Welcome Weekend Word Warriors!
(Okay, the alliteration portion of our show has officially ended).
Those of you who ventured into the weekend determined to progress your next-great-American-novel, titled The Next Great American Novel, but rather than speed-writing through chapter after chapter of your tome, you’ve found yourself Face-stalking at The Book (BAD), clicking through Internet chat rooms (BAD), and reading Chuck Norris’s daily blog (REAL BAD), until you (accidentally on-purpose) click your mouse and the Cooler by the Lake home page materializes before your eyes (GOOD): I am here to aide and assist.
Though I cannot perform a Kung Fu high-kick while touting the vast potential of the Tea Party, I can provide your creative brain a little stim to get jump-started.
Below, you will find three writing prompts. Examine all three and pick out one to riff-on. Write three hundred words.
DO NOT THINK.
That’s right, I said it. Do not think. The first thing that pops into your brain, roll with it, and type until you have three hundred words.
Typos? It’s okay.
Run-Ons? It’s okay.
Ridiculous Premises? It’s okay.
Candy-Can Dialogue? It’s okay.
Stock Characters? It’s okay.
Cliches? See how many you can pack into 300 words.
The idea is not to write something brilliant; it’s just to write.
If you like (or hate) what you created, feel free to share it in the comment section. Or tuck it in a drawer and click over to the file containing The Next Great American Novel you swore you were going to work-on this weekend and Newton-Law it (Writing in motion will remain in motion unless acted-on by an external unbalanced force).
Remember, as the great Ron Carlson says: A WRITER IS A PERSON WHO STAYS IN THE ROOM.
Good words to you all.
PROMPT #1: Kung Fu Auditions
PROMPT #2: Vindicated (by Dashboard Confessional)
PROMPT #3: So This One Time, at BillBo’s Tavern...
The Tuesday night shift at BillBo’s Tavern had been the reason I’d been hired as the new bartender; even though I walked-in that one Sunday morning carrying a print-out of a Craig’s List ad which sought a dishwasher ("Hole-in-Every-Wall-Bar Seeks Creative Individual that Fears Not Soap and Suds").
“Can you bartend on Tuesday night?”
I had only just stepped inside the dingy space, senses momentarily blitzed by the rancid smell of puke and BO which would offend a career homeless’s sensibilities.
My pupils compressed enough for me to discern a lone human in the bar: a man whose body would garner snowman-envy squeezed into a spotty-white T-shirt; which might have been too small for his girlfriend, if he had a girlfriend, and if she were on a liquid-diet.
“Huh,” I said.
“Can you bartend Tuesday nights?”
I held up the print-out; the paper shook.
“Can you bartend on Tuesday night?” the man repeated.
I turned the paper around, double-checking I’d printed the correct ad. “No. I’m the creative individual who fears-not soap and suds.”
The fat man shrugged. “I can’t do nothing for you.”
For the conclusion, please click to http://sleepsunshine.com/2010/10/17/ssc-weekend-words-prompt-so-this-one-time-at-bilbos-tavern/.
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