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Group Story--Brainstorming

A member-written collaborative effort. Feel free to join in and see where it goes!
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boswellbaxter
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Group Story--Brainstorming

Post by boswellbaxter » Sat June 13th, 2009, 2:28 am

I think those of us in the US who didn't get to go to the Historical Novel Society conference this weekend need to pretend something really exciting happened here on this board while everyone was away, so they'll really be jealous when they get back. Ideas?
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MLE (Emily Cotton)
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Interest in HF: started in childhood with the classics, which, IMHO are HF even if they were contemporary when written.
Favourite HF book: Prince of Foxes, by Samuel Shellabarger
Preferred HF: Currently prefer 1600 and earlier, but I'll read anything that keeps me turning the page.
Location: California Bay Area

Post by MLE (Emily Cotton) » Sat June 13th, 2009, 5:26 am

Um-- pumpkin turned into a coach, mice for horses, and a new fashion out of rags?

Or how about we start a thread 'writing' one of those everybody-pitches-in stories, with a hero and heroine in perpetual timeslip, running in and out of historical situations, before their final reunion? I'm sure there is enough imagination and historical savvy here to make things pretty interesting!

(given the number of potential contributors, we might have to have 'alternate universes' where different choices are made if two posts happen at the same time!
Last edited by MLE (Emily Cotton) on Sat June 13th, 2009, 5:30 am, edited 1 time in total.

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Misfit
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Post by Misfit » Sat June 13th, 2009, 11:07 am

Or how about we start a thread 'writing' one of those everybody-pitches-in stories, with a hero and heroine in perpetual timeslip, running in and out of historical situations, before their final reunion? I'm sure there is enough imagination and historical savvy here to make things pretty interesting!
That would be fun.
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nona
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Post by nona » Sat June 13th, 2009, 1:05 pm

lol, the things we would all come up with.

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LoveHistory
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Post by LoveHistory » Thu June 18th, 2009, 2:56 pm

There used to be a great site called The Yarn that had a running story like that. Each time someone wrote a chapter they had to create two options for titles of the next chapter. That way the story could branch indefinitely. That site was so much fun. Of course I have no idea how they did it.

Another option is to have everyone who's interested in participating sign up (so to speak) and then use the pull-a-name-out-of-a-hat method of choosing who continues the story.

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Post by Ash » Fri June 19th, 2009, 12:17 am

We had a thread for that in Table Talk, loved it! Given our individual creativity and mass knowledge of all things HF, I think it would be great!

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MLE (Emily Cotton)
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Interest in HF: started in childhood with the classics, which, IMHO are HF even if they were contemporary when written.
Favourite HF book: Prince of Foxes, by Samuel Shellabarger
Preferred HF: Currently prefer 1600 and earlier, but I'll read anything that keeps me turning the page.
Location: California Bay Area

Post by MLE (Emily Cotton) » Fri June 19th, 2009, 1:25 am

Okay, so what is needed to make this coherent are a few ground rules. May I suggest some?

1. There could be two POV characters: one female and one male protagonist.
2. They should be each other's love interest, but in proper story fashion, no fair resolving the relationship before the end.

3. The time-slip element has to be the same for all, and leave room for some maneuverablity. Given the historical nature of the forum interest, and to steer clear of sci-fi or fantasy elements, I suggest that the vehicle is that they go to sleep under certain circumstances (how about weather phenomenon, like a high-pressure system?) and find themselves waking up in another time, in the head of some other person who really lived then. (Not reincarnation, that limits things too much.) Then they have to deal with that person's situation as well as their own. This allows for drop-in/jump out without having to spend too much of the storyline dealing with the ramifications of explaining their presence, let alone the learning of language and custom that would use up the plot.

4. When one of the protagonists jumps, the other gets yanked along to somewhere near the same place at the next weather phenomenon opportunity.

5. The head/body they drop into can be of any age and medical or social condition, but must be of the same gender.

6. Somehow, the other modern is recognized by the love interest.

7. Each contributor should use their best area of expertise. For instance, in my case, I'm afraid poor Ella is likely to wake up herding llamas in conquest-era Peru--- and maybe male protagonist will be a conquistador.

Anybody else have ideas?

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Volgadon
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Post by Volgadon » Fri June 19th, 2009, 8:13 am

I'm game. Cossacks, Kurdish bandits, verbose Jewish sages, dashing Circassian outlaws, gentlemen adventurers, villains, whatever is needed.

What about things like taking a fall?

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MLE (Emily Cotton)
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Posts: 3566
Joined: August 2008
Interest in HF: started in childhood with the classics, which, IMHO are HF even if they were contemporary when written.
Favourite HF book: Prince of Foxes, by Samuel Shellabarger
Preferred HF: Currently prefer 1600 and earlier, but I'll read anything that keeps me turning the page.
Location: California Bay Area

Post by MLE (Emily Cotton) » Fri June 19th, 2009, 1:09 pm

[quote=""Volgadon""]

What about things like taking a fall?[/quote]

I think if the protag's period host dies while they are with them, they'll be dead, too. So whatever the problem is that they 'share' in whatever time they're in, it's a real problem.
I suppose there should be a timeslip bad guy, too.

Chatterbox
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Post by Chatterbox » Fri June 19th, 2009, 4:06 pm

*Confused*
So when character A timeslips, he/she first meets character B, after which both timeslip simultaneously?
There must be a simpler basic concept... :confused:

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