A cooperative novel? (Writing game for any number of participants)

by Emilie van Damm
1st September 2016

The default setting in Q&As is "Recent". However, by clicking on "Popular", I came across this (the most popular thread ever on this forum, with 88 replies):

https://www.writersandartists.co.uk/question/view/192

It seems to have fizzled out some years ago, but I thought that I might revive the idea for a new generation of users on this forum.

NEW RULE: To prevent total hijacking, each entry may be a MAXIMUM of THREE (3) sentences!

Even when this thread disappears from the most recent page(s), please keep it in mind and return to it again and again. Let's see if we can write a novel-length work of beauty and originality! At least set a new record for thread length.

Obviously, styles will change. Genres may also do so. I will try my best to keep it from sliding into a Lord of the Rings or Harry Potter OR Twilight clone. (THAT's a gauntlet thrown down for some of you fanatics! This could be fun!)

p.s. If it's interesting, I'll ask others at La Gr@not@ if we can publish it. Prepare your CVs!!!

I'll begin:

*************************************

Aisha wiped the mud out of her eyes before plunging her head in the almost-freezing mountain stream.

"That Jon!" she muttered (filling her mouth with water, the rash girl), "He'll pay for this!"

Shaking her head caused myriad waterdrops to fly out from her long, red hair.

(to be continued...?)

Replies

[I’m still a bit woozy from that cocoa… and she’s coming through again.]

Some few of our readers might find the following coincidence to be unbelievable in the strictest sense of the word. I can only assure them that in very rare cases, such as the one that is here under observation, fiction is indeed stranger than fact.

I pray them therefore to put aside doubt, and believe – if for only a brief time – that the next location on the itinerary of our antipodean friends was (astounding though this may seem) Stonehenge. – Jane Austen

Profile picture for user wilhelmi_40676
Wilhelmina
Lyre
330 points
Developing your craft
Wilhelmina Lyre
18/09/2016

Oblivious to Robbie the Robbee's perfectly justified intentions to retrieve his lojacked caravan, Aisha and Jon were making the most of the gypsy's belongings to dig several possibly random holes in a field near Stonehenge. Indeed, Aisha was oblivious to a great many things in her single-minded pursuit of her treasure. She was, however, blissfully aware of her new daisy decorated wellies courtesy, she assumed ( rightly or wrongly), of Mrs Easy To Rob Gypsy.

Profile picture for user vickyjay_43963
Victoria
Fielding
270 points
Developing your craft
Fiction
Victoria Fielding
17/09/2016

The gypsy – whose name was, coincidentally, Robbie – cursed (in both well-established meanings of the verb) in imaginative and colourful ways for a full nine minutes. Betraying his grandmother, he personally believed in the effectiveness of curses – on the cursee – as little as Aisha and Jon: but they were SO good for the soul of the curser!

Having – as Mark Twain’s wife once expressed it – “finished his prayers”, he set off on foot towards the gypsy gathering that he had been heading for before the theft: to see family and old friends, yes; to dance and sing, of course; to barter and flirt; without doubt… but now also to enlist help.

Profile picture for user jimmy@ji_34235
Jimmy
Hollis i Dickson
1920 points
Ready to publish
Film, Music, Theatre, TV and Radio
Poetry
Short stories
Fiction
Autobiography, Biography and Memoir
Middle Grade (Children's)
Picture Books (Children's)
Comic
Media and Journalism
Business, Management and Education
Popular science, Social science, Medical Science
Practical and Self-Help
Jimmy Hollis i Dickson
17/09/2016