Created on one of “those” days where the brain would not shut up with its usual negative BS.
I guess this might be considered a prose poem? More like just a way to get that crap out of my head.
56 KB Adobe PDF:
B E R Zero Four Twenty-five Twenty-five
Another short bit of fiction that sprung from a writing workshop’s prompt. This writing prompt was simply to write a 500-word story that begins: “And then the wolves came.”
For whatever reason I immediately wanted the word “wolves” to become an acronym. I’ve been trying to vent a lot of frustration and downright ill feeling towards radical extremism, and the incredibly polarized world in which we have come to live when it comes to politics, opinion, and every extreme cause you can imagine; all refusing to let go of history, to live and let live, and instead turning everything into a witch hunt, public shaming campaign intent on destroying the “other” guy (whoever that may be) for simply having different opinions, political leanings, sex, gender, race, whatever. Lot of it recently has been a lot of back spin. Hey, you’re older than 40, male and white? Clearly you’re the devil. 🙄
I managed to keep much of what I had envisioned out of the story, (easy to do when they are this short). So a lot of the current-event specifics I intended to poke some jabs at never made it in. Which I guess keeps this from becoming out-dated. Only the core feelings remain. Maybe that’s better. Regardless, I REALLY like the result.
Download Then the W.O.L.V.E.S. Came
42kb Adobe PDF, 2 pages, about 500 words.
Just a VERY short story I wrote for an exercise for a Writing Workshop I attend when I can. I like the group leader’s writing prompts.
This workshop was titled, (you guessed it,) “Loved To Death”, and instructed us to: “Write a 500-word tragicomedy: romantic comedy WITH a tragic ending.”
After thinking about it briefly I really liked the idea of the scene that sprang to mind and became the story below. I had actually planned more to the story, but fitting it into the word count limit caused me to cut all but the first scene, and even truncating that some. The short approach was my sister’s idea actually. She mentioned a way I could avoid those later scenes at least for the exercise and go for an alternate quick ending. The result may be MORE powerful.
I originally thought I might go back and write the whole thing, but now I’m not so sure, as I increasingly like the effect of this short short. I think the longer, more sentimental idea kind of cheapens the premise, though it may communicate the narrator’s growing love and ultimate tragedy far better than this short version. Hmmm… Maybe I need to write that long version after all, just to see if I can pull the longer format off. We’ll see.
Download Loved To Death
52kb Adobe PDF, 2 pages, about 500 words.
I’ve been analyzing the way I write and speak a lot recently for some reason. One of the reasons is stumbling on an article about a group that has developed an AI that can read the way we communicate in writing to statistically predict whether the subject will develop Alzheimer’s, all with surprising accuracy.
Then there is this computer program which was published in the Harvard Business Review which analyzes the use of pronouns and sentence structural elements (detached from the main content words of the sentence,) as a statistically significant indicator of things like the writer’s or speaker’s honesty, personality, social standing, and current psychology. Continue reading Language is a Virus: Sentence Structure Reveals Brain’s Secrets
I’ve been working on this short story off and on for about a month and a half. I just now finished it and am scrambling to publish it here today as it is of course very appropriate for the “season”. The original idea came from another writing exercise from my local writer’s group. The group was to meet this time just before Halloween, so the organizer decided we should all write a story that had to incorporate a specific quote from Stephen King. The quote in question made me immediately think of… well, Black Friday. The reason why is another story entirely.
But hopefully you will enjoy this story. It’s a bit of a tribute to Stephen King, the Evil Dead series, and basically incorporates the way I feel about the commercial nightmares the holiday seasons have become. Read the Short Story
Another writing exercise turned short story. This one was to somehow incorporate the Halloween-like concept described in a recent viral news item about a midieval skeleton found dangling from the roots of a fallen tree.
I’ve always been fascinated in Scottish and Irish history. Exploring the time period this Irish skeleton was believed to be from, I became interested in the Battle of Clontarf, a large battle that brought an end to the reign of Ireland’s first High King. Read the Short Story
Another very short story inspired by a writing exercise for an upcoming writer’s workshop I attend. This time the group picked three random elements that we were to incorporate in some manner into a 500-“ish” word story. The three elements picked were a boat, a racist, and a Shakespeare quote. The group organizer named this exercise “The Not-Love Boat”. 🙂
Read the Short Story
Here’s the first short story I have written in a long time.
I joined a writing workshop recently. One meeting’s optional exercise was to be a short 500-“ish” word snippet written from the point of view of “The Other” — trying to see something through “someone else’s eyes”. It was intended to explore how a person’s personal perspective changes the way they perceive a situation. An exercise in trying to put yourself in the mind of “a fictional someone you don’t understand or agree with”.
Read the Short Story
I really dug this post by Chuck Wendig. I wish I had a fraction of this guy’s seemingly effortless ability to write. I know it comes not just from skill, but LOTS of practice. I need to practice a lot more. Anyway, its good advice and inspiration if you want to write, and I’m linking to it here so I don’t forget it.
PS: Be warned. Like much of his blog, he likes to use the full range of the English language, (he likes to use a lot of naughty language,) but I think it helps make the point.
2015 RESOLUTION FOR WRITERS: BE BIG (AND THEN, BE SMALL)
from Chuck Wendig’sTerribleMinds.com
So I managed to pull it off. I wrote a novel. Well, half of one anyway.
In case you’re not familiar with it, NaNoWriMo is short for National Novel Writing Month. It is a non-profit organization that hosts an event in which thousands of writers around the world participate in an attempt to write their own 50,000 word novel in the 30 days of November. I planned on participating the year previous but backed out at the last moment. This year however I bit the bullet and did it. It was a long hard road. Around the second week I started to doubt myself, my ability, and the point of it all. Then I said screw it, I wanted to read my story, so I just started writing. Continue reading NaNoWriMo 2014 Winner!
