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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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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) » Sat June 20th, 2009, 7:21 pm

Oooh, perfect, a dealer in rare antiquities! That can go anywhere and any time.

Only he's really EEEvvil, and he has inherited the business from --um, the Fugger's banking house, or maybe even an earlier one (sorry, my specialty is the renaissance) and a long line of villains before him, all sworn to --um, something bad. Kicking small dogs and eating runaway gingerbread men, somebody help me here.

One thought: for myself, I plan to have Ella/Jon drop into a bit of my WIP. I don't see why everybody with something already written shouldn't just modify it a wee bit and toss it out there. If nothing else, the time spent will get the creative juices flowing down a channel we already have a reason to pursue.

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Volgadon
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Post by Volgadon » Sat June 20th, 2009, 8:22 pm

Yes, kicking little dogs. =) Making fun of little old ladies, that sort of thing.
His main motivator is greedm but by now, also a taste for adventure.
I like the idea of it being inherited. That perhaps is how he entered time slipping.

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SarahWoodbury
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Post by SarahWoodbury » Sun June 21st, 2009, 12:05 am

This sounds like so much fun. And I have to tell you I have three stories, two very short (like 10 pages and then stalled out), in which this happens to someone. One involves a ring, as you said, that timeslips someone, in the second, it's less explained, but she is riding a horse, falls off and hits her head, and finds herself in the MA. The third turned into an entire book. I like the addition of the time-slipping bad guy.

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EC2
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Post by EC2 » Sun June 21st, 2009, 12:25 pm

Late to this but count me in!
We once did this in a very small way on another forum when I came across two people in historical records called Richard Midnyght and Matilda Wimplewasher and they kind of took on a life of their own - nothing to do with me at the outset. Another listmember just started to run with it - but it was fun!
Last edited by EC2 on Sun June 21st, 2009, 12:25 pm, edited 1 time in total.
Reason: typo
Les proz e les vassals
Souvent entre piez de chevals
Kar ja li coard n’I chasront

'The Brave and the valiant
Are always to be found between the hooves of horses
For never will cowards fall down there.'

Histoire de Guillaume le Mareschal

www.elizabethchadwick.com

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Volgadon
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Post by Volgadon » Sun June 21st, 2009, 12:49 pm

Not too late, EC, we haven't started yet.

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robinbird79
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Post by robinbird79 » Sat June 27th, 2009, 6:50 pm

This sounds like fun...count me in as well! Have the other threads been set up yet? :)

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boswellbaxter
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Post by boswellbaxter » Sat June 27th, 2009, 8:07 pm

[quote=""robinbird79""]This sounds like fun...count me in as well! Have the other threads been set up yet? :) [/quote]

Anyone can start a thread, so once someone decides to start writing, just start a new thread for the actual story! The mods can always split threads or move them around if something turns out to need tweaking.
Susan Higginbotham
Coming in October: The Woodvilles


http://www.susanhigginbotham.com/
http://www.susanhigginbotham.com/blog/

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MLE (Emily Cotton)
Bibliomaniac
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) » Sat June 27th, 2009, 11:48 pm

I admit I have been a little stumped on how to start, but have been percolating it around. So I'll volunteer to do the first chapter, the one where our fearless protags start on their inadvertent journey. But I'll try to leave it as open as possible so that the storyline will drop nicely into whatever anybody else is working on already. I suggest that the 'main' characters of the group story do not pop into the heads of the 'main' characters in your works, but rather a side character -- gives a little more freedom to both the current participant and the next one.

One thing that has intrigued me about this is the opportunity to sample the writing styles of all the many HF aspirants on this board. But if I do the first chapter, be warned, I'm going to have my own historical turn with Ella, Jon, and the villain (can anyone spell 'sociopath'?) somewhere down the line.

I will post the first chapter by Wednesday, inshallah (God willing), as they say in the Maghreb---

But if somebody else beats me to it, I'll cheerfully play your game. :D

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robinbird79
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Post by robinbird79 » Sun June 28th, 2009, 12:15 am

Since there are so many people on these boards with so many varying interests (Medieval, Renaissance, Celtic, France, Spain, England, etc), maybe there could be some different threads/stories for different eras or countries?That's just my tiny 2 cents worth. Can't wait to get started somewhere! I love to write!

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MLE (Emily Cotton)
Bibliomaniac
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) » Sun June 28th, 2009, 2:37 am

[quote=""robinbird79""]Since there are so many people on these boards with so many varying interests (Medieval, Renaissance, Celtic, France, Spain, England, etc), maybe there could be some different threads/stories for different eras or countries?That's just my tiny 2 cents worth. Can't wait to get started somewhere! I love to write![/quote]

If you read through the earlier threads, you'll see we have been discussing a timeslip format, in episodes, where the protagonists slip in and out of various people's heads in different times and places.

That's why the first chapter, which must set up a situation loose enough to leave room for everybody's favorite time/place is so crucial.

Now that I've started work on it, my version of the initializing chapter is going to make Ella a late-twenties history major who can't settle on her favorite time/era enough to finish her master's degree. (As suggested before, she grew up a Navy brat whose dad was stationed all over the world.) Jon is going to be somewhat more mysterious, 'between jobs', but thanks to Ella's inside info learned in a recent conversation with Dad, she will recognize him by his alias as a man under investigation, who has just resigned from the Mossad, suspected of being a Palestinian sympathizer (now THAT should leave lots of room for play) and Ella's time-slip has to do with her chance association with him. Which is why he feels duty-bound (after all, otherwise he barely knows her) to get her out of the pickle and back to the 21st century. (except her body never leaves the 21st century, Jon just has to get his little timeslip gizmo back before the villain grabs it, kills her in the time he catches up to her in, and leaves her a witless organ-donor.)

And the fact that they are time-slipped at all has to do with the bad guy, which I am not going to set up in the first chapter but leave to the creative juices of the next contributor.

Oh, and after much head-scratching, the time-slipping object the baddie is after is a small stone with cuneiform writing on it (I don't know what it says) and the other thing that slips with her and/or him is a small grey parrot.
I picked this species because it has been proven to be able to learn language and syntax, will not be too noticeable or too weird in any time and not in most places (anybody who sets their chapter in Viking Norway had better figure out how to keep Polly warm!) and in the case of danger, can fly out of reach. Also good for carrying messages between the two moderns.
And I like animals.
Last edited by MLE (Emily Cotton) on Sun June 28th, 2009, 3:05 am, edited 2 times in total.

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