Community Writing With the Paperians!
Two stories written by and with the Community.
In the Chapter #42 of TFP’s Writing & Creativity Jam, we tried to do some community/group writing where we built two stories together. In both the rounds, we had a different hook to the writing process. In the first round, we randomly selected words for our members and we had to construct sentences that had those words in them. In the second round, we played “A-B-C” where every sentence starts with the next letter of the Alphabet series.
The first story with words randomly selected from the members and for the members
Once upon a time in a picture gallery, there was a girl, named Kanika, standing, immersed in deep thoughts and was looking at some very beautiful paintings. A wicked thought entered her head, “What if I burn all the pictures and turn them into ashes?” And surprisingly, she did.
From the ashes, like a phoenix, rose a flower.
And just as the flower came in her hand, she saw a man standing in a blue shirt and she gave it to him. He was Kishore, an employee at the gallery. He was eating a big burger when Kanika gave him the flower. Another man stood beside him and saw him eating a burger and he suggested he be wholesome about his health. Irritated by the unsolicited advice, he asked him to mind his own business in a passive aggressive manner.
Just as he was telling, suddenly, an airplane came crashing down near the building. After the crash, there was a big fire around the picture gallery. In the gallery, there was a huge commotion and everyone started screaming. However, Kanika seemed immersed in a different world altogether and a mild music started humming in her ears. For a split second, her mind rattled out of the imaginary, musical world. She got perplexed and worried sensing all the commotion around.
But then, her eyes went to Kishore who stood there helping all visitors evacuate. She knew that her hero arrived. And the music started playing again.
The second story by following the “A-B-C” rule
An actor named Amitabh had an ailment in his arm after being shot with an arrow. Because of his ailment he couldn’t act, so he decided to take a long holiday and go to Bangkok. Curiously he decided to try some place other than Bangkok, so he decided to go to Gujarat. Deciding on the destination is generally the hardest part but since it was done, he was good to go.
Entering a portal named as Gujarat, he somehow found himself back in Bangkok. Forgetting about his family was a dreadful decision so he decided to take them along. Going to pick up his phone to call his family, he just found a piece of chocolate in his pocket so he decided to eat it first and then call his family. Heavens sake! The chocolate tasted funny. “I have never eaten Gujarati chocolate in Bangkok”, that’s what he said. Joy was all he was feeling and experiencing. Kites could fly up here as well, as he looked up at the sky. Little by little he was missing his Gujarat so he decided to look for his “jalebi phapdha” in Bangkok. Most people would be perplexed by this but mind is a funny game, it levitates and takes you down with a swoosh. Now also he was thinking of Gujarat flavoured nachos in Bangkok.
Of course he can find some other dishes rather than eating nachos.
People say that old age wrecks your mind and you start to conjure problems that might not even exist or take decisions that cannot be comprehended in sanity or you might get too impulsive.
Questioning his sanity he decided to jump off the building. Rescue team was already there as if they were already waiting for him to jump. Sensing that something was amiss, they quickly gathered round and prepared for his safe landing. This time he was about to jump off a cliff along with the rescue team. Umbrella in his hand, he had no idea how and when he reached the place. Very decidedly, he decided to jump from the cliff.
X-mas miracles never left his side and also the festival was around the corner. Yelling and trusting miracles with all his might, he jumped. “Zoinx! ”As soon as he jumped, an umbrella flung open in his hand, he decided to use it as a parachute to save himself. Although the entire scene was unsettling and unnerving, he had fun and thanked his stars because he was safe on the ground.
But still not everything felt good. Calling like a siren, his heart was beating fast as he saw the sky come crashing down on him, like a waterfall. Down he fell from his bed, as he woke up from his sleep yelling. “Eeeh! I am never rating mushrooms again.”
During this Pandemic, when sitting together and writing is a far cry, we are trying to take few small steps to keep the community together and the entire activity turned out to be fun and wholesome.
Want to write with such budding storytellers? Join The Folded Paper by messaging on our Instagram.
