on this blog (one which I wrote for online magic realism e-zine Serendipity – sadly no longer publishing), it would be on offer to be remixed. Do what the hell you want to it. Write more, hack it apart, rearrange it. It would be your remix, and I’d post the mixes on this blog, with full credit, links to your site, and under some variant of the Creative Commons license.

I’m ultimately not interested in the original piece or its merits (or lack thereof), but I would be interested to see if a piece of literature could successfully be remixed.

Please do share this post around – the more people who get involved or show interest, the better for the experiment. I wouldn’t even expect results from people soon, because it’s a long-term idea. But, if it dies a death, then so be it.

Oh, and I’d love to take the credit, but a certain C. Miéville spawned this concept in the Pan Macmillan cottage whilst at the SFX Weekender, and so I thought I’d at least generate the discussion to see if people would be interested in this kind of thing.