Story Time

Marigold

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Are you sitting comfortably? Then I’ll begin ....

Many years ago, those of us who were on Practical Poultry Forum had a Dustbath, just like the one we have today. We talked about all sorts of things. Sometimes we even discussed chickens!

And in one part of the Dustbath, we told stories. We made them up as we went along, and everyone could join in with the next bit of the story. Sometimes they were sad, sometimes they were funny, but they were always creative and inventive, and we all waited eagerly every day to see who had added the next bit of the story.

Sometimes people just added a few words, or a sentence, and sometimes even a whole chapter. The stories spiralled in different directions and took on lives of their own. You could start another story any time you wanted, if you had an idea to try out - there was no limit on the number of stories people could tell, running alongside each other.

One was about a flock of chickens who escaped from their run and joined a circus. I was looking through some old files from 2013 recently and I came across it again. It runs to several thousand words and I have it on pdf. The software on here doesn’t permit pdf attachments, but anyone would like to read it, please pm me with your email address and I’ll forward it to you, for your Christmas entertainment. Some of you may even recognise the bits you wrote!

I’d love to start this again, if anyone else would like to play. It might work best if each story had its own separate thread, and people just added to the next part of the story, without interspersing comments that aren’t part of the story itself. Maybe this thread, Storytime, could be kept for any ongoing comments about the ongoing writing process, and any new stories could be posted under their own title as a separate thread?

I’ll start us off with a new story, and we’ll see what happens ....
 

Hen-Gen

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It was Moley who he remembered from years ago. Do not worry said Moley, tomorrow’s another day. But I’m interested what you are Rusty because you don’t smell of fox. Are you a Norfolk Terrier? Anyway here’s a Christmas present I’ve bought you. As Rusty started to unwrap the present he couldn’t believe his eyes. It was a ................
 

Marigold

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Hen-Gen said:
It was Moley who he remembered from years ago. Do not worry said Moley, tomorrow’s another day. But I’m interested what you are Rusty because you don’t smell of fox. Are you a Norfolk Terrier? Anyway here’s a Christmas present I’ve bought you. As Rusty started to unwrap the present he couldn’t believe his eyes. It was a ................

HenGen Thanks for starting us off! I’ve copied this into the thread called Rusty, which us for the story itself. This thread is for comments so the story doesn’t get interrupted.
 

Margaid

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When the creative part of my brain starts working properly again I'll certainly join in. Marigold sent me the .pdf with the story which I thoroughly enjoyed; I can't remember whether I contributed to that one but I know I did to one of them - great fun.
 

Marigold

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Developing nicely today, thank you, Icemaiden!

However, there may be a problem. Rusty has been written in to the story from the start as a 10-11 week-old puppy. The opening paragraph says

“Rusty was hiding behind the shed. He was cold, hungry, lonely and scared. In his mind, he kept going over and over what had happened yesterday. When the men had come with the nets, and his mother and sister had been bundled into the van, Rusty had managed to slip away unnoticed, but now he was on his own.”

So we have a worried owner, Jessica, whose pregnant bitch Millie has been stolen from the garden, and three dogs, Rusty, his sister, and his mother, (presumably Millie) who have been living rough and two of them have been recaptured by unknown humans, whilst Rusty escaped.
If Millie was pregnant in June, she would have her pups 9 weeks later, mid-August maybe, which would make Rusty about 10-11 weeks old by the end of October. Still conceivably small enough to get down a mole tunnel, and maybe with time enough to get home by Christmas!

I think you may have a plot twist in mind when introducing Rusty as the father of Millies pups, but since it says from the start that Millie is his mother, not his wife, things might get complicated if you are actually introducing yet more dogs. If you hadn’t noticed an inconsistency, might you consider editing the second sentence of your first section?

I like the way the story is moving out into the wilds, and wonder about the strawberry blonde....
 

Icemaiden

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Hmm. I wasn't picturing Rusty as a young puppy? Let me have a think, with this new information in mind...
 
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