The Experiment

For the first activity here at Burn the Map, I'm going to run a little experiment.  Under the Active Stories heading, you will see links to four pieces of flash fiction (in other words, very short stories).  A careful observer will note that each of these begins with an exciting (or ominous) heading: "Chapter 1".  I know what you're thinking: But how can it be Chapter 1 if each post is a self-contained story?  Well...they could be self-contained stories.  They could also be the first page in an awesome story yet to be written!

So what do you do?  Read each of the stories and "Like" your favorite, or your favorite two, or, heck, all of 'em if you really want to.  Once a certain, super-secret vote threshold is reached, the leading story will get turned into the first chapter of a longer saga that you will get to watch unfold right here on the site, getting a rare opportunity to glimpse a story as it is being written, warts and all.  After you've voted on your favorite(s), your next task is to get excited about seeing the new story get started, so excited that you tell all your friends about the site and send them links to your favorite story for them to vote on, which is the only way to ensure that the super-secret vote threshold is reached before you get fits from the sheer anticipation.

In case you're coming back to this section to reread it after perusing all four stories, thinking you must have missed something because at least a couple of the stories don't seem like they could possibly keep going, I say this:  Trust me.  I have a plot device.