A former coworker, Jasmine, of Kimieye and Hot glue & Hobgoblins, took me out for froyo almost two years ago because I was supposed to go on a date but the person cancelled a few hours before we were supposed to meet up. Apparently I was supposed to be upset, so Jasmine was cheering me up.

While out we started talking about our usual favorite subjects: folk lore, trashy fiction, and non-cannon trashy fiction. We agreed that it’s hard to build worlds from scratch and not everyone is good at it. Then Jasmine proposed the idea, “What if the writers didn’t have to build the world, but one was mostly handed to them and they just worried about the story?”

Thus the Sandbox was born. We’re working on a better name. One that’s more URL friendly. (Side note: everything sandbox related that is also memorable is taken.)

The idea behind it is to build a complete universe that anyone can populate with their own characters. We’ll be creating a fantasy world with deities and supernatural creatures that spans from the beginning of time to now. There will be rules and lots of backstory, and then we’ll give it to the Internet. Want to make a story about a lesbian with a pitbullicorn who worships no deities and can talk to animals? Do it. Want to write a story about a black boy who wants to be a witch despite that being a “female” job? Yes, please. Want to tell a story about a legally blind gender fluid person who practices alchemy and has enchanted their walking stick to give off a different foul scent to each person so that everyone automatically gets out of their way? Let’s see it.

Over the coming months I’ll be testing writing exercises using the Sandbox universe. Whatever I post here won’t be cannon. It’s a way for me to feed two birds with one scone: try out writing exercises from various writing books and build up the Sandbox.  Plus it’ll be fun with deities shagging each other, monsters kicking the deities out for too much meddling, and humans being humans.