MuseBlog

By very popular demand.

Now being discussed: Coraline
His Majesty’s Dragon, by Naomi Novik
Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norrell

Coming soon:

Description by Prarilius Canix:

“A world-building venture in the tradition of J. R. R. Tolkien and Larry Gonick. It is somewhat like an RRR, only with the tone of a scholarly text or a complete encyclopedia of this world.

“A note. While this is craziness, it is strictly nonrandom. If the first few posts set the tone for seriousness, do not attempt to make it silly. Conversely, if it is more in the comic vein, do not inject ill-suited seriousness. A universe of HPBs and pie throwing should not be intruded on by people with cosmic quests and pointy ears, or vice versa.
Another note: this is more like RRRiting an encyclopedic text than playing an RPG. Unlike the Musiverse threads, MBers have no participation in it as pwners, sea captains, prime musers or otherwise. And unlike most RRRs, as far as we’re using the Tolkien analogy, it’s more like the Silmarillion than LOTR and Hobbit, providing backstory instead of an actual story.”

A new story begins. Old stories continue from Muse Fanfiction, v. 2007.1.

Please note: these are not RRRs but solo projects which share the same thread. Start your own or just stop by and visit.

= NaNo Brainstorming = generating ideas for NaNoWriMo = National Novel-Writing Month, which takes place in November and will have to be described on the thread.

*Round-Robin ‘Riting, for those who want to collaborate.

Yet another writing thread, by extremely vocal popular demand.

The piratical RRR continues from Part 2.

To kick off the new thread, here is a picture kiwimuncher made of the spy’s tattoo.

Requested by the man for aeiou.

Also known as The Codex Aetherica

Now at the editing stage; continued from Part Two.

*Round-Robin ‘Riting.

The story is complete. The next phase is underway.

Continued from Part 4.

“This is Dreamland,” said Daniel. “Anything can happen.”

The RRR* of your dreams continues from Part One.

*Round Robin ‘Riting

The story of the prince who wanted to be a frog. Continued from Part One.

The Empowered continue to wield their words against the Evil One. Continued from Part 2.

gimanator’s suggestion. The idea is to start with an image and each person writes about it as she or he sees it, in the writer’s choice of style.

The kernel image: after the death of someone or something
the sound of a violin
someone finding a box full of documents
someone kicking up leaves
someone riding a horse
someone walking a dog
someone on a rooftop
someone blowing bubbles
a girl slamming a book shut suddenly in a library
someone buys a cup of tea in a tea shop
a boy playing ball by himself

Next up: ?

Continued from 2007.2, the original idea came from Prarilius Canix, who described it as “a thread for Musers who have written/are writing/want to write books… a place to bounce ideas off of other people who share that interest.”

June is history, the frenzy has passed, scripts are done. Or not. If you’d like other MBers to read your finished (or unfinished) oeuvre, email it to gapa @ musefanpage.com (delete the spaces).

In order to preserve the formatting and to make these easier to read, the scripts are set up as stand alone documents. Click on the link.

purplefinch’s script
A Fabulous, Amazing, Chaotic, Magnificent and Frantic Fiftieth Bi-Annual Vlascar Race: The Totally Fake and Dramatized Version!

Mirabelle, the divine Qween of Green’s script (now complete)
Esperanza Claudia Anastasia Trishia Millentando the Third Goes on an Adventure

Alice’s script (partial)
Jillie’s Amazing Talking Journal

As promised, here is the long awaited time travel RRR,* requested by Prarilius Canix, with enthusiastic support from E2MB and others.

Prarilius Canix proposed this basis for time travel theory:

At each moment, there are several thousand possibilities. Right now, just to mention three: I will continue typing this comment and post it; a giant rock will fall on my head and kill me, preventing me from posting it; or a lunatic from the future will pop out of a wormhole or other time machine and smash my computer. The first possibility took place in this universe, but the other two took place in parallel universes. If you go back in time and alter the past, you will create another parallel universe.

Lines poetical and lyrical by the bards of the blog. Continued from 2007.1.

Shadowkat’s description:

Hey, guys, I think I have a great idea for an RRR!!! Just maybe… Ok so the main plot would be however-many-MBers-participate (or just a few) characters, and no one would ever meet, except in Dreamland…I mean that literally. The characters would see each other in dreams, and dreams only. In their dreams (or this one big dream), each character would have ONE power…just one, and they would all use these powers to defeat Nightmares, or creatures therefrom. The point would be that kids are no longer only having their own nightmares, but the boundaries have been broken down, and kids are having nightmares that weren’t meant for them to have. The story could also include parts of the characters’ daily lives, and it wouldn’t be written in letters, or anything, but characters could only be controlled by the MBer who came up with them…make sense?

