do my homework
Despite the fact that my head is full of paint chips, I’ve been trying to get back into writing after a prolonged break (weird how breaks are so prone to prolongation). I’m not quite ready to start draft three of my novel, though, so I’ve been trying to do some freewriting. More specifically, I’ve been trying to write the way I used to, which was to start 12 or 13 stories and see what stuck. But so far nothing’s sticking. I don’t even necessarily need it to stick, but I need to be inspired enough to not be lured away from my laptop by exciting tasks like putting all my sweaters with holes in them in a bag for Goodwill. (Except the green V-neck. I just can’t let that one go. Or the pink cashmere I got for 75 percent off.)
I’ve been experimenting not only with retro form but with retro content as well. I’ve written some little pieces featuring subject matter that intrigued me as a budding middle school writer: babysitting (I must have been newly inspired by What Claudia Wore), haunted houses, The Popular Kids.
Maybe tonight I’ll try a murder mystery. I’m only writing the beginning, so I won’t have to worry about solving it.
Anyway, they say you should never be afraid to ask for help. So I’m calling on you, Bread and Breadketeers (I was just watching some YouTube footage of the old new Mickey Mouse Club on my friend Mandy’s blog. It’s pretty amazing), to provide me with writing prompts.
Here’s how it works: In the comments section, let me know what you’d like to read a story about (hot air balloons! Midgets! Ethiopia’s role in World War II!), and I promise to write at least 400 words about it and post it here.
Or—for you limber creative writing class pros—you can leave me a wackier, more constraint-based prompt (a cutup of my high school journal entries! A story composed only of verbs!). Except, please don’t actually ask me to write a story composed only of verbs.
And if any comment-turned-short-blog-story actually makes it to publication, I promise to share my earnings with you. So make room on your bookshelf for one complementary copy.
Comments
Sorry about the caps, but I get excited, especially when I've had an energy drink, which is like THREE CUPS OF COFFEE, if coffee tasted of cranberry/grapefruit juice.
One evil pig (sorry--EVIL PIG) story coming up.
Not that this is a personal story in any way.
Nicole and Don: What, the blog isn't personal enough for you? Wasn't it clear that what was really bothering me was whether to paint my new place Chapel Hill green or Wheat Field gold? :-)
Sara: Now, that's more like it!
Failing that, in regards to your comment on TTaT: You weren't at all tempted by the Scooby Doo band-aid/mini-skateboard?
I say: I love me some Scooby Doo, but I have no idea what a "bop bag" is. Perhaps after you bop someone, you give them a Scooby band-aid to shut them up? Or skateboard away fast? Hmm.
Tale of the Scooby Doo bop bag- there's a writing assignment for ya.
If you're more of a "hang out" person, then use the first instance in which it changed into more than hanging out.
2 naked men walk into store, buy candy and drinks
(This was seriously a national headline last week...)
Oh, and so far I love the stories. All of them.
But I think my dance card is full now--after the bitter physicist, the coyote, the runaway and the naked guy, we'll return to our regularly scheduled programming.