Toga's Total Teasers and Tale Title Tally

[The Count]

Hee... If you wants, I gots the list of Lisa's library literature. And they need major updating child.
Now get to it you kittenly three!
*Sorry, there's no Robin icon yet.

 

[Muppetfan44]

Excellent

That would be great, Count! I know i've read a bunch but i'm not sure i've read them all!

This summer is going to be awesome with all of this great new fan-fiction coming out!

Really hoping that Kermie's Girl and Heart of Gold get updated soon!

 

[The Count]

Okay... The PM I send you will contain all or most of the stories I've come to enjoy here on the forums. You'll have to dig a little for the one-offss though. Sending now.

 

[TogetherAgain]

Lisa I just have to say, I named my new story Together Again not remembering that you have an eventual story in the works of the same name. I hope you don't mind, I just used the first title that popped into my head!

Can't wait to read more of your narrative here either by the way.

<HUGS!> No sweat, Beth! It sure surprised me when I first saw it, of course... To be honest, I initially thought someone was trying to talk to me about my PM inbox being full again! But ultimately, so long as no one minds that there will eventually be TWO stories on one forum entitled "Together Again," in addition to a member by the same name, oh and then there's the song that all of the above are named for...

 

[TogetherAgain]

Why I Haven't Posted Anything in Ages: The Second Tale

You will notice that the question was not whether there would even be a next story.

When TogetherAgain started writing that first story, she hadn't given much thought to whether or not there would be a second one, but she mostly figured that there wouldn't be. She was just giving this a shot, after all, and it wasn't as if she felt very confident with her Muppet knowledge... but allow me to give you a little bit of background on TogetherAgain.

She decided when she was about six years old that she wanted to be an author when she grew up. (Note: Author, not writer, because she couldn't pronounce the letter R, so when she tried to say "writer," no one knew what she was talking about.) She was in sixth grade when she started doubting that decision because people were telling her all of the other things she should do or would be good at. A teacher! An architect! A psychiatrist! An accountant! And then, starting in seventh grade, English class started getting less and less fun... Did she really want to write?

Another thing you should know is that TogetherAgain was used to being smart, but she wasn't used to her brains getting her very far. Being smart meant the kids in Hebrew school didn't like her. It meant getting dirty looks for getting an A on the test she hadn't studied for. It meant getting dirty looks when she was right, slacked jaws when she didn't have an answer, and jeers when she was wrong, and let's not get into the look on her mother's face when her grades faltered. In short, being smart was a real drag.

Then one day, TogetherAgain found herself sitting in front of her computer screen, staring at a comment on her first Muppet fan fiction.

One of her readers had called her a genius.

He was not just any reader, either. He was Beauregard, a well-established, well-respected member and writer of an impressive fan fiction tale. Beauregard had been one of the members who had made TogetherAgain want to join Muppet Central. Beauregard had been one of the writers who had made TogetherAgain want to write. Now Beauregard was telling her that she was a genius... and he meant it, with respect, not resentment.

TogetherAgain spent a lot of time staring at that comment.

This... This was... new. ...And... though she doubted the accuracy of that word, as applied to her... This... felt good. And writing was, well... fun, and nothing at all like those miserable English classes. So by the time TogetherAgain finished her first story, she never even thought to question whether or not she would write a second.

What the story would be, however, was an entirely different matter.

While visiting her grandfather in the hospital, (which was not in itself unusual, considering that doctors had never expected him to live to adulthood and he was, by then, over ninety years of age,) TogetherAgain took out a notebook and started to think. Hm... She was quite fond of Rowlf the Dog. Maybe she could write a story with a little more focus on him? ...She was sitting in a hospital. Maybe that was where the story would start. But why would Rowlf be in the hospital? ...Well, maybe Gonzo had been firing some sort of cheese out of canons to the tune of... something... and one of the canons had misfired and somehow smothered Rowlf with cheese, and...

She made three or four attempts at starting that story, which persistently either refused to be written or kept going in the entirely wrong direction. A few scratched-out pages later, she started a different story, this one featuring another favorite character, Robin the Frog.

TogetherAgain entitled this second story "Chasing Robin," and she challenged herself to write more of the characters with whom she was not as comfortable: Clifford, Pepe, Johnny Fiama, Sal, Sweetums... For the most part, she found that they were easier (and more enjoyable) to write than she had expected, and in the meantime, all of her readers were still enjoying and praising each chapter. She felt herself falling into something of a rhythm with her writing, going outside to write in her notebook and then coming inside to type it up and post it and read, comment on, and nag for more of other stories.

