Writing Prompt Attempt #2

What I’m Reading: Silent in the Grave by Deanna Raybourn

What I’m working on: Plot boards and fun stuff for Slayer and getting new ideas via prompts.

New Words Today: 282

Time to finish up yesterday's writing prompt.

Randomly select one of your firsts and one of your lasts. (Perhaps cut them all up and drop them in a hat.) For example, from my list it might be: The first time I broke curfew, I wore my red high heels. Or it might be: The last time I saw the ocean was the night I attended my first séance.

Here's my attempt from a randomly drawn selection:

I saw him for the first time during the last coyote attack.

I'd shoved shells in the shot gun as I sprinted for the corral. The pack’s attacks continued to increase in frequency, and I had yet to get a shot off. Losing calves equated to pissing away profits.

The cows sounded like the frantic mothers they were, desperately protecting their calves. The most recent birth flashed in mind. I’d pulled the hind legs to help the young mother birth her first – an adorable, petite, pitch black baby. I couldn't lose that one.

I ran faster, rounding the corner in time to see one of the older females butting a mangy dog. I fired a round into the air and hoped it would frighten them off the herd long enough to get a clean shot or two. I ached to take down one of the pack.

Losing three calves in a week hurt ranch profits. Of course, refusing to sell the calves I became attached to hurt the profits as well. So far, I was attached to all of them.

The shot worked and the pack scattered, running into all corners of the night.

I raised my gun as I bolted around the fence. The blurred form bounded across the prairie almost out of range, but I took a shot anyway.

In the moonlight, I couldn’t really tell, but I thought I just might have hit it.

Shoving the gun into a make-shift holster on the four-wheeler parked next to the barn, I peeled out in the general direction the animal had taken.

It didn’t take long to find what I hit.

Naked, bleeding men are pretty visible – even in the moonlight.

Writing prompt #2

What I’m Reading: Silent in the Grave by Deanna Raybourn and A Long Way Gone: Memoirs of a Boy Soldier by Ishmael Beah

What I’m working on: Deciding what I really need to do with Slayer. Thanks Alyson and Katrina for all your help.

New Words Today: 105

Here’s the beginning of a new prompt for you. List at least 10 firsts and 10 lasts in your life. (You can make them up or make them real. It’s up to you.) I’ll tell you what to do with them tomorrow. (And, no, I won’t tell you if these are real or not.)

Here is my list.

Firsts
The first time I kissed him.
The first time I cheated.
The first time I visited New York City.
The first time I flew on an airplane.
The first time I hiked the Rincons.
The first time I ate sushi.
The first time I fired a gun.
The first time I drove cross-country.
The first time I hitchhiked.
The first time I attended a séance.
The first time I broke curfew.
The first time I gazed at the Pacific.
The first time the power lines came down.
The first time the war ended.
The first time I saw him.


Lasts
The last time I had a date.
The last time I walked alone at night.
The last time forgot my cell phone.
The last time I got so drunk I couldn’t remember what I did.
The last time I saw the ocean.
The last time I wore red high heels.
The last time I saw my family.
The last time I had tequila.
The last time I saw my hometown.
The last time the Arizona Wildcats won the final four.
The last time I felt warm sunshine on my skin.
The last time it rained.
The last time he called.
The last time the lawyer called.
The last time coyotes attacked.

Writing prompt attempt #1

What I’m Reading: Silent in the Grave by Deanna Raybourn and A Long Way Gone: Memoirs of a Boy Soldier by Ishmael Beah

What I’m working on: Motivating myself to finish.

New Words Today: 100

Here's my attempt at yesterday's promt. Enjoy.

“An unsolved mystery is a thorn in the heart.” This is the opening line of a short prose piece you are to write, meditating on an unsolved mystery in your own life. You can transpose this into purely fictional terms.

An unsolved mystery is a thorn in the heart.

Imagine what a dozen must be.

The old hope chest housed at least a dozen mysteries. At least.

Melissa categorized its contents into two piles: okay, I knew this about my mom and what-the-hell.

It was the what-the-hell pile causing her hands to tremble. At least she hadn’t found this stuff before the funeral. If she had, what would she have said?

How about I loved my mother, the woman that was apparently married at least once before dad?

Or huh, for what it’s worth, it seems we’ve been celebrating the wrong wedding anniversary for my long deceased father and recently deceased mother. It seems that that they weren’t married in January after all. Their marriage license says June. Yes, that’s right. I came along pretty quickly after that.

