he decided the leak was minor,
inspected the mountings and then started back towards
the main camp. suddenly he found a
weapon thrust in his face. "do it
then" he shouted, suddenly sick of this game. That
threw the attacker off long enough for Sammy to grab for the gun.
it went off with a tremendous roar. he watched Hal go
down and baulked. Seemed the only way out was to kill
again. when will this end?
Entering writing challenges
I like the idea of entering more and more challenges, but I have missed the boat on this writing challenge, being that I have only just seen it and it was for a signup before the day before yesterday.
I know that the main idea is the community around such things, but I also just like the pure challenge aspect of them.
In fact, as I am not doing the official challenge, I have decided to add a couple of layers of complexity to the challenge as presented.
Which was to go to your 'home library' (I love that term) and pick a random shelf.
Take the seventh book, turn to the seventh page, and choose the seventh sentence.
Then write an undefined amount in an undefined manner using that sentence as an inspiration.
Not liking the vague nature of this last part, I decided to make two extra instructions.
- write each word of the sentence you found using the previous instructions on a new line, like the example here
write
each
word
on
a
new
line
Then flesh out each line only in the space available in the rest of that one line.
linking on to the next word as best you can.
- word count of 77 words total.
The resulting 'story' (although I accept the idea of any type of writing) may well be quite surreal or very straight forward)
I will do my first one here as an example.
I went to my (chaotic) and dusty (filthy) bookshelves (in my home library)(lol) and picked the shelf right at eye level.
The book is "Use of Weapons", one of the (third one I think) Culture series by the prolific and talented writer Iain M. Banks, now sadly deceased. (last year I think; but my temporal memory structures are deteriorating fast)
I turned to page seven as the seventh page is still before the book starts properly speaking. (depends how you count them, as the seventh leaf is a poem before the prologue even. If I take the seventh line of the poem, "Slight Mechanical Destruction" I get something else altogether. "You walked amongst the smashed machines"
I may do it too.
However, as stated, I turned instead to page 7 as marked.
Not counting the half a sentence that comes from the page before, the seventh sentence is "He inspected the weapon then, threw it down again"
It was when I made this discouraging discovery that I decided to change the rules.
:)
Under my new conditions I get to start with nine lines.
he
inspected
the
weapon
then
threw
it
down
again
And then I get to use what ever words I can fit into the lines, and into my total limit of 77 to flesh out something interesting.
Or perhaps sketch out better said, as it is of necessity very superficial.
so I came up with what you see above, at the start of today's post.
he decided the leak was minor,
inspected the mountings and then started back towards
the main camp. suddenly he found a
weapon thrust in his face. "Do it
then" he shouted, suddenly sick of this game. That
threw the attacker off long enough for Sammy to grab for the gun.
it went off with a tremendous roar. He watched Hal go
down and baulked. Seemed the only way out was to kill
again. When will this end?
If you feel inspired too, give it a go and make a post, link it here in a comment, and I will sure go look and give it my minnow love.
If you use the tag molaaspaingaroo it'll be easy to find everyone's too
(don't use it as your first tag, unless you only want us to find it.)
I'm going to have a go at the line from the poem too. Here goes, in real time
you casually leaned in towards your lovely companion as you
walked together through the beautiful fall afternoon. Lunch, a picnic
amongst the spectacular wildflowers in the deserted landscape and after;
the slow love-making, sometimes frantic during moments, before getting
smashed together. Now as you both lie there satiated, you try to not think of the
machines.
Since that final full stop is the point where the total is 777 words for this post, and I don't believe that I can fit another twenty words in that bit without spilling over into line breaks and it's my second one. I'll leave it at that. (it only has 57 words, but in six lines...)
Good luck with your sentences, may they be of an appropriate length and may the road rise up to meet you and the wind be at your back.
I hope I have inspired to similarly self challenge.
I can't leave that last one alone.
I wonder if I can fit the seventy seven words in after all.
you casually leaned in towards your lovely companion as you laughed, loved and
walked together through the beautiful fall afternoon. Lunch, a picnic on a towel
amongst the spectacular wildflowers in the deserted landscape and after;
the slow love-making, sometimes frantic during moments, before getting thoroughly
smashed together. Now quiet as you both lie there satiated, you try to not think of the
machines. There will be time enough , after all they weren't going to smash themselves!
