Camelot: The Very Secret Diaries

A Little Backstory

There's a grand British literary tradition of speaking in abbreviations; for example, in P.G. Wodehouse's stories, Bertie often had some "e. and b." in the morning. More recently, Helen Fielding's Bridget Jones's Diary used a distinctive shorthand style.

When Peter Jackson's Lord of the Rings movies came along, some of us couldn't help noticing certain...subtext that perhaps wasn't entirely intentional -- like the way Samwise kept staring soulfully at Frodo. Most of us didn't do anything about it, but Cassandra Claire wrote a set of Very Secret Diaries of Frodo, Samwise, etc., in a somewhat Fieldingesque style. They were funny and addictive, and it was easy to fall into writing in that style after reading them.

Mary Anne Mohanraj wrote a brief description of Morte d'Arthur in her journal in a VSD-like style; Jed Hartman suggested that various writers take on the project of doing a set of Arthurian VSDs. Then Wendy Shaffer provided some starts at Arthurian VSDs, which prompted Mary Anne to write one for Arthur, and to set up this project page listing all the characters, and to let people sign up to write the other characters. That's how the madness began.

Some Extra Info for Potential Writers and Confused Readers

Cast of Characters

Optional characters?

Mary Anne's home page