When she’d offered to sort through this old stuff alone, she’d expected to find some newspaper clippings and year books from her mother’s high school days. Her mom been the head cheerleader and student council VP. Melissa expected to find the veil her mother wore when she married her dad. But she’d found three veils, three different wedding invitations to three different men, and a wedding ring that obviously didn’t belong to her mother or her grandmother. Or, hell. Maybe it did.

What she found made no sense. The woman who was supposed to have been an open book was instead shrouded in mystery.

The what-the-hell pile made the chaos of Melissa’s life look pretty damn tame.

She ought to let this go – just let the garbage truck haul off the junk. Her mom had hidden these secrets and letting them lie seemed the most respectful course of action.

But the anger boiling up would never let Melissa leave it be. Besides, discovering her mother’s secrets might diminish her own secrets a bit. And wasn’t it about time for that?

Writing prompt #1

What I’m Reading: Silent in the Grave by Deanna Raybourn and A Long Way Gone: Memoirs of a Boy Soldier by Ishmael Beah

What I’m working on: Another scene in Slayer. DSM is almost over. I’m so sad, but I do have a grid for my hero and heroine – a grid I like, not the lame thing I started with.

New Words Tuesday: 341
New Words Wednesday: 106
New Words Thursday: 159
New Words Today: 147

I recently received a copy of a wonderful text to review for my favorite high school. Random House sent it to me. I love Random House’s website, magazine, and other media for educators.

The book I received is called Naming the World: and Other Exercises for the Creative Writer. It’s edited by Bret Anthony Johnston and contains ideas from many famous authors. We’re considering it for the creative writing class.

I’ve fallen in love with this book.

I’ve decided to make at least one day a week at my blog a writing exercise day. I’ll post one of the prompts or ideas from the book on my blog and also most an excerpt of my writing as a result. You should feel free to post your excerpt in my comments section or post a comment about the experience of trying the exercise or post your excerpt at your blog (and leave a comment so I’ll know to go read it).

Today’s prompt is from page 7. Try to aim for writing 10 minutes.

“An unsolved mystery is a thorn in the heart.” This is the opening line of a short prose piece you are to write, meditating on an unsolved mystery in your own life. You can transpose this into purely fictional terms.

I'll post mine as Saturday's blog. It's too full of typos to post tonight. And I'm not in an editing mood.

Happy writing.
Macy

"Those aren't real books."

What I’m Reading: Silent in the Grave by Deanna Raybourn and A Long Way Gone: Memoirs of a Boy Soldier by Ishmael Beah

What I’m working on: The grid and now the plot board for The Slayer’s Circle. (Yippee for Story Magic.)

New Words Sunday: 189
New Words today: 566

I just finished listening to a nationally renowned motivational speaker. He visited my favorite high school today to speak to the students. He did it for free. (He usually makes 15k a day speaking.) He made ten points about how to be a champion in life – ten foundations for the construction of a champion.

One of his points was to think, to exercise your brain. He stressed the point of reading – everyday.

I thought, “Wonderful! This is what we need.” He challenged the students to read an hour a day! Yes! It’s an ambitious goal, but why not? He pointed out some statistics (don’t where he got them) which indicate that a significant number of men will never finish another book once they exit high school. He said 85% of all books purchased are purchased by women.

I don’t know about those statistics, but okay -- I do think women probably read more than men.

However, it was the next part of his speech that unsettled me. He said to read something worthwhile. (Can you see where this is headed?) He said don’t read mystery/crime novels or romance novels. “They don’t count. Read a real book. Those aren’t real books.”

I was fairly outraged. I write those kinds of books! And, any book you can get a kid to read is one more book he/she is reading. How can that be bad?

I think his point was to read something you can learn from. He thinks you can’t learn from mystery, crime, & romance novels, so therefore they can’t be beneficial.

I disagree. DISAGREE!!!!!! What about you? What would your rebuttal be?

Macy

Saturday Stuff

What I’m Reading: Silent in the Grave by Deanna Raybourn and A Long Way Gone: Memoirs of a Boy Soldier by Ishmael Beah

What I’m working on: Not being so lazy. (I mean, we came home from the beach today. You’d think I’d be up to working hard again.) (Please note the sarcasm.)

