The Family Girl Blogs (aka "The New Working Girl Blogs") Blog #13: A discussion about Story Universes To see all of Bobbie's Family Girl Blogs, click on this link: http://bigclosetr.us/topshelf/book/28818/family-girl-blogs

I just had a long discussion about story universes with someone here in BCTS, via Private Message, and it was a long discussion.    Pretty long discussion, though it had the feel of a slow motion kind of discussion since we did it by taking turns and responding to each other's PMs.   

Anyway, the discussion kinda got hot and heavy towards the end, since I had a lot of strong feelings about it, and told the person about it.   But fortunately, we ended amicably, which is always good.   I find it best for me to not take one's self too seriously, and not to be afraid (or be too proud) to apologize.   I just wish I coud do this all the time, instead of just some of the time...

It brought to mind other discussions   here in BCTS, also via PM, and some via email and some via Yahoo Messenger and in chats in the BCTS/Stardust chatrooms, where others stubbornly held onto their points of view, unwilling to compromise or concede, escalating the discussion to actual arguments.

Girls are stereotypically supposed to be argumentative, whereas guys are supposedly more physical, preferring to fight rather than argue.   Whether that's true or not, I really can't tell since it seems to me that guys are as willing to argue, and girls are willing to fight, given enough provocation.

Then I catch myself when I think such thoughts - do I really want to be more argumentative just to be more like a girl?   Isn't that a bit... twisted?

In trying to be the opposite sex, should one adopt both the good things as well as the bad things about them?   Then you think, perhaps objectifying sexual roles and mores in such a way, maybe that's not what it's all about? That I'd be no better that those that have persecuted me in my life.   That the point is to live in a way that makes you happy/fulfilled/true to yourself regardless of any labels or any stereotypes?

I have had ample opportunity to think about such things in my own personal Journey of Self, and, sad to say, looking deep into myself, I have found that I was willing to adopt whatever stereotypical traits that were needed if I could just be accepted as female, even to the point of faking them, and even adopting those traits that weren't, well, ok...

And even if I was willing to, there was a roadblock there. For those who knew (such as with my coworkers, staff, family and close friends), I would be dismissed as just someone doing these things like she was playing a role.   Like a transvestite who isn't really hiding the fact he/she is just faking it...

That's not a bad thing, if that's what you want, but that was not the point of my journey... Then I had that epiphany, oh, those many months ago.   Perhaps being a girl wasn't really the reason for happiness, but that living to be happy and accepted was the big thing, and living as a girl was just an after-effect, or maybe just a prerequisite for this?   But then... here's a bigger thing - what do you do if you can't achieve happiness because the prerequisite was so hard to do, that it was "anti-happiness," in that way?

It made me ask myself what are my reasons for wanting to be a girl, perhaps to actually list them down.   But I guess that is for another time and another blog...

Anyway, going back... That long discussion of ours about story universes had one output, a funny one.   I had written a bogus recruitment post for a fictitious story universe loosely based around a person we know (heeee), which I paste here (with minor corrections), which embodies the points we discussed when making a story universe.   I hope that you find it funny as well.

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Hi, everyone,   Bobbie here again, and I am again recruiting for my new story universe, "Bobbie and Her Amazing Adventures in the Suburbs."

The universe is about Bobbie, a post-op TG girl, and how she manages living in the burbs with her pet zombie goldfish, her self-aware 4x4 mini-SUV, and her anime-loving French girlfriend, Fifi.

The universe is based on my Bobbie stories:

Bobbie and the Shopping Spree of Death,
Bobbie and the Ultra-supermicromini Teeny-Tiny, Itsy-Bitsy Tankini,
Bobbie and the Coffee Break that Time Forgot,
Labyrinth, i.e. Bobbie and the Knights of the Round Paperweight,
Raiders of the Lost I.T. Project, and
Journey to the Center of the Mall.

Please feel free to check them out in BigCloset, and see if you like em, and if you would like to write a story involving Bobbie, her fiendish friends and her mis-adventures, please consider writing for the Bobbie-Verse, "Bobbie and Her Amazing Adventures in the Suburbs."

Here are the rules:

Your story's locale or setting must be in and around Washington DC and the surrounding areas.

Your story's adventure must be similar to a Bobbie adventure, i.e. about shopping, working in an office, shopping, driving around and having problems with the car/traffic, shopping, trying on clothes, office politics, washing clothes and other domestic mishaps, singing or dancing (or both), shopping, and, or course, shopping.

You can use any of the characters from the stories, but they must be written in line with the characters' backgrounds, history and major characteristics in mind, which are:

Bobbie - a five-foot-zero post-op trans-girl who loves dressing up, lives in the suburbs with her French girlfriend   and runs a small IT office.   Her days are filled with managing her cardre of computer programmers, analysts, program and system testers, hardware engineers, finance and admin staff, office custodial staff, cafeteria crew, security personnel, and her ever-reliable personal secretary, Janey.   She always has doubts about her capabilities but stubbornly doesn't give up, and, in the course of doing so, gets trapped in a lot of embarassing situations.   And chocolate.

