Story-go-round

[nihi]

Here is a way to kill some time and space. I will start a story and you will take it forward. We will follow some rules to make it more interesting and distributive. Let it go for a certain time/rounds and we will nominate the best/funniest one.

1. One can only add 6 lines to a story at a time (may be less but preferably 6, and never more)

2. The story can branch. Which means one can add to a story in his/her own way even if someone else already had added to it, thus creating a branch (we are talking about a story tree).

3. One can add to more than one branch of the story. But in a same branch, one cannot add before at least 3 other storytellers have added to that branch since his/her last augmentation.

Here goes the seed (everyone has his/her own way of writing and I guess it should be ok to stick with that, which will make it more fun) :

"She bent over the railing to have a better look of what was happening below. At first, all she could see is her cold toes sticking out from below the railing. Her braid slipped and dropped from the back of her neck and after a brief swing it kept swaying into her view with the cold morning wind. The usual morning din of a regular working day is yet to rise and muffle the dawn murmur. The sun has already climbed on the top of the tallest building in view, gloriously illuminating the street that ran in the front. She lifted her left hand and swung back the fallen braid back on her back and moved further forward to have a better look of the source of the sound, which apparently came from below her balcony."

[billah]

Surrounded by tall, glistening megaliths, she lives in this shadowy kowloon apartments. The neighbor below, a young mother, trying to pacify her newborn in the balcony. August heat glows out of these dwellings til late night. It's already so stuffy with humidity. She moves away from the edge, then yawns. It's time to get ready for the workday.

[Zunaid]

Day begins here and a day ends elsewhere. On the other side of the world, the wizened old man shuffles his decrepit old bones across his Jackson Heights apartments. The evening gloam portends yet another stifling summer night. With an exasperated sigh, he sits in front of his computer. "Bah, humbug", he mumbles. "It is time to ban this member". With one fell swoop, a netizen is banished to some digital singularity. It is time to get ready for the worknight.

[RazabQ]

While similar scenes unfolded across the globe - all characterized by their simple, blissfully normal ignorance and banality, 500 miles above planet earth, a Zar*tzuan cruiser assumed an attack position. It's cloaking device had enabled it to escape notice from man's phalanx of satellites and early warning system. "Captain!", ensign R*&Tgaoi barked, "neural destabilizers are armed and ready". The shout stirred Star captain Ujuyta from his reverie.

Edited on, July 28, 2005, 11:25 PM GMT, by RazabQ.

[Orpheus]

Unfortunately, the attack was unsuccessful due to the neutralizing power of calcium on "neural destabilizing" neurotransmitter. Intense calculations led to the source of the behemoth-ic calcium. It was no where but from the decrepit old bones of the wizened old man.

While the New Yorker saved the green planet, he was unable to save two men from the inevitable neural degeneracies - Q! Razab Q and George W. Bush. Further calculations suggested a catalytic reaction of methane and sulfur on the neurotransmitter rendered it active. It was learnt that the probability of only two men farting from 6 billion at exactly that moment is almost zero suggesting a helping hand of some superbeing - Orpheus!

[RazabQ]

meh - longer than six lines. Edit and resubmit. B'sides, I left it at reverie smarty pants - gosta close that loose end o superbeing! :)

[Orpheus]

6 lines oh I thought 6 sentences... well the post can be deleted (permission given) :) I will jump in at a more appropriate time........

I wanted to talk more about that bend over girl...but your stupid captain messed it up!! But then again bending over may not be much fun for our aged audience here.... :(

[Rubu]

nihi, the following is an already done example of what is u are trying to do, i think. ;)

..........................................
Writing Prof. Miller

In-class Assignment for Wednesday

Today we will experiment with a new form called the tandem story. The process is simple. Each person will pair off with the person sitting to his or her immediate right. One of you will then write the first paragraph of a short story. The partner will read the first paragraph and then add another paragraph to the story. The first person will then add a third paragraph, and so on back and forth. Remember to re-read what has been written each time in order to keep the story coherent. The story is over when both agree a conclusion has been reached.

Begin:

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At first, Laurie couldn't decide which kind of tea she wanted. The camomile, which used to be her favorite for lazy evenings at home, now reminded her too much of Carl, who once said, in happier times, that he liked camomile. But she felt she must now, at all costs, keep her mind off Carl. His possessiveness was suffocating, and if she thought about him too much her asthma started acting up again. So camomile was out of the question.

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Meanwhile, Advance Sergeant Carl Harris, leader of the attack squadron now in orbit over Skylon 4, had more important things to think about than the neuroses of an air-headed asthmatic bimbo named Laurie with whom he had spent one sweaty night over a year ago. "A.S. Harris to Geostation 17," he said into his transgalactic communicator.

