Writing Prompt

Writing Prompt: Have a character begin misquoting literary classics at every occasion.

Writing Challenge (repeated cuz I like it so well): EVERY DAY set the timer for ten minutes and write. Do. Not. Stop. Writing. Doesn't matter if what you write makes sense, just open up the gates and go. We can--each one of us--find ten minutes every day to do this.

Everyone is Chicken?

Here is my chicken story -- what... no one else wrote about chickens?

The dog moved purposefully through the room until she reached the sliding glass door that led to the backyard. She stood with her nose to the crack and woofed again.

“I can’t let you out there.” Ben laid a hand on the dogs back. Her fur was soft and clean. She clearly belonged to someone, but he knew Pete didn’t own her. “There are chickens.”

She barked again, commanding him this time, and the stern sound of her voice made him take a step back. Maybe she wasn’t as pleasant as he’d thought.

“Pete would never forgive me if I let you eat his chickens.”

The dog started digging frantically at the floor in front of the door, her claws making deep scratches in the hardwood floor.

“Well, crap. He won’t forgive me for that, either.” He grabbed hold of the dog’s scruff and hoped she wouldn’t snap at him. She didn’t, but she did fight him to stay by the door.

“No. You’re going back outside. Go home.” He shoved her squirming body back out the front door and closed it quickly behind her.

Slapping his hands together, a job well done, he turned to get back to work. He hadn’t even gotten one strip done and he was behind because of his sudden need to vacate his old home and move in here.

He sure hoped Pete turned out to be a better roommate than Joey had been. He’d been able to deal, just barely, with Joey’s many quirks: his weird eating habits, his slovenly housekeeping and even his new woman every night—right up until one of those women crawled into bed with Ben.

Not that Ben didn’t like women. He did, and quite a lot. He was just a bit more discerning in who he slept with and had no interest in taking on someone else’s sloppy seconds.

The doorbell rang before he even made it back to the breakfast bar, his current make-due desktop where he’d settled in to create the latest bit of “Hard Knocks”. He looked over his shoulder and wondered if it was the dog again. How could that be possible?

It rang again. And then the barking began. Frantic, crazy barking with a few pitiful yelps thrown in. Then clawing at the door. At this rate, the front door would look as if Freddie Krueger had tried to break in.

Ben flopped into his chair and covered his ears tightly with his hands. He wondered if he shouldn’t have just gotten a lock for his bedroom door at Joey’s instead.

About the time he had decided to call animal control, the door opened and the dog came flying through the opening, skittered across the floor to the back and cried.

Pete, sweat dripping from his slightly chunky body, stood in the open door. “Why didn’t you let Sheba in?”

“Sheba?” Ben asked, knowing his friend meant the dog, but unaware that the dog belonged here at this house. He’d never seen her before. “Why would I?”

“She visits during the week.” Pete snatched a towel off the end of the couch and wiped his face. The first morning he’d been here, Ben had tidied up and had moved the folded towel from that spot. When Pete had returned, dripping, from his morning run and found it gone, he’d read Ben the riot act.

Ben hadn’t touched anything that wasn’t his again. It seemed that Pete was particular about his things, and not the slob that Joey had been. Ben learned quickly that everything had its place, and was usually there for a good reason, even if it didn’t make sense to him.

He could live with that.

“So, do I let her out back?” Ben gestured to where the dog sat whining at the glass door.

“Sure. Why not?” Pete tossed the towel into the laundry room just off the entry way.

“The chickens? Don’t dogs eat chicken?”

“Not Sheba. I’m for the shower.” Pete thumped up the stairs and left Ben to deal with the anxious German shepherd.

“Well, okay.” Ben shrugged and felt a bit like he’d fallen into the rabbit hole, but he still walked to the back door to let the dog out.

The moment the door was open, Sheba was out like a shot. She circled the yard, herding the chickens into a group and then Ben swore she counted them. She touched her nose to each one in turn before she settled down onto the grass, curled up in a small patch of sunshine. The chickens didn’t move far from her inert body, just pecked and scratched in orbit around her.

Yep, Tweedledee and Tweedledum should be showing up at any time.

I can't believe I'm the only one....

Did anyone at least set their timers for ten minutes every day and write?