Newcomers may wish to begin reading at comment #79 to get the general idea then jump down to comment #205 for a compilation of the first story segments.

WATERSHIP DOWN
(As abridged by Em: The Adventures of Hazel & Co.)

SPOILER WARNING!!!

Disclaimer
Watership Down Is an excellent book by Richard Addams! Go read! Now!
This abridgement is for people who have read the book, and so can appreciate it. It is written in the style of a script, as one would animate or draw in cartoon style, but is actually written to be read this way.

All of the wonderful characters are not duly represented in this work, especially Blackberry, Silver and Dandelion. All of the wonderful aspects of rabbit psychology are also not present, neither are Fiver’s weird visions, or any of the El-ahrairah stories, or the wonderful Lapine language. A lot of creative license has been taken with who said what, and other such small details.

PART 1: THE JOURNEY

Fiver: We’re all gonna die.

Hazel: Says who?

Fiver: Says me.

Thearah: Halloo?

Fiver: We’re all gonna die.

Thearah: That’s nice.

Fiver: No, I’m being serious. Bad things will happen to us.

Thearah: Maybe if I ignore them, they’ll go away.

Hazel: We’ll just have to leave by ourselves then.

Co.: Yay! We’re coming with you!

Captain Holly*: No you’re not! Badbadbad! No abandoning the warren for you!

Bigwig: Fightfightfight!

Hazel & Co.: Runrunrun!

Hazel & Co: Ohgoshlookit! River!

Hazel: Everybody swim!

Fiver & Pipkin: We are the weaklings. Fear us.

Hazel: Dang it, we can’t leave the weaklings behind, now can we?

Bigwig: Ohgoshlookit! Big scary dog! We’ll have to leave them!

Hazel: But we might need them later.

Blackberry: Being the smart bunny, I just came up with a clever plan.

Bigwig: I don’t understand it, therefore it won’t work.

Fiver: Being the psychic bunny, I do.

Bigwig: Ooooooh! It worked! You’re all so smart!

Hazel: Foreshadowing…

Hawbit, Speedwell & Acorn: We shall be jerks and rebel!

Bigwig: Badbadbad!

Hazel & Co.: Scary dark marshy place!

Fiver: Which of course means we shall have to cross it.

Co.: Darn.

Hazel: Do it anyway.

Hazel: Augh foggy…

Co.: Yeah, we made it! You are so smart, Hazel!

Fiver: Hello? Doesn’t anyone ever give me any credit?

Co.: Nice place, we shall stay here.

Fiver: No, we have to keep going.

Freakishly Weird Bunnies: We are freakishly weird and unnatural! Come be freakishly weird with us!

Hazel & Co.: Funfunfun!

Fiver: Argh! No! Runaway!

Hazel & Bigwig: No, you must come be weird with us.

Fiver: Darn.

Bigwig: Augh! Rabbit trap!

Freakishly Weird Bunnies: Oh yeah, and we forgot to mention that you might get killed unexpectedly at any moment. But it’s a small price to pay for our wonderful lifestyle.

Hazel & Co.: Runaway!

Fiver: Next time we listen to me.

Bigwig: Dead.

Hazel & Co.: No! Poor Bigwig!

Bigwig: Alive now.

Hazel & Co.: Yayness!

Hazel & Co.: Now we go.

Strawberry: I comes too.

End of Part One.

*The male rabbit captain of the Sandleford Owsla. Not the female elf captain of the LEP.

PAR TWO: ON WATERSHIP DOWN

Hazel: Well, we came all this way… I can’t read this, it’s all smudged…* blah blah… Okay, Now what do we do?

Fiver: We go up, of course.

Hazel: Up?

Fiver: Yes, up. It’s our destiny.

Hazel: But…

Fiver: JUST DO IT!!!!!

Hazel: Wowee. What a froody place!

Fiver: I told you so.

Hazel: Peoples! Dig a warren!

Co.: Digdigdig!

Co.: Chiz chiz! We shall live here forever and so will our prosperity and our young shall frolick and our does… Uh oh.

Fiver: Yup.

Co.: Alas! In our male stupidity we forgot the women!

Hazel: Ack! We so stoopid! Don’t worry, I have a plan!

Rabbit: Look Hazel, birdy!

Hazel: Quick, feed it!

Co.: Why?

Hazel: JUST DO IT!!!!!

Kehaar: (the bird) Me Kehaar, me helps you find mudders! *flies away*

Mysterious Voice: Zorn! Zorn! Zorn! All Zorn!

