Change the story
Shape the world
Imagine: writers from around the globe joined together for a three-days marathon to create stories of people or planets who managed to stop using crude oil, who restored their suffocating planet, or who not only ousted a rogue president but created a political system which safeguarded them.
I call these stories Make it happen stories.
THE NEXT
MAKE
IT
HAPPEN
STORIES
MARATHON
8 May 2025
10:00-16:00 GMT
Topic
The end of all wars
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Remarks
This is a test marathon, open to everyone: writers, visual artists, musicians, thinkers, children, the people of planet Earth.
I will make use of a lot of existing material for this test, and occasionally fine tune the ideas for the upcoming full marathons.
You’re welcome to add your input.
Writing stories is a tool to develop and illustrate visions, to test ideas, to rethink and reshape our world.
What are
MAKE IT HAPPEN STORIES?
For a Make It Happen Story, you pick an issue that needs to be addressed.
Then you create a story where your characters face that issue, search for solutions, and make their favourite solution work.
In my mind there’s nothing utopian about analysing what is, exploring what could serve us better, and using stories both for to explore our ideas and to make them accessible.
We don’t have the time to waste. We are in a complex mess and we need to face it in its entirety.
Stories can help us at every stage of the changes we and our planet so urgently need.
In short: Make it happen stories are about creating practical visions for our present and our future.
I think, I could draft about seventy to a hundred and twenty stories in three days.
Of course, I can’t write them all. But even the snippets can set thinking processes in motion.
Plus, other writers can pick up the ideas and gift us with their imagination.
Why did defiance boil up?
Because in the movie, some people thought they could invent the world, and no one would ever find out. No one would ever challenge them. No one would ever come up with a new story.
@ Charlie Alice Raya, book 2/1, travelling
What is
a MAKE IT HAPPEN STORIES MARATHON?
There is a lot of noise in our world.
During a stories marathon, we can focus on one topic.
Image hundreds, thousands or millions of people: writers, scientists, musicians, comics creators, gamers, sports people, thinkers, children, grans and everyone else bent their minds on one issue that we, the people of planet Earth need to address, imagine how much can happen.
Why?
Because all change starts in the mind, and stories make both our troubles, potential solutions, our doubts and anxieties and our hopes, tangible, relatable, possible.
We and our planet are in trouble. But this is our world, we can shape it. Let’s find the stories, which serve us.
So, what is a stories marathon?
It’s sixty hours of creating stories together, sixty hours of bending our minds on one topic, sixty hours of unleashing our imagination for our future.
‘You know,’ Alice interrupted his thoughts, ‘maybe we should fight back after all.’
‘What do you mean?’ he asked while slicing a tomato.
‘The smear campaign people invent stories to harm us.’
‘Yes?’
‘Why don’t we do something like it? We write stories about them. And while they tell lies, our stories can expose them as the petty little stinkers they are. In the end, the side with the better stories will win. And I’m sure it will be us.’
@ Charlie Alice Raya, book 2/1, travelling
Three days marathons
Start: 9:00 GMT | End: 21:00 GMT | Duration: 60 hours
1. Post your start time (You can start and exit any time within the 60 hours).
2. Draft as many stories on the given subject as you want to.
3. Post at least one story draft every other hour (except during your night rest).
4. Use the #MiHS hashtag to be included in my reviews.
5. Complete your contributions by posting your exit time. (Add a story count and a link to your story snippets if you like.)
6. Take a look at #MiHS and support other contributors with likes, comments and reposts.
7. Share your experiences.
How to get involved?
WRITERS: contribute stories
POETS: contribute poems
GRAPHIC NOVEL/ COMIC CREATORS: contribute stories
GAMERS: contributes characters, ideas
ILLUSTRATORS: contribute illustrations or team up with authors for collaborations
VISUAL ARTISTS: contribute visuals and/or collaborate with writers
FILM-MAKERS: contribute film snippets
MUSICIANS: contribute song snippets
SCIENTISTS: Feed the contributors with background information or point them to a subject, you believe could do with publicity.
