March 2019 No Prize Challenge Announcement: Random Inspirations

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Heya folks! I know it's a bit late, but here I am to announce a challenge for next month: Random Inspirations!

This time 'round there are a few things we'll be doing different though:

1. I won't be able to provide a prize for this one. Don't worry: prizes for the January contest are still gonna be a thing! But I won't be able to do that again for a while after those are delivered, and this month is the first of that. Sorry.

2. There will be no winners or losers this time 'round: instead, everyone who completes the challenge will get a special mention in a "Thank You" blog post in April.

I know I'd said I was considering a Henry Harrelson challenge for March, but let's be honest here: as much as I've always REALLY liked the stories that have come from the universe in the past it isn't popular or open enough to really get the amount of participation I want to see. So what am I doing instead, you might wonder? Well, it's very simple.

I've found a random word generator online.

Each Friday in March I will post a selection of 3 words chosen by the generator. Those will be the prompts for that week.

The challenge? Use those 3 words provided as inspiration to create a story of at least 500 words. I'd like to humbly request avoiding anything too risque' as well, but that's mostly personal preference and I won't actually hold anyone's choices for story content against them.

The "inspiration" provided by the words can come in a variety of ways. Perhaps you use them literally, building a phrase or theme around them. Maybe you use them as points of interest or character quirks. Try your best to find ways to utilize them where their influence is obvious, but devious twisting of the concepts and creative use of them can also be very interesting too!

Entries can be submitted up until the time I post the blog entry with the new words the next Friday: I'll try to maintain consistency as best I can, but best bet is that I'll likely be posting the new words around 1-3 AM CST each week.

The challenge officially ends on the fifth of April, and I'll try to throw out the congratulations blog the following weekend.

Sound fun? I think it does.

As an example, using the word generator I've found I generate the following list of words:

Sleep
Crook
Youthful

How do I use them? Maybe I write something like an inverted Rip Van Winkle, where an elderly conman falls asleep and awakes as a beautiful young woman in another century. Or perhaps I write a story set in the land of Dreams, wherein a princess must stop a thief from taking Morpheus' power? Maybe the words are traits for three different characters in a more real-world tale: how would I weave those characters into an interesting storyline? Wait! Maybe my story's title is "Sleeping at the Youthful Crook," and takes place in the Youthful Crook tavern on a fateful night? Whatever you choose to do, be creative with the use of the inspirational words and you'll be fine.

Most importantly, even if you can't keep up with the whole challenge, feel free to tackle them when and if you can! The point of my contests and challenges is simple: to get more stories on the site from more authors, new and old. So long as we're doing that, we're all winning.

:)

If anyone wants a practice, here are a few sample sets to get you going. Remember, though, that none of these will be used for the actual challenge: they're just here for you to get an idea of what you'll be tackling when the first rolls around.

Practice set 1:

Gather: Window: Glistening

Practice set 2:

Escape: Follow: Adventurous

Practice set 3:

Cabbage: Earsplitting: Productive

Practice set 4:

Basin: Please: Spill

Practice set 5:

Past: Back: Rake

Anywho, let me know what y'all think of this challenge, and if anyone wants to run a more normal contest-type thing, feel free! Thanks to all of y'all for everything you do.

Melanie E.

Comments

Morning in the Garden

Looking out the window, the glistening dew made the green grass sparkle in the morning sun. Sara gathered her things and decided to escape the confines of the house for some morning fresh air. Following the flagstone path towards the garden, she noticed an adventurous squirrel stealing a ripe tomato.

Trying to make her time productive, she picked a couple of ripe cabbage. Her quiet enjoyment of the morning air was interrupted by the earsplitting whine of two police cars racing down her street followed by more emergency vehicles.

Pleased with the success of her garden, Sara walked to her garden basin to rinse off the ripe fruit. Fresh water spilled over the sides watering the petunias she had planted below to enjoy periodic showers from the basin.

Looking back on past years, she remembered that if she left the dead plant behind it could lead to disease. So, she grabbed a rake to go clean up her garden. hoping to avoid any more earsplitting noise from emergency vehicles.

A very straight-forward way of tackling the challenge,

though also indicative of why I specified 500 words minimum per each prompt. I've given other people this kind of challenge before, and sentences like this were their exact response. Clever, yes, while at the same time entirely missing the point of the challenge.

Three words. Three small, simple words. What can you create with those words that transcends their simple value as pieces of speech or description? How can you twist or transform them to make something entirely unique and beautiful from them? What you have done here has elements of that, surely, but while it USES the words as listed, it doesn't really do anything to EMBODY them, which is more the point than simply seeing them.

So . . . what can ya do with that? :)

Melanie E.

Opening sentences

Most of the boys in our apartment complex would gather at their window to watch whenever Vanessa would lie out in the courtyard in her bikini, suntan lotion glistening on her skin, but I was the only one who looked at her with envy and not lust.

If we were going to escape from our foster parents, we'd need disguises so they couldn't follow us, and Ralph (always more adventurous than timid me) got the idea to raid the clothesline next door.

When my husband unwrapped the mint in box Cabbage Patch Doll that I'd found on ebay and saw that her blonde pigtails looked just like his, he let out an earspliiting squeal of delight and skipped toward the bedroom, beckoning me to follow to show me his appreciation; this day was not going to be as productive as I'd promised my editor.

When the snow stopped, we saw that the valley we were in was a natural basin surrounded by steep cliffs that would keep us from walking out before spring and we'd have to sleep together for warmth, but I'm not sure why I agreed when Jeb said, "Please," as he started to spill the contents of his late wife's trunk for me.

Sideshow Bobbi always thought back to her past life whenever her back spasms returned, reminding her of The Rake Incident.

A lousy grammar entry.

"Window we leave on vacation? Are you glistening to what I'm saying?" Joe, a jolly good follow, loved his girl and wanted to gat-her to the fair; the Advent Switch festival was starting. "After the switch on Advent,ur ous and we're you." "Really?" said Clark. "i was gonna go as Superman, with an S-shirt and es-cape." "No," replied Joe. "Advent switch is the new product-i've decided to push. Not much difference; so no use splitting hairs, nor earsplitting either." "Okay, can someone help me with my cabbage? That's my combo word for 'baggage from the cab," yelled Cindy as she got out of the taxi. The boys didn't notice her. "What are you basin this on?" yelled Clark, "or are my please falling on deaf ears? Can you even spill the word 'Advent'?" "Yes!" pouted Joe. "I learned how from that TV show, Orange is the new Back." "I need help with my bags!" Cindy screamed. "I am so past off with you guys!" The next words I heard were "Rake up, Rake up, Matt." It had all been a dream.

Words may be false and full of art;
Sighs are the natural language of the heart.
-Thomas Shadwell

Owwwww.

Honey, no. Just . . . no.

:)

Melanie E.

Snort!

Daphne Xu's picture

Groan.... Ewwwwwwww!

-- Daphne Xu

Malinov's Write Club

Daphne Xu's picture

Does anyone remember Malinov's Write-Club duels? Probably not, except possibly Erin. They were on ASS* about twenty years back. https://www.asstr.org/~Rui_Favorites/Write_Club/

A person challenges another, the second accepts, and a ref joins in. Each person delivers three words, and the contestants have three hours to write a story featuring all nine words. I was absolutely sure I couldn't do such a thing until -- in the midst of lowered judgment from sleepiness, I agreed to not one but two challenges -- and did them. (I did a third. They're in the link.)

-- Daphne Xu