A collaborative creative writing app where stories are built line by line.

Contribute to multiplayer stories, seeing only what the previous author wrote. Modeled on the game exquisite corpse, each creation is gloriously unique!
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Stories in need of a line

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It didn't have to be her. Anyone else. Cold wind came over me, I could slightly see the frosty breath in the air. Slumping down on the snow, I watched the city lights from the isolated cliff my house was on. I held it up to my face, ashinysagegem was embedded into the center .
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Reaching for the phone on the table, I dialed the number with shaky hands. Sighing, I raised the phone to my ear.... "Hey, why are you calling this late? What, catgotyourtongue? Not much of a talker, I see." Pausing a while after he finished, I replied. "Jim." Bad reply .....
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“I told you before” the once timid employee who was backed into a corner and ready to unleash his stern side “No way my wife has a SEVERE melon allergy she’ll be anaphylactic!” “Fine”Scoffed the boss “I want you then.” “That means I can’t kiss my wife and I lovekissingmywife.”
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He hadn’t spent the last three years training from the hospital bed up to be nervous at his first comebackfight.
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Grandma still listens to the song now and then when no one is around, but I’ve seen her… when I sneak a look. I see her crying. It makes me feel bad, and I wonder what to do. One day, I heard a crash. So I ran upstairs, and I saw her with the record playersmashed on the floor.
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Mariah emerges. Her cold, dead hand wretched shoots through the ice. It’s gripping a microphone. She inhales. Then bellows a “Ooooo, OOOooo uuuuhhhh ooooo,” that at once thaws the rest of her body and sends a shockwave into the ocean. A tidalwavebegins from the North Pole.
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As if they heard him, long legs sprouted from the biscuits. Eight legs each taller than two men on top of each other. The biscuits rose like alien spiders, discarding their fake Popeyes wrappers. Praia screamed. Her boyfriend scowled. The alien biscuitspiders licked their lips.
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I tell you. I saw the chihuahua, but I escaped. It’s fur dirty with the mud of the moor. Its eyes glowed red when it saw me. It charged with high pitched barks. Luckily, it has small legs, so it couldn’t run very fast. I outpaced it. But the same wasn’t true for SherlockHolmes.

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What is Byline?

A multiplayer creative writing experience where a group of authors creates a story, one line at a time.

How does it work?

Loosely based on exquisite corpse, each author writes a line having only seen the line directly before theirs. Once complete, the creator titles the story and shares it with the group.

Is this a game?

Yes! Get started by creating a story and sharing it with friends. Don't know any writers? No problem. Post your story to Byline and you'll meet some!

Who does the writing?

Public Stories

If you create a story (by clicking the new story button New Story Icon) and don’t invite other authors, then it posts publicly to Byline and can be contributed to by any author on the platform.

Private Stories

If you invite individual people (by username, email, or phone number) and make sure Plus others on Byline is deselected then your story becomes private and only those invited can contribute.

What's a breadcrumb?

Breadcrumbs give authors an opportunity to select a key word/phrase from their line that they think is important. Breadcrumbs are visible for the life a the story and can act as clues that offer additional context.

They are optional, but fun to add!

What's a sequel?

Sequels are stories spawned from the last line of other stories. To create a sequel go to the bottom of a finished story and select Write More → Create sequel based on this story.

What if I see something offensive?

If you see something that doesn't live up to our standards report it by clicking the next to any line.