"Polar orbit established. No sign of resistance so far..." But before he could sign off a bluish particle beam flashed out of nowhere and blasted a hole through his ship's cargo bay. The jolt from the direct hit sent him flying out of his seat and across the cockpit.

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He bumped his head and died almost immediately, but not before he felt one last pang of regret for psychically brutalizing the one woman who had ever had feelings for him. Soon afterwards, Earth stopped its pointless hostilities towards the peaceful farmers of Skylon 4. "Congress Passes Law Permanently Abolishing War and Space Travel." Laurie read in her newspaper one morning. The news simultaneously excited her and bored her. She stared out the window, dreaming of her youth -- when the days had passed unhurriedly and carefree, with no newspapers to read, no television to distract her from her sense of innocent wonder at all the beautiful things around her. "Why must one lose one's innocence to become a woman?" she pondered wistfully.

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Little did she know, but she has less than 10 seconds to live. Thousands of miles above the city, the Anu'udrian mothership launched the first of its lithium fusion missiles. The dim-witted wimpy peaceniks who pushed the Unilateral Aerospace Disarmament Treaty through Congress had left Earth a defenseless target for the hostile alien empires who were determined to destroy the human race. Within two hours after the passage of the treaty the Anu'udrian ships were on course for Earth, carrying enough firepower to pulverize the entire planet. With no one to stop them, they swiftly initiated their diabolical plan. The lithium fusion missile entered the atmosphere unimpeded. The president, in his top-secret mobile submarine headquarters on the ocean floor off the coast of Guam, felt the inconceivably massive explosion which vaporized Laurie and 85 million other Americans. The President slammed his fist on the conference table. "We can't allow this! I'm going to veto that treaty! Let's blow'em out of the sky!"

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This is absurd. I refuse to continue this mockery of literature. My writing partner is a violent, chauvinistic, semi-literate adolescent.

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Yeah? Well, you're a self-centered tedious neurotic whose attempts at writing are the literary equivalent of Valium.

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Asxxxxx.

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Bixxx.

[nihi]

Rubu,
Tandem story is definitely not a new idea. But that doesn't mean we cannot play it :) . Besides, there was another reason for which I wanted to play it. Sometimes I think about our life and ponder how different could be the world now if people had taken only slightly different decisions in different times than what they actually have taken. For example, if my dad were to decide to get married with someone other than my mum then their children would have been completely different that us (different us, that is?). Possibilities are practically endless. The story tree could give us a glimpse of that, considering multiple 'gods' (storytellers) playing each with their own dimension.

[Orpheus]

Originally posted by nihi
For example, if my dad were to decide to get married with someone other than my mum then their children would have been completely different that us (different us, that is?).

Nihi while I appreciate your sense of humor on banglacricket board and sometimes your valuable and intelligent comments in forget cricket, do not take me otherwise when I say - That is by faar the stupidest thing I have ever heard from you!!

You have nothing else to ponder?? Sometimes in the shower I ponder......[edited by chinaman]....ah possibilities are endless.

anyways.. I think there was a movie on how a missed train can lead your life to a diff path..:) I remember watching the ad but didnt' watch the movie.

[nihi]

Originally posted by Orpheus

Nihi while I appreciate your sense of humor on banglacricket board and sometimes your valuable and intelligent comments in forget cricket, do not take me otherwise when I say - That is by faar the stupidest thing I have ever heard from you!!

You have nothing else to ponder?? Sometimes in the shower I ponder......[edited by chinaman]....ah possibilities are endless.

anyways.. I think there was a movie on how a missed train can lead your life to a diff path..:) I remember watching the ad but didnt' watch the movie.

Not sure specifically which one you found stupid, pondering of branching lives in general or specifically the one about 'my' mum and dad.

If it was in general, then I stop the argument right here. Cuz I myself find it very interesting (almost awe-inspiring) to fancy how lives could be different on account of apparently very minor diversion of events. Someone else may not find it so.

But if it was about the very example that I have given, then I will tell you. In fact, I have never wondered in reality about my mum and dad thing (it just never happened). I was just searching for an example and this came up. The reason this came up, as I reckon, last time I read a bangla book was 'Ordhek Jibon' by Sunil, where he talked about such a scenario while telling the story of his birth. That's about it. Didn't consider whether that would sound stupid or not. :)

[Orpheus]

specific example..... ofcourse not in general - hence I mentioned the movie...

[nihi]

Originally posted by Orpheus
... hence I mentioned the movie...

yeah, noticed that, still kept the point so that it may come handy for some others.

Anyway, it is rather becoming a meta-thread for tandem-story (or story-tree or whatever)