Bigwig: Scream, panic, and run helplessly around in circles!** It’s the Black Rabbit of Inle!

Bluebell: ‘Ello chaps!

Mysterious Voice: *reveals himself to be Capt Holly who we met in part 1* They all died!

Fiver: Big surprise.

Holly: It was!

Fiver: Well, I did try to warn you.

Kehaar: Big warren with lotsa mudders thataway, small farmhouse with hutch buns thataway.

Hazel: Righto, Holly, you take some bunnies and talk that other warren out of some does, ‘k?

Holly: You really think it will be that easy?

Hazel: Oh sure! I’m positive that all of these other pages detail our happy successful lives breeding and eating and frolicking etcetera.

Holly: Hokay. *leaves*

Hazel: And whilst they are gone, we will sit here and twiddle our thumbs… except that we don’t have thumbs! Aha!

Fiver: Oh no! I know what you’re thinking!

Hazel: You do?

Fiver: D’oh. I’n psychic.

Hazel: Oh yeah. Well anyways, I can’t look weak and lazy while the others are out saving our hides! We must go get those other bunnies!

Fiver:

Hazel: Let us go see about these hutch bunnies.

Hazel: Erm…kitty…doggie…hutch bunnies! Hello bunnies!

Hutch Buns: Um..ok.

Hazel: Come with us!

Hutch Buns: ‘K.

Car: ROOOOAAARRR!

Dandelion: Run!

Dude(human): Oh dang it! How did the bunnies get out?

Other Dude: Look woild ones!

Dude; *shoots hazel*

Hazel: Ouch.

Other Bunnies: Where’s Hazel?

Dandelion:…

Dandelion: He fell behind.

Co.:…

Co.: We’ll keep to the code.

*all go back with ¾ hutch buns, but the 4th was a buck, so he so he doesn’t matter*

Co: Hazel-

Fiver: Je sais***.

Holly&Co.: *come back, looking worse for wear. Everyone is generally depressed*

Fiver: *has a really strange vision*

Fiver: He was just resting!

Blackberry:

Meanwhile…

Holly; We went to the warren, they called themselves Efrafa, they were weird, they were probably a metaphor for some country or political ideal back in 1972, they didn’t like us, we barely escaped with our lives.

Blackberry: Hazel’s alive!

Co: W00T!!!

Fiver: And from now on, everyone shall listen to me when I say I have a bad feeling, capiche?

Hazel and Co: *meekly* Yes mother.

Hazel: 15 males and 2 females… yeah, this is gonna work real well. We need to go back to Efrafa.

Holly: Did you not just hear me?

Hazel: Don’t worry, you’re not coming. I have a plan. dunh dunh dunh…

Fiver: Hey, it’s mostly my plan!

Hazel: Shaddup, you’re ruining my dramatic moment.

End of Part Two

*Yesh, Em cannot read her notes
**©Ebethy
***Trans: ‘I know’

PART THREE: EFRAFA

(Round-Robin ‘Riting, for those who came in late.)

Continued from Part Three.

For those of you just tuning in:

This was Alice’s idea, sort of a cross between RRRs and RPGs with a touch of epistolary novel. Here’s how she described it:

Everyone makes up one character (made up, mind you!) and we decide on plot, time, etc. just like usual. Then we start. It would be in the form of letters or e-mails, and we would say at the top of our post who the letter was to.

Everyone would have to read all of the posts, though, to prevent conflicting plot twists, but their character wouldn’t know about whatever the letter said unless it was addressed to them.

Get it?
If not, then phooey. That was hard to explain.

Everything is fair game: “The Lady or the Tiger?,” “The Monkey’s Paw,” Lord of the Flies, The Pearl. If a reading assignment annoyed you, take your revenge.

Includes drastically condensed versions of famous or popular books.

“Lord of the Pies” Round-Robin ‘Riting — a Muserly parody of “Lord of the Flies,” one of everybody’s least favorite required-reading assignments.

NaNoWriMo’s new sibling debuts today. The challenge: write a 20,000-word script or screenplay in 30 days. So far, 6 10 11 MBers (+ 1 GAPA) have signed on. Others who want to participate, go to scriptfrenzy.org for details.

MB Participants:
Alice
biblioRose
Capricious the Great and Terrible
Ebeth [Whatever Her Current Title Is]
grnqween2011
pen,/ta/to’/nikk (adj)
purplefinch
Purple Panda
Sweet Melpomene
Taiwan Hippo Fan
Zyka
Lady Bunniful

So, Frenzyers, what are you writing about? What are your strategies? Come celebrate, commiserate, advise, or procrastinate. Most of all, have fun!