FinIt
Matthew Kayser lives in South Bend, Indiana and work in marketing and product development. He has developed FinIt; a community for people to come together to tell an original story from beginning to end, with the community advancing the story chapter-by-chapter. We have conducted an interview with him about this great idea.
When and what inspired you to start this community 'FinIt'?
I’ve always had a strong imagination, and when I was younger, I loved making-up my own “Choose Your Own Adventure” stories (based on the book series). I would make-up the story on the spot to my friends. As the story progressed, I would present them with a couple of scenarios for them to choose from, which of course would lead to their success or demise. It was a very dorky game, but my friends loved it. As I got older, I never lost my desire to be a storyteller. But I never felt that I possessed the necessary writing talent to take a full story from A to Z. I also realized there were large numbers of talented people who could write, and were spending a lot of time doing fan-fiction type of work. It occurred to me that many of them were using their talents to build on something that already existed, and wasn’t their original creation. One day, I literally woke up with the idea of FinIt; a community designed for people to develop new worlds and characters that are completely original. It lets people build the story a chapter at a time. After a new chapter is released, writers develop the next chapter, which can go any direction they desire.
What kind of opportunities are available there for talented writers who wants to collectively write a story?
We’ve started by launching a thriller story, but I want FinIt to have multiple genres to be able to write for, including science fiction, drama, horror, fantasy, comedy, etc. Each time a chapter is selected, the author will have their bio and a picture posted to the FinIt website acknowledging their work on the chapter.
How do you plan to market the stories when it has been completed?
This is still to be determined, but I envision making the stories available through e-publishing so that the stories can be shared with broader audiences. In addition, each author will be credited in the final work, and I want to also start accepting artwork to accompany the finished stories.
Who owns the rights to the stories that are published?
When writers submit chapters to FinIt, they are required to accept the terms which state that FinIt owns the collective “works” and can alter or refine the work to match the flow of the story being told. While there are no financial incentives for submitting stories, it’s a great way to get promoted as we’ll highlight all story submitters who are selected. It’s a great way to market yourself as a writer.
For the next steps, what else do you need (investors, funding, volunteers etc)?
We need writers! We need the community to start growing, and to start supplying the next chapter. I look forward to reading all the great stories and seeing the imagination that people have.