New Words Friday: 165
New Words today: 167

Saturday Stuff

1) I’m in a melancholy mood. I’m sure there are plenty of reasons, but the biggest is probably that I have to go back to work on Monday. No more spring break. The second is surely that I didn’t get anywhere close to as much work done as I should have. (Almost none at all.) My brain just shut off and all I could do was sleep in, be entertained by TV (which I never find time to watch) and books (my favorite time thief), and lay around on a couch or in the sun. Anything more was just too taxing on the brain. Third reason for my melancholy: I’ve been reading non-fiction. I just finished Mountains Beyond Mountains and I’m in the middle of A Long Way Gone. The former depicts the apathy of the industrialized world toward the sick poor. It ends well. Dr. Paul Farmer is brilliant and noble, but it’s a very meaty read. I probably should have stuck with light romance over break, but I couldn’t have handled meaty while working. (Plus the book has been selected by dozens of colleges for their Freshmen Year Experience community read. I had to see what the buzz was about.) I’m doing the listen/read thing with A Long Way Gone. It’s amazing to hear such a powerful story read by the author himself. (I got to hear him speak when I was in NY. Wow.) But it’s emotionally draining. So, there. Now you understand the melancholy.

2) I’m at that point in a story (The Slayer’s Circle) that I HATE. I’m about 80% done. And it all SUCKS. I’m at the point where none of it is good enough. The characters aren’t real enough. The plot isn’t strong enough. The writing isn’t perfect. Blah, blah, blah.

3) I’m taking both Empowering Character Emotions and Discovering Story Magic at the same time. (“Fool,” you say.) Yes. Pretty much. I’ve discovered (no pun intended) two things. One: My focus currently is on DSM – and it should be. I think it will help with the suck-age problem in #2. So, I’m checking my email every 10 minutes or so to see if I have comments from the brilliant Laura and Robin yet. I, unfortunately, have to put ECE on the back burner. Oh, I’m printing all the lectures and they’re GREAT, but it seems to me it’s more of a finishing up sort of thing rather than I’m-in-the-thick-of-it sort of thing.

4) My husband has challenged me not to buy any new books until May 1st. I have PLENTY to read so I don’t NEED to buy them. Of course, he challenged me yesterday and I went and bought some today. (Can anyone direct me to a good 12 step program for book addiction?) However, they don’t count. I was filling up a care package to send to my brother’s family in Rome, Italy. By brother is a book worm, too. He travels a lot and hence reads on the airplane. My oldest niece is 12 and has a college reading level. (She finished Flags of Our Fathers in just a few days and was able to discuss it very intelligently.) She’s a bit like me. Books and writing are her thing. The bummer of living in Rome is there are no American bookstores. To get English books, you have to go Naples (2 hours) and buy them at the base. The selection is marginal. All that to say, I send a care package every couple of months. I fill it with books for my nieces (10 and 12) and brother and magazines for my sister-in-law. The packages are a BIG deal to them and they gather around to see what everyone got. The last book I sent my oldest niece was Ally Carter’s I’d Tell You I Love You, but Then I’d Have to Kill You. She got it on a Friday and was done the next day. (You can see why buying books for them doesn’t count!)

5) I’ve stalled enough. The dryer is finished which means I can put the clean sheets on the bed and settle back into reading again. Uh, I mean I can park my butt in front of my MIP and get busy!!!

Macy

The Beach, part 4

What I’m Reading: Mountains Beyond Mountains: The Quest of Dr. Paul Farmer, a Man Who Would Cure the World by Tracy Kidder

What I’m working on: Discovering story magic grid for The Slayer’s Circle. Whew that stuff is difficult, but in the end I know it will help the story. It’s already helped A LOT!

New Words today: 118

It’s late, but it’s vacation so it doesn’t matter. Technically, it’s 2 am, but the post will say 11:59 pm. Vacations always screw up my internal clock.

I’ve been working on my Discovering Story Magic grid for The Slayer’s Circle. And I’ve been writing. A little.

Of course, the reason I’m up so late is because I put off writing until now. I’m a mid-morning writer or a late night writer. Afternoons – not so good for me. Since I slept late and read (a lot) and went to a friend’s condo to socialize, I just decided to wait until late.

Hmm…. Tomorrow ought to be fun. I wonder what time I’ll wake up. (Hopefully, in time to go to this great little café for breakfast……)

Macy