May Is Done

Okay, I decided to wait until today to post my week count and combine it with my monthly total.
So, I had a pretty good week this week. Better than I thought. Maybe because I pushed to make up for last week and I didn't have much to do but write. I wrote 7438 words this week, working on three different projects. I started another young adult story, but put it aside for another one I've been working on for awhile. And last night and this morning I worked on a query for a short story. I'm planning on submitting it to The Wild Rose Press. It's an odd little story and I'm not sure what catagory to submit it under. It's about a woman who goes to bed at the age of forty-four and wakes up as a twenty-three year old, knowing now what she didn't know then. It's her chance for "do overs". It's a very light romance, but I'm just not sure if it would fall under regular contemporary or not. Any suggestions?

Anyway, my May total is 24164 words. Boy, glad I wasn't striving for 50K!

Time to get dressed. Need to get the Sunday paper.

Everyone enjoy the day!

Where Did the Time Go?

I keep asking myself that. It seems like just when I think I'll have a moment to write or edit or do something for myself... it doesn't happen. Where does it go? Does anyone know?

Well, this last week has actually been pretty good. As far as writing it's been more about editing and getting some rewrites done that needed to be done so I could feel good about submitting this story. It's my Cowboy story, and I'm hoping it doesn't need much more since I had to rewrite the entire ending and parts of the middle. I think it's so much better for it now.

So, my word count for this last week is mostly rewrites, but it's all new to the story... so it counts. LOL I have 3513 new words for that story, and about half of the edits which add I dunno a couple thousand more words, but only in tweaking. LOL

Now, to see if it's ready for submission. Cross your fingers, I want to get it submitted by the end of the month... and that's Sunday.

Weekly Word Count

Well, last week was much better than the week before. I think switching wips may have helped. Actually I worked on two different wips last week. I know I know... I need to concentrate on one, but I'd rather go where I'm being most productive. I started (well picked up an old wip) a young adult story on Wednesday and it's been flowing very nicely. It's not the one I had been working on earlier in the year, this one is more contemporary. I've been trying to figure out what kids want to be reading, what I would've liked to have read when I was a teen. I know vampires are big these days, but no, I'm not writing a teenage vampire story. I don't think I'd want to compete there, but my main character won't be any ordinary teenager.

So, my word count for this week is 6971 words. I can't complain. I do have to do some editing on other things, though. I'm itching to get something submitted somewhere (although I do have a manuscript with L & L Dreamspell, but no word yet).

I tried the chicken prompt but my chickens were not very spontaneous. Maybe today something scathingly brilliant will hit me. For now I have to concentrate on cute boys and an ice cream stand.

But I did the ten minute writing challenge. I like that. Works well when I don't have any distractions.

Everyone have a lovely Sunday! I'm going flea marketing soon.

Thanks for inviting me back!

Marianne,

This sounds like fun. I accept the challenge but may have to wait until the holiday weekend is over to participate.

Thanks!

And just what is YOUR chicken story?

Anne

Writing Prompt and Writing Challenge

I only heard back from a couple of people, including one commenter (Hi, Melanie! - and yes, the "wri" sounds like write *G*) on whether prompts or challenges would be something we'd like to do here.

But, heck, since I like prompts and challenges, I decided to go ahead and start posting them anyway.

So... I will do my utmost to have one of each posted each Saturday for us to use the following week to stimulate our writing juices! I tend to be a little... er... quirky, so hopefully my prompts will work with you, even if you aren't.

Today:

Writing Prompt: Include a Spontaneous Chicken Situation. It doesn't matter what a SCS is. Just include it.

Writing Challenge: EVERY DAY set the timer for ten minutes and write. Do. Not. Stop. Writing. Doesn't matter if what you write makes sense, just open up the gates and go. We can--each one of us--find ten minutes every day to do this.

Next week, let us know how you did. Did it help you write? What was good and/or what was bad?

Folks, feel free to tell a friend about JaNoWriMo... we need to build up the ranks once more...

Happy Weekend!

I Haz a Thought

Hey ... things are awfully quiet in here, and I'd like to get them stirred up a bit. Some suggestions:

1. A weekly writing prompt.
2. Timed writing.
3. Writing challenges.
4. Other (insert suggestion here).

I LOVE writing prompts... they really get my juices going. I'd be happy to post one every week if anyone was interested.

Otherwise, is it possible JaNo has run its course?

Let me know what you think!!

Not much...

I've been going from crisis to crisis the past few weeks. It's been horrible for my writing output. I was hoping my daughter's illness was it. I was wrong. This past week my son got hit in the face with a baseball during Little League practice. He's got quite the shiner.

