What is an Add-a-Line?

The writer André Breton along with many visual artists, including Max Ernst, Man Ray, Salvador Dali, and Joan Miro, started the artistic movement of Surrealism in Paris in the 1920's. Their goal was to have the unconscious express itself, and they used multiple techniques of displaying accidental art as a way to tap into the subconscious mind. One of these techniques was called the cadavre exquis or the exquisite corpse (from the original writing, "Le cadavre exquis boira le vin nouveau" or "The exquisite corpse will drink the young wine").

Poetic fragments were pieced together by multiple writers, each of whom would write a phrase on a sheet of paper, then conceal part of it, and pass it on to the next writer to add to. Each person only saw a piece of what was written from the person before them.

Add-a-Lines were inspired by the Surrealist's exquisite corpses, with a few subtle differences. They began on the backs of placemats in suburban New Jersey diners and were transformed into this digital version in 1999.

Add-a-Line Directions

Choose from one of the listed stories to begin adding a line (you also have the option to create a new story by entering a new title). If you create a new title, a new Add-a-Line will be created and will appear in the list of stories that people can add to.

Once you have selected a story that you want to add a line to, you will be brought to a page where the last line added will be posted. Read the last line and add to the story trying to make sense of it only from the short clue you were given. There is also a list of characters that have been added into the story so far in the "Main Character" section with a short description of each. Feel free to chose from this list reusing a character in the story. If there aren't any main characters listed, then no one has added a character to the story yet. Your line that you will be adding is limited to 100 characters including punctuation, spaces, etc. Anything over this limit will be cut off from the final submission. Once you post your line, your line will become the next line displayed for the next person to add to.

You are also asked to enter your name and email address. It is expected that your name and email address will be fictional as well (since that seems to be the tradition). This is just to add a little more nonsense to the entire story. Of course, you're more than welcome to enter your real name or email address too. And if you do so, I promise that no one on this site will ever send you annoying SPAM (although we can't guarantee that anyone else visiting the site won't!)

Finally on this page, you are asked to enter a main character's name and short description. Please, only add a character's name if you are adding a character into the story in your Add-a-Line. To the right of this box is also the "Participating Authors" field where all of the authors thus far are listed in chronological order. Oh yeah, and the total number of lines added to the story so far is listed next to the title at the top of the page.

If you've actually read on this far, then you must be wondering what happens once you submit your line. You're brought to a final page that lists the story as it appears so far with a list of all of the authors that have participated in this particular Add-a-Line. And that's about it. From here you can go back and add a line to another story. Or go to the Add-a-Line Archives to see past Add-a-Lines that have been posted.

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