Collaborative Stories

Recently Abi has been into telling collaborative stories, where each person gets to contribute one paragraph at a time. Generally the adult(s) keep trying to establish some semblance of plot cohesion, whereas Abi, on each turn, introduces enough chaos to keep it interesting. Some
recent examples:

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Mira: Once upon a time there lived a king who loved only gold. His treasury was full of gold, but he still wanted more more more. (Elaboration on this theme.)

Abi: And he had a daughter, a princess, and what she wanted most of all was to fly in a rocket around the earth. Your turn.

The story continues, with Mira desperately trying to tie the two strands together. The princess saw from her rocket what desolation her father's greed had produced in his kingdom, and tried to convince her father to come with her in the rocket to look for himself.

Abi: And he said,"OK". Your turn.

Mira: Oh, come on, he didn't just say OK! He's only interested in money, remember? He's not interested in rockets -- he probably asked her for something in exchange.

Abi: OK, the king said, "I will come with you if you bring me the most beautiful painting in the world..."

Mira: "... because I heard that some artist has painted the most beautiful painting, and I want to get it and sell it and get lots of gold for it."

The rest of the story is mostly by Mira, as Abi gets caught up in it. The painter doesn't give the princess his painting, but paints a new one for her. (Abi -- the king riding on a unicorn through a beautiful meadow full of flowers; Mira -- but behind him the earth is dry and desolate, with gold coins flying out of it into the king's hand.) All the experts concur that now this is the most beautiful painting in the world, so the princess brings it to the king, he goes on the rocket, and realizes the error of his ways. The princess marries the artist and they live happily ever after, with her taking him up in the rocket and him painting what he sees from there. The end.

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This story was told late at night with our friends Allan and Rebecca. Because of the late hour, it was agreed that there would be only one round, and each person's turn would be only one or two sentences. Abi wanted to go last.

Allan: One day Abi woke up to find that she had butterfly wings and a pair of antennae.

Rebecca: She spent the next few days enjoying her wings, but then she figured out that the antennae were even cooler.

Josh: Wherever she went she could get radio reception, so she could hear news and music and her favorite Red Sox games.

Mira: After a while though, the wings started getting in the way, so she went to her friend, a magician named Rebecca, and asked her to take away the wings and antennae.

Abi: And the magician couldn't. (Much merriment ensues on the part of the grown-ups, which perhaps prompts Abi to continue.) And Abi decided that she actually liked her wings after all. The end.