TLG looking for good storytellers!

[CopMike]

The text from TLG:

Dear story tellers,

The LEGO Company is looking for great stories for future play themes and would like to invite AFOLs to contribute!

The stories we are looking for should be written in a short, professional and precise way and preferably with some visual elements (drawings/pictures) added. Thus, to participate it is required that you have either worked professionally with writing stories, doing animations etc. or are used to writing stories as part of your work or on a hobby basis.

An ideal candidate for this project is therefore a person who has written small stories before and has received good feedback on these from other professionals and peers.

If you think you have what it takes to help us out, then please write to Jan Beyer at jan@lego.com and in short tell him why you think you would be able to help us out.

We are looking forward to hearing from you!

Kind regards,

Jan Beyer

NB: The final deadline for submitting stories is the 22nd of December 2010, and there will be a brief from our side before that so please contact us as soon as possible if you are interested!

A follow up on this is that TLG really looks for professionalls or people who write stories very often and very active. Good luck to everyone and don´t miss the deadline 22nd december !!

[DJ Force]

So, are they asking for an application first or shall we already submit ideas and storylines? Seems like that´s lost in translation...

[hawkyboy4]

Hurrah! My two favourite past-times combined!

But what age? I know some people who have been turned down by publishers partly due to their age, and this could be another problem for some of us.

[Bingo Little]

Yeah, this sounds awesome, but really could be clearer.

[Flare]

I don't want to waste Jan's time, so I'm not even going to consider it

[Nikola Bathory]

So, are they asking for an application first or shall we already submit ideas and storylines? Seems like that´s lost in translation...

Yes, I want to ask the same thing.

[Swiss Army Droid]

I have always wanted to do this! Unfortunately, I'm still a student so while writing is one of my hobbies, I have never done it professionally. Would they still want to hear from me or should I just give it up?

Edited November 16, 2010 by Swiss Army Droid

[Shadows]

To hopefully clarify some of the confusion, I think they're asking people who are interested in writing stories to send what would essentially be a short resume describing their writing experience. After reviewing that information, they would then send more specific guidelines to those who they are interested in hearing from.

As a result, it's important to let them know that you're interested in order to have time to process those applications, then respond to the qualified applicants in time to submit an entry prior to the closing date. That last sentence I wrote is why I won't be trying this.

On the other hand, I'd love to volunteer to help them make future requests clearer as English is a tricky language full of lots of potential hazards in communication.

You know where to reach me, TLG. (I'm not kidding)

[CopMike]

So, are they asking for an application first or shall we already submit ideas and storylines? Seems like that´s lost in translation...

But what age? I know some people who have been turned down by publishers partly due to their age, and this could be another problem for some of us.

... I'm still a student so while writing is one of my hobbies, I have never done it professionally. Would they still want to hear from me or should I just give it up?

The questions brought to TLG, let´s wait up around the campfire for an answer .... !

You know where to reach me, TLG. (I'm not kidding)

Ah, the old "I don´t call you - you call me"! approach

[Sandy]

I'm not going to apply, but I think it's great that they've taken this step to provide future themes with better background stories than they have been thus far. With such an imaginative product they have, it's a shame they keep coming up with these "defeat the bad guys and collect treasures"-type of stories for the themes.

[Captain Becker]

I'm not going to apply, but I think it's great that they've taken this step to provide future themes with better background stories than they have been thus far. With such an imaginative product they have, it's a shame they keep coming up with these "defeat the bad guys and collect treasures"-type of stories for the themes.

Totally agree! I wish at i could do this, but im a bad writer anyway, so ill just pass Writing stories etc. Hasnt never been my strongest skills.

But glad to hear at TLG want to hear us once again

Captain Becker

[Nightshroud99]

Ah I could do the writing part, however I am no good at drawing so I'll pass.

[Plastic Nurak]

No background stories, let children's fantasy work.

LEGO in its more intimate essence it's first of all a building toy, secondly it can be a game. Old LEGOLAND themes gave you good models, but not a background, except the superficial contraposition between 'goodies' and 'baddies' in themes as the Pirates or early Space Police ones or subthemes like the Forestmen one. So, few days after you had build the castle/ship, you did disassemble it and build a new model with those pieces and imagine your own new adventure. Nothing planned, no limits to kids' fantasy.

I'd like TLG come back to manufacture the Fabuland theme, but I fear someone go to invent some storyline or subplot...

Edited November 16, 2010 by Plastic Nurak

[Athos]

Hmmmm... interesting. Maybe I'll shoot off an email highlighting my lego stories...

Steve

[J4ke]

Colour me interested.

[Willdog]

Is the email address meant to have space before the @ ?

Also what do you guys think a good amount of words would be. I've written quite a hefty couple of paragraphs. Not sure if it's too long.

Edited November 17, 2010 by Willdog

[CopMike]

Is the email address meant to have space before the @ ?

Nope! I don´t know why he did it like that, I saw it but left it there. Not being a super computer geek I thought it might help fighting of spam bots. I´m maybe wrong so´ll I edit the post .

[polywen]

No background stories, let children's fantasy work.

LEGO in its more intimate essence it's first of all a building toy, secondly it can be a game. Old LEGOLAND themes gave you good models, but not a background, except the superficial contraposition between 'goodies' and 'baddies' in themes as the Pirates or early Space Police ones or subthemes like the Forestmen one. So, few days after you had build the castle/ship, you did disassemble it and build a new model with those pieces and imagine your own new adventure. Nothing planned, no limits to kids' fantasy.

I'd like TLG come back to manufacture the Fabuland theme, but I fear someone go to invent some storyline or subplot...

The flaw in this premise is that it supposes that a plot or a storyline would prevent those kids with imagination from having an imagination. I would suggest, those kids would create their own stories anyway. However, some kids really respond to stories and enjoy reenacting scenes. I think adding stories only increases the appeal of Lego rather limit creativity. Kids who want to act out set story lines can do that, kids who want to invent their own stories STILL CAN!

[Ignited_Impulse]

Damn, if only I'd been writing the untold stories in my brain like I told myself I would years ago. Oh well, someone write about T-rex riding samurai cowboys who fight space ninjas and we'll be in good shape.

[Still Raindrop]

I'm almost afraid to enter this, as writing and LEGO are two of my favorite things, and I'd hate to be rejected. Ah, well--it'd be worth it to say I tried!

So, do we know whether they want story samples, or just resumes?

[Arigomi]

No background stories, let children's fantasy work.

TLG has never put too much effort into promoting the stories except with Bionicle.

I suspect the motivation behind this search is to create a brand new theme that isn't inspired by something TLG has already done. If you look at all of the themes that are currently active, you will see that the core concepts haven't deviated too much over the years.

[KDog]

Submitted my qualifications. Fingers crossed!

[LegoDad42]

Gonna' look into this. I'll give it a shot.

[Willdog]

I also sent out a list of "qualifications" and just general chatter about why I would be good for the task. Didn't put any ideas for themes in yet, hopefully it wasn't the wrong way around.

[Athos]

Wish me luck. I sent my email off tonight!

Steve