Saturday, September 30, 2017

[Saturday Shorts] 9-30-17


Write 200 words about being lost in the woods. 





Leave or link to your story in the comments by midnight on Sunday and I'll tweet about it this week. 

Saturday, August 26, 2017

[Saturday Shorts] 8-26-17

The Prompt

Tell a 500 word story that begins with the following sentence:


When the world ended, there were fireworks....


Via "Active" - Stock Xchng.

Leave your work or a link to your work in the comments before midnight on Sunday and I'll tweet about it.







Saturday, July 29, 2017

[Saturday Shorts] 7-29-17


Your prompt: 

The song hits its climax then fades away. She switches the mp3 player off, pulls the ear buds from her ears, bundles the mess together and drops it on her night table.

Rolling onto her side in the cool, pitch black room, she pulls the covers up to her chin, flops her head on the pillow.

There's a sudden scratch of sound in the darkness. A voice hissing her name.



 In 200 words, what happens next?


Leave your work or a link to your work in the comments before midnight on Sunday and I'll tweet about it.












Saturday, June 24, 2017

[Saturday Shorts] 6-24-17



Travel is something that's generally encouraged: gap years, collegiate exchange programs, business trips, vacations. Travel expands our boundaries, provides us with new experiences. And that's good. At least, within reason.

Once you move from tourist-vacationer to nomad, people start getting a little suspicious. There's a long running trope, in life and in art, that travelers are running from something. Maybe a bad childhood, a love affair gone sour, a shady job.

I grew up a military brat, so travel was part of my life. During one stretch, I lived in three different states and one different country in a five year period. It didn't seem like anything at the time. It still doesn't. But to a lot of people, that's a strange existence. If I'd been an adult, on my own, I've no doubt some people would have been wondering what my deal was.

I'm not as nomadic these days (it's easier when your parents are shuffling you around or when you're being sponsored by an employer) but I like to travel.

I like visiting places I've never been before, revisiting places that speak to me. I rent, I don't buy. I'm not really interested in putting down roots; if the opportunity presents itself, I want few obstructions to keep me from packing up everything I own and leaving. (If I owned less, that'd be easier...but that's another post entirely. See also: George Carlin's bit on "Stuff.")


THE PROMPT

Write a 1,000 word story about travel. Nomadism. Is your character running away from something? Or are they running toward something? Maybe both?


Need some extra oomph? Try this song.


I look back then I look away
Way that that blue sky fades
Feels like I'm runnin' away
And I'm headin' out to Santa Fe


Saturday, May 27, 2017

[Saturday Shorts] 5-27-17


Doors are such a common, everyday sight that we pass them and pass through them without giving thought to the role they play in our lives, our mythology, our fiction.

They act as barriers and gateways.

The doors to our home keep us safe from the things that go bump in the night. They keep us safe from the world. Sometimes, they keep the world safe from us.

They are entrances. And exits.

They are in-between places. Stand in the middle of a doorway and you're neither in the place you've just left nor in the place you're going.

Write a 500 word story about doorways.

Saturday, April 29, 2017

[Saturday Shorts] 4-29-17



Write a six word story about loss. 

Losing someone to death, to a new relationship, to a move. Losing a treasured item. Whatever it is that they've lost, tell the story in six words.

Come back by Sunday to link up in the comments. I'll tweet about it.  If you don't have a blog, post your story in the comments.
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