Somehow among all the hospital visits for tests and doctor appointments, I managed 1164 words. Not a lot, but something. Most likely due to my writing in Seattle this weekend. I'll take it!

I'm hoping life will be back to normal now.

Fingers crossed!

Bad Busy Week

Well, it was bad for writing, that is. Seemed like I didn't have one afternoon free all week. Always on the go. So there for I only hit my goal I think 3 out of 4 days. Guess that's good considering.

My weekly goal is 3314 words. I've been working on 2 different wips. Got tired of my new new wip when I started having to force it, so I went back to an "old new" wip and it's a little better. I've also started to edit my "short" story (just over 20K).

Yesterday I spent the day burning my face to a crisp. I forgot my sunscreen and I'm one of those fair skinned kinds of British and Danish decent so now I'm feeling poofy and warm. But had a fun time at the NH Pitch Hit and Run competition my son was involved in. He's never been on a baseball team, never really did any of those things until a few weeks ago and he was up against kids who all play on teams, so even though he didn't qualify to go to the next level, he still did pretty well and we had a good time. Now he wants to work on getting on a team for next year.

Off to write. Need to do better this week!!

Mid-Week Posting...

I plumb forgot to post on Saturday... some nag I am!!

I've written very little, working more on editing for now. I've also been fighting a ten-day headache (I think I hurt my shoulder tilling the garden and threw my neck out of whack), so can't spend as much time on the computer. Lots of excuses, which I hate to give.

But, I'm trying what I can. I may end up writing in longhand -- something I'm not really excited about, but I really want to get some writing down. I'll keep you posted.

What about everyone else?

No Clue

I haven't written at the computer in almost two weeks. I did have words the Monday before last, but I got sick after sending out my proposal, then my youngest got really sick. I did get revisions on my proposal so I've been doing those by hand. I hope to have a word count next Monday. Well, I'd better or I won't be sleeping the month of June in order to make my July 1 deadline.

Close...

but not on goal. I've got 9,780 new words this month, so I'm close to the 1,000 words a day I set for myself but, as we all know, close is not exactly there.

I hope to have a chance this evening to catch up. If all goes well I may even get a bit ahead of myself. Fingers crossed!

How are you doing? Hmm?

End of the first week in May

I did okay. I forgot that I upped my daily word count, but I had one really good day that made up for my lack of words on other days.

My total for this week is 6441.

This past week I managed to finish a short story and work on a new piece. I really need to concentrate on some editing though. I have lots and lots to edit.

But working on my new piece, working on my new hero, I asked myself "could this guy be hero material?"


I've been in a The Office mood lately. I love this guy. He's adorable and his character on The Office is awesome. But he's got a goofiness that might not work. Any thoughts?

Off I go to get some groceries. I may add to my word count later. Or I might edit.

Oh, I'm going to be interviewed tomorrow on Denise Robbin's blog. She's been very helpful in the marketing department, something I'm pretty bad at.

Stop by and say hi!

Okay folks... here's who I have

This is everyone I've heard from this month -- if I don't hear from you (even if you don't want to play this month), I'll go ahead and take you off the list of contributors so I don't bug you if/when I email. K?

Me!: 500 words/day
Sarita: 1000 words/day
Ceri: 750 words/day
Keri: sitting this month out
Melissa: 5000 words/week (?)
Kealie: Goal to be decided

That means that I didn't hear from:

Karen
Anne
Charity
Darcy
Jen
Tiffany
Joanie
Groovy
Amy

You guys still want to play? Take the month off and come back in June? Whatever... just let me know!

Three of us for May?

I've only heard from four people, and one of those is taking the month off. So far, I have:

Me
Ceri
Sarita

The numbers are dwindling... anyone have writing friends who might want to jump on board and energize the group?

April? Meh

It wasn't a super duper month so I'm not doing any happy dances right now, and I really have no excuses. I just couldn't find my spark for most of the month. I think my muse went on spring break and left me high and dry.

I managed to eek (or is that eke?) out 21949 words all month on 3 different wips, none of which I finished. I did, however, add some new words to a manuscript that's in for complete renovation, but I don't think it was more than 1000 words. I generally don't count new words added during editing (though maybe I should).

I'm going to strive to do better in May though got some big doin's this month (my sister and b-i-l are arriving this Saturday evening with my new niece. They adopted a baby girl in October and they're finally making it out our way. I'm so excited!!)

So, here's to a prolific May!!