Monday, July 26, 2010

Has it really been THAT long?

Wow, I went almost a complete year without posting anything. Even though I didn't really have a big blogsphere that I was abandoning, this revelation makes me nonetheless feel the need to come back and post with a vengeance. No writer's block will stand in my way anymore.


I would love to be able to post something at least once a week, and with the help of the Saturday Centus, hopefully I can.

Every Saturday Jenny Matlock at Off My Tangent will post a prompt and participating bloggers will have one week to use that prompt, completely unaltered, and form an original story around it. The catch is the story has to be no more that 100 words (excluding the prompt.) Born a rambler, I've been gifted with the ability to ramble on a topic such as the ethics of feeding a dog cat food, for ten pages without once seeming to have repeated myself. With the 100 word stigma, I couldn't repeat myself if I wanted to. A challenge to say the least.

The prompt this week was written by none other than my POPsicle, Sophisticated Lunacy, but he certainly didn't make it any easier. The prompt goes as follows:

Driving six hours is a long time on the road. Six hours spent singing car-aoke and taking in the picturesque scenery, but mostly reminiscing about the good times. But those days were long gone and my mind was in a different place now. Or was it? My pulse quickened as I passed the road sign which read "Medford 27 miles."

So as it is now 4:00 in the morning and I wasted far too many precious hours of sleep working on a blog template that didn't work, I'm going to cut the rambling and get on with it. My story. You'll see the prompt used in italics. Here it goes. I call it Starting Over Again.

--------------------------------------------------

Starting Over Again

There's no need to be nervous. Right?

With each passing mile the nerves become harder to ignore.

"Everything'll be fine." I say as I glance at Charles in the passengers seat, wrapped tightly in a blanket.

But of course, he doesn't respond. Huh, I guess nothing's really changed.

Driving six hours is a long time on the road. Six hours spent singing car-aoke and taking in the picturesque scenery, but mostly reminiscing about the good times. But those days were long gone and my mind was in a different place now. Or was it?

My pulse quickened as I passed the road sign which read "Medford 27 miles. "

An insignificant swamp town of 400, to most Medford isn't worth opening your eyelids for. To me, it means a chance at a new life.

It'll all be over soon.

I smile.

"Like swamps Charlie?" I poke his lifeless body. "Good! That's where you'll meet the last guy who cheated on me."

15 comments:

  1. WOW! This was great. I love the twist you put on the prompt. Guess ol' Charlie learned his lesson:)
    Bravo! Kat

    ReplyDelete
  2. Great job, Lissa! A very well written story, albeit a bit twisted (must be genetic, I'm thinking) but I loved it! The ending was awesome! I'm glad you decided to hop on Jenny's SC bandwagon. It's great fun (well, when they aren't chasing you with pitchforks, anyway!) and your first effort was superb! I look forward to more of your stories each week!

    ReplyDelete
  3. OMG, LOL. This was great. Good job, ha.

    ReplyDelete
  4. This was AWESOME!!!!! What a great twist!!!! I'm glad you're back at it, Lissa!

    ReplyDelete
  5. BRAVO! I love the sense of comic relief when least expected. I'm with PJ - glad you're back!

    Thanks for this one..........cj

    ReplyDelete
  6. Bwuuuuuuuhahahahaha!
    You got me!
    Great....poking his lifeless body felt good!

    ReplyDelete
  7. This is my non-comment post!

    Lissa, is Tom really your Dad? That's cool!

    Here's the thing with writers block. At least for me. I keep a "warboard" right by my desk. Whenever a snippet or fragment of an idea pops into my head I write it on that board. When I am totally stumped I look at it and head off in a direction (that usually doesn't follow what I wrote, but hey, it's a process!) I don't know if that will help you are not.

    When I started writing in my blog daily I committed to myself for 30 days - no excuses. And now I have gone for well over a year writing at least once a day in my blog and often many extra hours a day.

    You have a great style. I hope you stick with it.

    ReplyDelete
  8. OK. This is my comment post about your story.

    I loved your macabre direction with this prompt. It was interesting writing the "sequel" to Tom's prompt. I thought of it more as a part of my story rather than an inclusion to what I wrote.

    It looks like you did the same thing.

    I really hope to keep seeing you on this meme, although be warned I think I'm throwing a monkey wrench into the machinery next Saturday!

    It's fun stirring things up! And it keeps our writing muscles sharp!

    Thank you for linking. I enjoyed your vision and direction.

    ReplyDelete
  9. Just coming to meet 'Tom's' kid (love the 'POPsicle) and I Like! You're a writer anyway so you shouldn't have any trouble keeping us enlightened. Well ok, time may do it..does for me. But I love what you did with this prompt and I'll be watching for one this week. Unless of course you're on your POP's list of the #13 boneheads :)

    I'll certainly be back for more.

    Following...

    ReplyDelete
  10. WTH, it won't let me follow....

    I'll keep trying.

    ReplyDelete
  11. Lissa, what a debut! Clearly, there is a lot of talent in your gene pool. Very clever twist. I loved it.

    So you write screenplays, huh. I wrote TV-movies for about 25 years.

    I'll be a regular visitor.

    ReplyDelete
  12. Hahaha! Oh that's a good one. Really liked it. And welcome to Saturday Centus.

    ReplyDelete
  13. @ Kat : Thank you! And yes, Charlie won't be cheating on anyone anymore.

    @ Tom : Yeah, what can I say? I like morbid humor.The more twisted the better I always think.

    @ Viki: Thanks!

    @ PJ: Thanks! It feels good to be back!

    @ CJ: Thank you! Me too! I'm such a big fan of dark comedies and finding the humor in even bad things!

    @ Linda: Thanks! haha, it felt kinda squishy actually. Like poking a roll of dough.

    @ Jenny: Yep. Tom's my pa. I like to take all the credit for him though. I taught him how to write when I was four years old. I wrote my lectures on the wall in crayon and he would study and study them, only erasing them from the walls after they were committed to his memory.

    That war board sounds like a good idea! I have a similar thing. An idea notebook. I'll just have to start forcing those off the notebook and into larger forms.

    I can't wait for the monkey wrench! The harder the better!

    @ CatLadyLerew : Thanks! It's kind of weird because Charlie is the name of my childhood dog and the first name I think of when naming a male character. Haha.

    @ Vicki: Thank you! I wish I could take credit for the Popsicle thing but it really wasn't until WICKED that I heard of it, and instantly loved it.

    And yes, time is the hardest thing to beat. I now how so many ideas to write about, and no time to do it. Complete reversal of before, having no ideas but all the time in the world. Life always seems to work out that way.

    I'll try to figure out why it's blocking you. I know I messed up a while ago when my dad came up twice as my follower so I blocked one of him and now he can't follow me at all! Haha, so maybe I changed a setting or something.

    @ Injaynesworld: Thanks! TV movies? Awesome!!! I'm still struggling to figure out which venue best suits me. Studying for a major in a combined cinema/television, but still don't fell a push toward any direction.

    @ Tina: Thanks for the welcoming!

    ReplyDelete
  14. I missed this one when it was posted. SHAME on me, I try to read all every week! I really liked this, it was a hardish prompt to work with and yet you said so much in so few words.

    ReplyDelete