I'm not sure if this would violate the corroboration policy of the board, but we used something like the following as an outline to make a One Sentence Storyboard "word game" at one of my anarchist boards and had so much fun. Credit for the following goes to Sharon Mrlnicer. I'd usually link to the original Toronto Globe and Mail article she wrote this in, but I'm still slightly confused by the link policy. Remember the book Man are from Mars, Women are from Venus? Well here's a prime example offered by an English professor at an American university. "Today we will experiment with a new form of composition 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 reread what has been written each time in order to keep the story Coherent. There is to be absolutely NO talking and anything you wish to say must be written on the paper. The story is over when both agree a conclusion has been reached." The following was actually turned in by two English students: Rebecca and Gary. (First paragraph by Rebecca) At first Laurie couldn't decide which kind of tea she wanted. The camomile, which used to be her favourite for the 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. (Gary) Meanwhil, 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 da direct hit sent him flying out of his seat and across the cockpit. (Rebecca) He bumped his head and died almost immediately but no before he felt one last pang of regret for psychically brutalising 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 morening. 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. (Gary) Little did she know, but she had 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 Treat through the 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 treat the Anu'udrian ships were on course for Earth, carrying enough firepower to pulverise 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 vaporised poor, stupid, Laurie and 85 million other Americans. The president slammed his fist on the conference table. "We cannot allow this! I'm going to veto that treaty! Let's blow 'em out of the sky!" (Rebecca) This is absurd. I refuse to continue this mockery of literature. My writing parter is a violent, chauvinistic semi-literate adolescent. (Gary) Yeah? Well you're a self-centred tedious neurotic whose attempts at writing are the literary equivalent of Valium. "Oh shall I have camomile tea? Or shall I have some other sort of ****ING TEA??? Oh no, I'm an air-headed bimbo who reads too many Danielle Steele novels." (Rebecca) Asshole. (Gary) Bitch. (Rebecca) Wanker (Gary) Slut (Rebecca) Get ****ed. (Gary) Eat ****. (Rebecca) **** YOU- YOU NEANDERTHAL!!! (Gary) Go drink some tea- whore. Teacher A+ I really liked this one.
We have games of this sort in the Word Games area of the site. Feel free to start one there. They last for as long as they last, but the writing remains the intellectual property of each contributor. What happens in Word Games, stays in Word Games.
BTW, you should stick to fictional characters. You could write about yourself, but that would not be as challenging as creating and developing a character. It would NOT be kosher, say, to write about another member... Especially since the rules prohibit out-of-band communications.