OH, can't fit in the line wraps.
I write this in Ghostwriter which I highly recommend for writing your posts. It automatically saves, it allows markdown and html tags, (although it can be a little confusing to know the final result until you see the post preview) and like all the best things in life it's free.
I have no relationship with the makers of Ghostwriter and I only recently started using it, but I have no hesitation in recommending it.
I used to use Notepad++ but ghostwriter is far more inspiring to use.
It even has a Hemingway button which turns it into a typewriter. no going back, no deleting, until you turn that mode off of course.
It reminds me of the most dangerous writing app which is an insane experience. You set it for the time you choose, and from the time the counter starts, if you hesitate you lose your work.
Seriously.
If you stop typing for more than a few seconds, or sin of sins, try to go back, you lose everything you have written.
After that happens a couple of times you learn not to hesitate.
But in the end I don't like the stress, nor do I like losing stream of consciousness writings because of the dogs, for an example.
But if you like pressure, maybe it's for you.
I am sticking to ghostwriter, it's cute as heck too, and completely minimal, no tools or very few, very discrete, and you can make even those disappear.
anyway, the reason I mention it, is as it is where I am writing this.
The line breaks may be different on my blog, and the whole thing will come out bunged up.
I can't connect to the internet so I can't test.
I am going to leave this at one thousand, two hundred and seventy-seven words.
That was impressive! It's a an unusual story, quite interesting, like a diary journal on how you create content and the challenges you are overcoming in the process of writing.. didn't know about Ghostwriter. How many posts have you written with that one?
I try and write all my posts in ghostwriter first. Then it's a simple select all (cntl + A) and cntl+C copy, and paste into the posting box (cntl + V) on Steemit. (sorry for that simpleton thing, but some people don't know you can do these things)
I finally discovered that you can change the size of the little box that steemit gives us for posting and commenting in. But even so, It is far easier to see the whole thing laid out in a big white space in ghostwriter.
If you try it, I am sure you'll be pleasantly surprised. And did I mention it's free and open source, I think. (the latter, I mean. It is definitely free! Gotta love that community thang)
I think I am only trying my hand at creative writing because ghostwriter makes it seem fun.
or something
Try the most dangerous writing app too, but that is too high stakes for me.
But fun and a way to lift your 'hesitation' game.
do five or ten minutes in that every morning to start and you will be writing better, or at least faster.
But in my house there is rarely a ten minute period without some sort of minor domestic incident, and you cannot even save until you have done the time. And if you stop you lose it.
Ever try markdownpad2?
also notable are stackmd.io which is an online editor with sidebyside preview, which renders code exactly the way steemit does.
hackmd.io doesn't render the code perfectly the same as steemit, but allows for realtime collaborative effort quite simply. (nice even for someone to proofread)
Markdownpad crashes on my computer, I have it here.
stackmd.io sounds interesting
I'll look into it soon
thanks man
I really like using ghostwriter though, can't say why, and it doesn't render everything well either.
thanks for the update on ghostwriter! :-D I don't know what I'd do without markdownpad!!!
it was the one I choose first, but I never got it to work.
So I went back to try again and choose ghostwriter
oh, and it counts your words too, pretty obviously, making it natural to want to try and make a particular number of words. For me anyway.
I have almost never sent an SMS that had less than the exact number of characters permitted. Makes for some challenges composing a simple message to take up 160 characters. (that's how many you get in Spain, I think)
funny how I never got into twitter.
maybe I should revisit.
I follow some funny people on twitter, but I never post, except autosharing my facebook posts, which sucks of course.
I think they've recently increased the 16 symbols limit on Twitter. So, I should give a try to Ghostwriter.
listen, I highly recommend it, but I am generally considered pretty strange in many things.
But what the hey, if you don't like it you can always go back to what you have been doing up till now.
Which is...?
What have you been doing?
I tried to write directly, but as you know, it's usually better to let things rest and digest before re-writing and then publishing. Probably should do it for comments too but that's a step too far.
Do you write somewhere else first?
Interesting, thanks for sharing
thanks for coming by