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Tag: story

Get on over to the CCC!

Hello there!  Today I wanted to write about a great little site that I go t introduced to by Aaron Pogue over at Unstressed Syllables.

If you are a writer and haven’t checked out Aaron’s stuff, do it.  He is very talented at teaching writing, which is good seeings as how he teaches writing on the college level too.  He also has an incredibly easy to use ebook out about how to write an ebook!  It is called How To Build An Ebook (affiliate link).  Check it out, you will be impressed.  I have another post that my lazy butt has to write about this book.

But today, I want to talk about the CCC, which is the Creative Copy Challenge.  This Site is run by Shane Arthur and he is a nut for some good writing.  Every Monday and Thursday he posts a new challenge.  Yesterday, May 20, he posted #42.  what you get is a list of 10 words or short phrases that you are challenged to “create a cohesive, creative short story tying all the words together!”

Sounds daunting doesn’t it?  Honestly I don’t think so.  I have been waiting for the words to be posted  and then writing my stories.  It has been kind of wild to see where my story goes based on inspiration from some randomly selected words.   What is really interesting is how many different ways that authors work with the same 10 words.

I started writing over there just for fun but it is addictive and I just keep doing more.  There are short self contained stories, there are really short works that ONLY use the challenge words, and then there are some silly people that feel compelled to put up a new chapter for their novel twice a week.

I am almost one of those.  Mine are not as long as Aaron’s up there but they are coming.  There are a few people in the challenge that are writing long stories, still using the challenge words but building on what has come previously.  Shane has graciously put up a page linked to each persons longer story so it can be read all at once.

Some others, like me, have created their own sites to show off all of the challenges.  You can see all of my stuff at my original Blog at http://delphiusbogue.wordpress.com.

Head on over to the Creative Copy Challenge and check it out.  If you have writers block this can help force you to write something.  If you just want to put something out to the world that has nothing to do with your blog, do it.  If you want to read some great stories head on over and do it.  There are some good things going on over there.  Just be warned, it is addictive.  The FDA may have to regulate it at some point.

Have a great day!

-Justin

Cloris Leachman and Christmas Lights in the Nose…

I had a dream last night.  Cloris Leachman was the sexy starlet in an unfolding drama that had someone very generic as the leading man.  I was off to the side.  Good thing too, I could turn my back on the love scene that was just starting.

What I couldn’t get away from was the overwhelming urge to apply for a job at the pancake house with my wife.  We drove into the parking lot sometime in the early afternoon, dreary winter sun diffused by smog and a dirty winshield.  We walked confidently and holding hands into the pancake house.  From there it was a little strange.

The place was empty save for a few middle eastern men screaming at each other in what I could only guess was Arabic.  After walking through the door we were in a small foyer.  I looked around and saw a few cracked orange vynil chairs, the free newspaper rack, a couple of gumball machines, a none too clean glass bakery display case, and a counter topped by a cash register.  I walked to the counter and cleared my throat to get the attention of the man behind it.

He turned and glared at me so I asked him for 2 applications.  He smiled a knowing viper’s smile and produced an application.  AN APPLICATION.  As in one and only one application.  An application and a tall redheaded girl that took both the application and my wife to the main dining area of the restaraunt.  I was left standing in the small foyer, now being ignored very thouroughly.

Time passed and I asked repeatedly for my application, hoping that I could get it filled out before my wife emerged from the back room.  I didn’t get the application.  I stared at the ceiling.  I stared at the wall.  I looked for magic eye pictures in the dirty carpet.  I noticed cobwebs in the display case underneath layer upon layer of fingerprints.  I was wondering if the police could sort out my fingerprints when I started killing these people.  I had been reduced to muttering, “application, give me application…application…work…application…give me…”  I wasn’t even sure how long I had been there, could have been hours, could have been days.

Just as I was entertaining thoughts of breaking that display case with my head, the door opened and a small dark haired man entered.  Everyone in the foyer stiffened as if Tony Soprano walked in and they were a little short with the take this week.  He never spoke but a rustling behind me said someone else had come into the foyer from the restaraunt side.  This man was a WWE wrestler.  Really he was, they call him the Great Khali.  He is a huge man nearly 7 feet tall with a huge lantern jaw and permanent scowl.  And 2 strings of Christmas lights plugged into his nose.  And they were blinking.  Like Uncle Fester and the light bulb. They were long strings too, the 300 light variety, the ends wrapped around his neck like bizzare necklaces.

The dark haired man pointed to me and the Great Khali advanced.  I was going to get my butt whooped by a professional wrestler with Christmas lights in his nose.  I knew I was going to have to fight, the door was blocked and the restaraunt was blocked off.  I turned as he reached me.  I reached up and unplugged the lights from his nose hoping they were the source of his power.  He stopped midstride.  His head bowed.  He lauged and punched me in the chest, launching me across the room and into the free newspaper rack.

I stood up shakily as he came near again plugging the lights back in.  I hit the plug on the lights smashing it up into his nose.  He fell over.  It was then I woke up.  I keep thinking how weird it was that I would look for a job in a pancake house, and how much I didn’t want ANY image of Cloris Leachman taking off her shirt stuck in my head.  Or maybe I could just google it and have it stuck on my computer….

Written in response to the challenge on Website in a Weekend.net

Have fun dancing in my brain matter.

Justin