The (second) Community Storytelling Experiment

Here we go again!

A couple months ago, we did what I called a "Community Storytelling Experiment." I wrote the first three sentences of a story, and each subsequent writer wrote the next three sentences to the story.

The experiment was a great success - 63 contributions from nearly 30 writers over three days; the project was later noticed by the editor and marketing director of Atticus Books (an incredible independent publishing house!), and they edited the story and published it on their website.

Now, we are doing the project again!


Here are the rules:

1) No more than three sentences per post!

2) After you post a contribution to the story, you must wait for at least three other contributions to be made before you add to the story again.


That's all! You may introduce new characters, influence the direction of the story, make people laugh, make people cry(?), make people click on your name to find out more about you...whatever! The main thing is: Have fun, and write well!

This story will end at 3:00 P.M. EST on Sunday, July 11.

Help spread the word! (Here is the short link to the page: http://bit.ly/cw3HqF ) The more people who know about this story, the more quickly (and more awesomely!) it will grow.



Last time, in the discussion regarding the story, some people suggested that we make the next story (this story) a happy story! So, that's the goal here. No Gabriel Garcia Marquez-esque supernatural elements. No dark sides. No villainous enemies! I know this makes it more difficult, but I think we can do it!


And so, I present:

The Happiest Story Alive


The leaves were bright, and the day was sunny -- a crisp, New England day. Eric could smell the apple pie that was cooling on the window ledge. He threw the football to Jimmy, and Jimmy jumped to catch it.



Additional Links Of Interest:
The Storyteller (Our First Community Storytelling Experiment)
Running Discussion Of The Happiest Story Alive
Atticus Books



Think.Write.

26 comments:

  1. Postscript: Remember to keep up with the running discussion of the story! (Link posted directly above.) Enjoy!
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  2. The football seemed like a lonely, pregnant bubble that Eric only wished carried all life's questions and answers for his son to collect and keep. The days would grow shorter and shorter. This was a fact, but not a punishment.
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  3. Jimmy had no such thoughts, things were simple for the gangly, pale boy from Baltimore. All he was thinking was how cool it was to catch a football from his dad.
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  4. And he dreamed of Christmas. He had a special gift for his mom for Christmas morning. He kept it in the basement where he polished it, turning it over and over every day, anticipating the smile on her face when she opens it.
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  5. It wouldn't be like last year.
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  6. No matter that it was only October. Jimmy knew how to be patient, because Jimmy thrived off of things that lay tantalizingly in the future. For Eric, things in the future were just far enough away to be of neither excitement nor distress.
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  7. Nothing else mattered to him. This was what Eric
    wanted, no worries, no thoughts except for what he was doing this minute, this second with his Son. Jimmy returned the football in a long professional spiral that Eric caught.
    "Wow Jimmy, you're a natural. You gonna to try out for the team this year?" He walks over to him with the unthrown football in his hand. "Seriously Dad, you really think I might have what it takes? "I am kinda bias,being I'm your old man, but yeah, I really do. So go long."
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  8. Beaming with pride, Jimmy ran with such intensity he felt like he was flying. He would go long indeed, to the end of the sloping lawn and across the street. He never saw it, not for an instant.
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  9. His dad shouted his name but his ears were deafened by the sight of the flying ball. He smiled and jumped as high as his hand could reach and landed on a barren desert.

    "Dad?" he said as he watch his empty surroundings.
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  10. jimmy heard the muffled sound of his fathers voice, flooded orange in his eyes, darker shades moved towards him. he held out his hands, scanning the objects surrounding him, he recognised his father by touch alone. 'dad! dad! i can't see. it's orange, all orange.'
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  11. And there he stood and thought to himself ,was this the emptiness i always felt ,well it is gone now ,i feel like nothing can ever go wrong a gen.
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  12. "Calm down, son - that's just the leaves you're seeing."

    "The leaves?"

    "Look right there - that's not nothingness...and it's certainly nothing wrong!"
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  13. "How could you say, 'nothing's wrong'. He asked his eyes focused on the tree. "It's suppose to be green--remember you said 'green' was a sign of life--a rich life. Is it dying"

    "Of course not, son." Eric pats Jimmy on the back. "It is the cycle of life, old things must past to make way for the new." Jimmy stares at his father, confusions etched on his face. "Huh?"
    "Okay, when I was a boy, we walked around with boom boxes and CD's, the old; now you kids have MP3 players, that can fit in your pocket and hold thousands of songs--the new." But it was because of the old way of doing things, new methods were born." "Oh, I see," Jimmy beamed with new found knowledge.
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  14. "Get off my lawn," screamed a crotchety old man, rising from his rocking chair to a hunched stand to shake his cane at the father and son. "And get off my leaves, too."

    Jimmy looked over at the old man, whose whole face seemed to frown.

    "Sorry," Mr. Singleterry.
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  15. "I have enough of a mess here without you dragging leaves from your yard into mine!" the old man railed on in his broken, creaking voice.

    "I'm really sorry, sir," Jimmy said, walking closer to the man. "Maybe I could help you rake them up."
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  16. The old man shoved his rake to the boy's chest, almost stumbling him onto the lawn. "You could?", he eyed the boy with one eyebrow raised.

    "THEN GET MOVING!"
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  17. The boy really didn't mind the chore. The repetitive motion was welcome as he focused on what his father had just said to him.
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  18. He wasn't sure what boom boxes were, but he knew what MP3 players were. He knew what iPads were, too, and he wanted one of those for Christmas. But it was still October, and probably in two months iPads would be so last month.
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  19. "What are you mumbling about?" grumped the old man. Jimmy thought that it was probably a rhetorical question, but the old man stood there staring at him, apparently awaiting an answer.

    "I just... um... well..." Jimmy stammered.
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  20. "You a stutterer, boy?" asked the old man.

    Jimmy cleared his throat and tried again. "No sir, just a little nervous."

    "What do you have to be nervous about? You've got the world by a string, for the love of Mary."
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  21. "How did you know sir," Jimmy asked touching the old man's hand, feeling the life charge pass through him.

    The man's scowl instantly turned to a grin as he winked at Jimmy.

    "Ah, you've learned there child, you have, life is for the sharing," he said laughing.
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  22. The old man looked to the boy's father and smiled. "I'm gonna borrow your son for awhile, you okay with that, Eric?" he said. The boy's father laughed at the weird old man, "Sure, just don't do anything weird to him", he shook his head as he laugh.
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  23. "C'mon, boy," the old man said with a wink and began shuffling towards his house.

    The boy followed, leaning the rake against a tree.

    "Where are we going?" he asked.
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  24. The old man did not answer. The old man's house looked almost identical to Jimmy's on the outside. But, Jimmy could not have envisioned the chaos and disarray that lay beyond the old man's door.
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  25. Stacks and stacks of books, both new and old, towered over him as he followed the old man through what space there was left to walk.

    "What is all this, Mr.Singleterry?"

    "Why, it's the beginning, the middle and the end, of course."
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  26. Jimmy's face shined like sunlight. "My mom loves books, Mr. Singleterry - in fact, I saved up my money for months and months and bought one for her for Christmas this year!"

    "You didn't need to save up for months and months - you can have any of these that you want!"

    THE END.

    [The story didn't make a whole lot of sense this time...I guess that's part of the bargain with one of these!]
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