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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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Interest in HF: started in childhood with the classics, which, IMHO are HF even if they were contemporary when written.
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Preferred HF: Currently prefer 1600 and earlier, but I'll read anything that keeps me turning the page.
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Post by MLE (Emily Cotton) » Fri June 19th, 2009, 4:48 pm

[quote=""Chatterbox""]*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: [/quote]

Yes, that is confusing. But let's face it, multiple contributors with varying expertise areas makes for some degree of intricacy! I'm just trying to come up with something here.

So how about 20-year-old Ella meets Jon while backpacking with separate groups of friends in New Zealand. (I am picturing Middle-Earth here :) ). He is 30-something, following his father's footsteps in the diplomatic corps of (any country, but he can speak her language). she is a Navy brat who has lived all over the world. Their diverse backgrounds, which have always made them seem like a fish out of water in normal company, strike a chord. (Please, lets not have them both be drop-dead gorgeous, okay?)
They talk for a while over the campfire and decide they will pair up to climb Mount ? on the following day.
A windstorm comes up in the process, and Ella sprains her ankle. Jon, annoyed that she has over-represented her climbing abilities, finds a nice cave, tucks her in for the duration and hikes down to get help.
Ella feels odd. She drifts off.
But when she wakes up, she is not in the cave. In fact, she is not in her old body, or the clothing she had on. And the weather is different. And she has an additional, completely new set of memories. But she has one thing with her that she did have in the cave, her only link to sanity...

Now how Jon gets there, I haven't worked out, but it should have something to do with Ella. Maybe the something significant that came along is his. (okay, that's a fantasy element, but hey, you gotta have a plot device when you need it). How about an old-fashioned-looking compass? That could prove very useful wherever she lands. Or a ring, or other bit of jewelry.
And the thing is what yanks Jon to the same place, within a radius of ? miles, and arriving within the next week.

That's the best I can come up with in ten minutes. I'm sure the rest of you have better ideas.
Last edited by MLE (Emily Cotton) on Fri June 19th, 2009, 4:52 pm, edited 1 time in total.

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Volgadon
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Post by Volgadon » Fri June 19th, 2009, 4:57 pm

No, I meant falling hard and waking up in a timeslip, that sort of thing.

I could be the baddie. Perhaps she has something he wants. He knows more about time slips, but isn't able to apply his knowledge as he would like to. That limits him. I don't suppose he ought to be too prominent, and might perhaps even be an uneasy ally at times.
Last edited by Volgadon on Fri June 19th, 2009, 5:08 pm, edited 1 time in total.

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Volgadon
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Post by Volgadon » Fri June 19th, 2009, 4:59 pm

Now how Jon gets there, I haven't worked out, but it should have something to do with Ella. Maybe the something significant that came along is his. (okay, that's a fantasy element, but hey, you gotta have a plot device when you need it). How about an old-fashioned-looking compass? That could prove very useful wherever she lands. Or a ring, or other bit of jewelry.
And the thing is what yanks Jon to the same place, within a radius of ? miles, and arriving within the next week.
Perhaps her copy of The House on the Strand.

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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, 5:46 pm

I thought about a book, but since some of our contributors like to write ancient Rome, maybe it should be something small enough to be easily hidden (if anachronistic, like a compass or watch) or universal enough to fit any era (like jewelry, altho it had probably better not be something too valuable, just in case she ends up as a serf in twelfth-century Russia! (Excuse me, I meant the Lithuanian Empire. No Russian nation per se back then.)
And then there are shipwrecks, mad scrambles for one's life, and the like, where a thing like a modern book would definitely be either destroyed or a hindrance!

Good idea about the bad guy wanting the thing too. Perhaps that same 'magnet' pulls him back to wherever it is, and then he has to find out which of the likely candidates is currently Ella...

Only Jon has to get there first.

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Volgadon
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Post by Volgadon » Fri June 19th, 2009, 6:30 pm

Good suggestions. Could be
Here's an idea. Perhaps he sees the blurb on the backcover and thinks that it is connected, except it isn't. Keep them guessing as to what the item is.
Having a slightly consipcuous item, such as a silver band might help with scenario fodder.

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Margaret
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Post by Margaret » Fri June 19th, 2009, 11:37 pm

I think this could be loads of fun. It seems to work best if people use it as a light-hearted exercise in sparking each others' imaginations, without getting too invested in creating a completely coherent story - inevitably, someone (or everyone) forgets a detail from earlier in the thread and adds something that contradicts it. But then someone else might come along and figure out a clever way to reconcile the contradictions. Some of the posts that are the most fun to follow are just a sentence long (or even a half sentence).
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boswellbaxter
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Post by boswellbaxter » Fri June 19th, 2009, 11:56 pm

It's probably time to start a category with one thread where participants can brainstorm and one where the actual story can unfold. Does that sound good to you?
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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 20th, 2009, 1:22 am

The split sounds like a good idea. I just had another one -- one way the two protags (and maybe the villian) can recognize each other is that, no matter whose skin they are in, they still have their modern personas too, which means they can speak/understand 20th-century English.

So that would be a kind of 'code' by which they could identify each other.

And Volgadon's silver band (ring?) seems as good as the next thing. Maybe it always accomanies Ella, even when she 'switches' bodies. But maybe a necklace is a better idea. I don't even keep one ring size from month to month; from body to body would mean the ring would have to have special powers, and this story is going to be complicated enough already!

Wouldn't it be fun if the first thing Ella had to deal with in any situation was her hostess' amazement as to how the thing turned up?

Another question -- should the hosts / hostesses be aware of the modern's presence in their minds? Or is that a matter of choice for Ella and Jon?

Volgadon, why does the villain want the article?

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Volgadon
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Post by Volgadon » Sat June 20th, 2009, 6:48 pm

The villain runs an antique shop. He hasn't been able to bring anything back with him, time slips have their limitations, but perhaps with her ring he'll have greater control. In the meantime he has to make do with very clever fakes.

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Margaret
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Posts: 2440
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Interest in HF: I can't answer this in 100 characters. Sorry.
Favourite HF book: Checkmate, the final novel in the Lymond series
Preferred HF: Literary novels. Late medieval and Renaissance.
Location: Catskill, New York, USA
Contact:

Post by Margaret » Sat June 20th, 2009, 7:10 pm

It's probably time to start a category with one thread where participants can brainstorm and one where the actual story can unfold. Does that sound good to you?
Yes.

If there's going to be a definite story scenario people will be expected to follow, it would be good to post that at the start of the story thread.
Browse over 5000 historical novel listings (probably well over 5000 by now, but I haven't re-counted lately) and over 700 reviews at www.HistoricalNovels.info

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