The second story was done within a month, but TogetherAgain still had plenty of empty, nothing-better-to-do summer vacation ahead. It was only natural to start on a third story... if she could only think of one. But in the meantime, the commentary, deleted scenes, and making-of "extras" she had posted for the first story had been a great success, and had even been emulated by other writers on Muppet Central. Naturally, TogetherAgain tried her hand at commentary once again.

This time, however, posts replying to the commentary dwindled almost instantly. After several chapters in a row received absolutely no response from the readers, TogetherAgain stopped and left the commentary tradition to another writer known as theprawncracker, who really was much better (and funnier) at it anyway.

In the meantime, it was time for a third story, this one about... um...

This one about...

...This one... would be about... something. ...Eventually.

 

[The Count]

Hmmm... Detecting a pattern here. No-good nothing-to-do summer left for the Toga girl. Possibly where the title "Summer in the Theater" came from? Well, at any rate, I hug this narrative of yourn. *Hugs narrative.
Um... More please?

 

[redBoobergurl]

I am loving this Lisa! It's like a little autobiography about yourself! Keep it coming! (See you can't escape the nagging!)

 

[The Count]

Isn't it you can't escape the magic? Ergh, something like that. *Waits for update, nagging stick ready.

 

[theprawncracker]

TogetherAgain stopped and left the commentary tradition to another writer known as theprawncracker, who really was much better (and funnier) at it anyway.

*blush* Well... I totally know what you mean about dwindling commentary readers... which is why I haven't done any as of late. But... well, you know.

And I too am LOVING this, it's so much fun. More when you can...

Now you people should go read Perfect Harmony...

 

[TogetherAgain]

Why I Haven't Posted Anything in Ages: The Third Tale

A third story.

A third story.

A... third... story.

TogetherAgain sat on the exercise ball that served as her desk chair. Thinking.

A third story.

A third story, where... something... happened? And um... It was bad. And... it got better. ...Or something like that.

Darn it, and three was supposed to be a GOOD number for her! She was the third daughter of the third daughter, born in the third month! Got glasses in third grade! Went on that camping trip the third year it was offered! EVERYTHING WAS THREE!

...A third story.

On a whim, TogetherAgain put her hand up in the air and pretended there was a Muppet on her arm. Sooner or later, it was bound to say something... whoever it was...

Well, sooner or later, a character did start talking, and TogetherAgain took her hand down to start writing. Of course, at that point, she still wasn't really sure what the plot was... but... that was okay. She was writing.

As the plot began to pan out in her head, TogetherAgain entitled this third story "Summer in the Theater." It was, basically, a story about the Muppets pulling together to overcome a typical Muppet financial crisis and an anonymous villain. (The villain was anonymous, of course, because TogetherAgain had no idea who he or she was until the very end when everyone else found out.)

But summer didn't last forever, and before she knew it, TogetherAgain was taking a one-week hiatus from Muppet Central due to her attendance of an overnight camp provided by her youth group. Yes, for one week, TogetherAgain prayed three times a day and did all sorts of religious- and social-based activities, shared a cabin with some Israeli girls, and slipped away during free time to hide amongst the trees with her notebook and work on this third story, which was sometimes difficult to do with so much Hebrew floating around her head (and ears) that she didn't really understand.

Now, the thing about this camp is that at the end, the campers loaded themselves onto a bus around midnight and began the, oh... six or eight hour drive back to a synagogue where their parents would pick them up and, in TogetherAgain's case, take them straight to the first day of school.

Or at least, that was the plan.

But the buses were several hours late in getting to the camp, which essentially meant that TogetherAgain would miss the first day of school. Oh, and she got to sit on a coach bus... with no air conditioning. Did I mention that it was the middle of August? No air conditioning, and the windows couldn't open, and TogetherAgain never had been one to fare well in the heat. Oh, it was a long ride home. Naturally, the best way to survive it was to drink lots of water and to write a song to use in the story while desperately trying not to think about school.

The song was important. Partly because of the origins of that first story, and partly because the Muppets are a musical bunch, TogetherAgain had a habit of making sure that every single one of her stories had at least one original song. She had a lot of requirements for her stories, actually. They needed songs, and a shooting star, and a Kermit-doubts-himself moment (or two or ten or twenty), and a running gag, and fun cameos and references and so on and so forth...

That third story holds a special place for TogetherAgain in the fact that, since its completion to this very day, she cannot bring herself to read it from beginning to end. For reasons she can't put her finger on... it irks her. If she wants to read it, she must always pick it up from the middle... but even that has only happened once.

At the time of its posting, the members of Muppet Central enjoyed the story, but before it was done, TogetherAgain was already thinking about the next story. This was new; inspiration had struck early.

She would eventually get used to that.