JOURNALISTS: Well, you are writers, write, envision, focus on solutions, and/or report from the marathon.
ACTIVISTS: Feed the contributors with background information or point them to a subject, you believe could do with publicity.
EVERYONE ELSE: Write story snippets, read story snippets, comment, discuss, like.
The rules
OVERVIEW
- Everyone can participate.
- Number & sign your story snippets and post them on Bluesky.
- No promotion
- No paywalls for story drafts
- Publish your copyright rules.
- No competition
- Non-violent solutions
- No dystopias
- No utopias
- Zero tolerance towards every kind of discrimination
- No AI use
- No permission to train AI on published material
These rules are preliminary and will be extended as we go along.
The rules
DETAILS
- Everyone can participate.
- Number & sign your story snippets and post them on Bluesky.
- If you want to add a longer story, you can post a snippet and a link to the full story.
- No promotion. The exception are artists who use their websites & portals as part of their drafts publication.
I will use Bluesky, Substack and my websites.
- No pushing for subscribers
- No paywalls for story drafts
- Publish your copyright rules.
Mine is that All rights are reserved. However, I invite artists to pick up any of the published ideas. By doing so, the artist agrees to pay a 0,7% share of any revenue to the Charlie Alice Raya projects, a preliminary list of which you can find on the websites overview page.
- No competition. This marathon is about flooding our world with visions for our future. It’s not about besting anyone.
- Non-violent solutions
- No dystopias. We have enough of those.
- No utopias. Make it happen stories are not about dreaming. They are about using our imagination and stories to carve out ways and visions for our future.
- Zero tolerance towards every kind of discrimination. We’ve been divided long enough. It’s time we allowed ourselves to be guided by curiosity, time to get to know each other.
- No AI use. This is about our future. This is about using our brains, our imagination.
- No permission to train AI on any of the published drafts.
Charlie Alice Raya, April 2025, Usedom, Baltic Sea
WHO
is behind the MAKE IT HAPPEN STORIES MARATHONS?
That would be me, Charlie Alice Raya.
The idea came up in 2024 when I worked on the first book of the series: The end of all wars.
Once I got writing, I had so many additional ideas that I began to collect them as story snippets.
Of course, we could all write full stories.
But we are running out of time. And story snippets are more accessible for many.
Plus, I’d have to live several more lives to write all the stories that are in me.
I am happy to share those ideas.
But more importantly, I believe that stories can help us to create a world we can be proud of and happy with.
Presently, I do all of this on my own.
I’d welcome a budget, a team, participants and contributors from around the globe.
How do I prepare for a marathon?
- Cook a soup and make sure that I have enough ready food.
- Have lists with names, locations, professions, ages.
- Have notes & articles ready on the subject in question (this includes files, notebooks and links to articles).
- Have a list of quotes from my books which might inspire a new story.
- Prepare my website so I can publish all stories here. That’s particularly important for longer snippets which can’t easily be published on Bluesky.
- Prepare boards for story snippets.
- Make sure my workspace(s) is comfy.
- Get a good nights sleep.
- Have a relaxed morning, preferably with some yoga and a walk in the forest with the dog.
- Cook tea & coffee.
- Settle down.
- Take a deep breath.
- Begin.
Marathon 1
Marathon 1, details
The end of failing governments
For variety and because Trump’s isn’t the only failing government, you can pick any president, chancellor, pm, or generally any government on our planet or on an imaginary planet for your contributions to the Make it happen stories marathon.
In my story drafts, I’m likely to include Merz, Starmer, Trump and imaginary planets.
The aim is to envision ways of how we can oppose failing governments non-violently, and also what kind of political system can safeguard us and help us to restore our communities and our planet.
‘¡Aún mejor! When we are empowered and secure in ourselves, we can explore where our gifts might complement those of others—’
‘—and where we can open our work to the ingenuity of our fellow humans.’
The end of all wars, planet one, the roots of war