Fifi - a normal girl from France who's clothes sense is tinged with her penchant for anime and manga, is ridiculously spoiled and embarassingly rich (but shy), is married to Bobbie and, despite the fact Bobbie is seven years older, Fifi treats her like a younger sister.   She has a very good grasp of English, except that she speaks with a very noticeable French accent, and has problems with pronouns.   Fifi and Bobbie are crazy about each other, even though they keep having arguments about how Bobbie dresses, why Naruto is cool   and why garterbelts are sexy.

Nikki - Bobbie's best friend that looks like a younger version of Natasha Henstridge and Bobbie hates her for it.   Nikki and Bobbie have exactly a foot of difference in height, and Nikki likes to rub this in.   A lot.   Nikki drives around in a fancy Volvo, putting Bobbie's eight-year-old 4x4 economy mini-suv to shame.   She is brash, always speaks her mind, always puts her, Bobbie and Fifi in embarassing situations, and loves wearing four-inch heels that she always has trouble walking around in.

Marie - Bobbie's therapist.   Bobbie has been going to Marie ever since before RLT (excuse me, I mean RLE), and they have become as close as a therapist and patient can be.   Marie knows almost everything about Bobbie and likes to embarass Bobbie as often as she can, but does it because Bobbie needs it, does it out of a sense of love, to make Bobbie face up to her demons.   And, besides, it's fun.

Larry, Curly and Moe - Bobbie's geek friends from college, who knew her long before her electrolysis, hormones, RLT, SRS, FFS, and whatever other "S"'s are left.   They have dinner at Larry's decrepit old apartment that smells like dirty socks at least once a month, to try out Larry's latest culinary experiment-slash-disaster.   They usually end up ordering a pizza.   They play cards after dinner using Curly's old Star Wars deck, and never for money but for "favor vouchers" which allow them to ask consequence-free favors of each other.   Bobbie is usually the loser in these card games and, over the course of the year: has helped her buds wash their clothes, moved their furniture, helped Moe rehearse for a TV game show contest, shopped for gifts for their girlfriends (well, just Larry's semi-girlfriend) and occassionally drove them around.   Fifi doesn't like them.   And they are always trying to peek down Bobbie's and Fifi's blouses.

There are certain constants that must be observed when writing in Bobbie's universe:

The writer is free to create her own characters but must be sure to make them interact with either Bobbie, Nikki, Fifi, Marie or Bobbie's three buds in some way.

The writer must be sure to keep her story theme related to day-in-the-life situations involving TG characters or concerns.

The writer must always end with chocolate being part of the last scene in some way.

Additional universe rules can be found in www.what-me-worry.com.   Note that more rules will be added to the list there as "glitches" are unearthed.   But rest assured I will not make new rules that contradict earlier rules.

For any prospective writer for my Bobbie-verse, I reserve the right to check whether your story is in keeping with the universe's rules prior to posting: only stories that pass muster can be part of the universe.   You can email your stories to me (plain text format only, please!) at [email protected], or just email me to ask about details of the universe, chat or exchange info.   You can also PM me anytime, and I will try and respond as best and as fast as I can.

Thanks, and Happy Writing!

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I also PM'd him something I read from somewhere, but I can't seem to recall where, which I modified a lot to suit our discussion.   Here it is, and I am calling it My  Story Universe Mantra.

My Story Universe Mantra

I will refrain from requiring my contributors to write me first, or to only share info with a select few (whether whole or in part), or that I ban certain people. I pledge that I will publish all info, and that I will not require pre-approvement before they can start to write for my universe.   It is the right thing that others can write for my universe on-spec, with the understanding that they run the risk of not being included in the universe for inadvertent non-compliance with my rules, or they can do the smart thing and ask for my advice first, but that is their call to make - that is their mistake to make, and I should let them. I also promise not to continuously revamp my universe as that is being too anal, not to mention ridiculously unfair to others, that I will not take away rules I put in before. I also promise that the info I will give will be as complete as I can manage it, and that I will allow my contributors free reign regarding details that I have not covered which they made on their own. I promise to evolve my universe by adding more details and info from time to time, without deleting old rules and info, but, of course making sure that new stuff will not contradict old stuff. and above all, that I will be fair in spirit and demeanor, and share - as in truly share.   

(pause, and then bow to acknowledge applause...)
 

click here to read my old Working Girl Blogs, click here to read all of my blogs, click here to read my stories in BCTS, and click here to see my profile & know more about me.

Note:

Lots of graphics in Bobbi's posts use publicly-accessible pics from the net: No ownership is claimed nor IP infringements intended

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