Making up Stories

Making up Stories

Every Tuesday is Story Day on my friend Senia’s website, and I’ve been really enjoying them because they’re different from the usual blog fare. I’ve also been in a story-writing mood these days myself, so I’m thinking that I should do one for next Tuesday to help create a WAVE OF STORYTELLING across the Blogosphere! Well, maybe it will be a very small wave, but I thought I’d also throw out this CHALLENGE:

Post a Story Idea in the comment area of this blog entry. I’ll write a story that incorporates the first ten plot points or ideas for next Tuesday! I don’t care what they are. C’mon…I DARE YOU :-)

I can’t promise that the story will be any good, but I promise I’ll do my best to weasel my way to completion :-) I reserve the right, also, to not write about anything that’s very gross or horrifying…that’s where I draw the line. I’m curious to see what happens…in a way, it might be like conscious dreaming, with my mind trying desperately to connect wildly-disparate inputs into some kind of cohesive story.

CONTINUE ON TO PART I OF BEE STORY

15 Comments

  1. keith 18 years ago

    A story about a worker bee’s struggle to be successful and move ahead in the hive.  Be sure to discuss his views of task management and life balance.

    ——-

  2. Dave Seah 18 years ago

    Ok, that’s one! Awesome! Can we get all the way to 10? The idea is to put them all in the same story :-)

  3. Joan 18 years ago

    Einstein and relativity.
    This is the literary equivalent of: there are these four things in my refridgerator, make me a meal!

  4. Sue D. Nom 18 years ago

    An overachieving college student, frustrated by her short stature, develops and tests new technology to make herself significantly taller.

  5. peninah 18 years ago

    Keith’s bees have a friend who they rarely see. She is a small hamster who lives far away (from them) and is trying to get out of the funk she’s in and go exploring more, both within the protection of her super-bubble-thingee and out on her own. She hears that there is some yummy lettuce out there…

    (sue, i’ll help you test that new technology—does it shrink shoes to fit size 5 (or kid’s 2.5) feet?)

  6. Avram 18 years ago

    Bees have a dance they do to tell each other about the location of tasty pollen, using the sun as a marker to indicate direction. (This is a true science fact!) But one day, it appears that there are two suns in the sky! How can the bees tell each other where new pollen sources are?

  7. Gary Williams 18 years ago

    Gojira (Godzilla) threatens Las Vegas or San Francisco.

  8. Dave Seah 18 years ago

    This is going to be quite a bizarre story :-)

  9. ZenLinuxNH 18 years ago

    This isn’t a plot suggestion, but a general theme – make as many puns (good and bad) and colloquial references as possible about bees. Example: something has got to be “the bee’s knees.” Someone is going to make a “bee line” to get somewhere, etc.

    This should ensure your story is as corny as possible. :)

    <ul>
    <li>ScottG</li>
    </ul>

  10. Dave Seah 18 years ago

    <ol>
    <li>Bees.</li>
    <li>Einstein & Relativity.</li>
    <li>An overachieving college student with height issues.</li>
    <li>A Hamster seeking Lettuce and Bee Companionship.</li>
    <li>Gojira on the loose.</li>
    </ol>

    Still need a few more elements! How about something to discover? Or a character’s change in something? I’m going to take a pass on the pun theme, because that puts a little too much structure on the process than I wanted. Unless there’s some way to make a Meta Pun.

    I’ll probably start writing this weekend, so there’s time to toss more things in.

  11. Senia 18 years ago

    A flower in a large field of flowers.  The coastline of an ocean.  Both or either.

    (maybe a flower that grows in the ocean?).

    COOL IDEA!  Looking forward to seeing this, Dave!!!  Avram, great neat fact about the dance.

  12. Graham H 18 years ago

    OK how about working something about the French in there? Lots of potential I’m sure.

  13. Dave Seah 18 years ago

    Ok, we’ve got

    <ol>
    <li>Bees facing management challenges.</li>
    <li>Bee dancing and finding new pollen sources in the face of two suns! (sorry I missed that one earlier, Avram!)</li>
    <li>Einstein & Relativity.</li>
    <li>An overachieving college student with height issues.</li>
    <li>A Hamster seeking Lettuce and Bee Companionship.</li>
    <li>Gojira on the loose.</li>
    <li>Some kind of “meta-pun”</li>
    <li>A flower in a field of flower. The coastline of an ocean. Both or either.</li>
    <li>The French.</li>
    </ol>

    Just two one more item, and then the games will begin! I think I’ll actually do my writing process publically, because it might be amusing to watch :-) The genre I’m going to pick is probably “for kids”, because I’ve been thinking a lot about my favorite books from the past lately.

  14. Sue D. Nom 18 years ago

    peninah: I imagined it as more of a one-way enlargement process. But the implementation is up to Dave, so I guess the answer is “maybe”. :)

  15. Sue D. Nom 18 years ago

    If you want another plot element, how about one of the following:

    <ul>
    <li>The world’s largest pair of cross-trainers (made by a shoe company for a promotional stunt), which turn out to be useful.</li>
    <li>The world’s largest food item of your choice, made in an attempt to get in the Guinness Book of World Records, which turns out to be useful.</li>
    </ul>