Sometimes lowering the stakes for a story can be the best way to make your writing go well.
So let’s play. Let’s be silly. Let’s write a story that can’t possibly be a masterpiece and just, instead, have some fun.
How? I’m going to give you a list of words and you’re going to write a story using them. I’d love it if you’d post your story in the comments, so we can all compare notes.
(Sometimes it’s surprising how much non-terrible writing comes out of this exercise!)
The Prompt
Use these words in your short-short story: die, ago, seat, time, imagining, even, making, league, sacrifices, rose
(These words were all drawn at random from The Sword of Summer by Rick Riordan, which just happened to be lying near my desk.)
Go!
Here is the beginning to my story.
I have kept writing but wanted to share a piece. The formatting is a bit off because of the comment box…
Comments are welcome!
Title: Life Neat, not on the Rocks
“I just want to die.”
You are not going to die.
“I want to die.”
You are not going to die. Ingrid stifles a laugh and she looks at the crumpled mess she calls a friend who is laying on the hallway floor. Her feet are in the bathroom and one arm is in the bedroom across from the tiny powder room and the other arm is lying along the wall.
You are going to be fine…I told you not to drink the whole bottle.
“I didn’t. ” Karma’s wide crystal blue eyes look up at her like the cat from Puss in Boots.
Let me tell you a story….Ingrid sits on the floor next to her friend as Karma rolls her eyes and then closes them. As her lids shut she quietly winces and the pain is like a wave across her face.
Ingrid knows that Karma does not want her to tell the story. But she’s going to anyway. To show her protest she starts to crawl toward the bathroom that is only a foot away she manages to curl herself up enough around the toilet and lay there and she moans a little bit and then closes her eyes again.
Are you ready for the story now?
“I’m not getting out of listening to it am I?”
Nope.
She then crumples and acquiesces. Ingrid takes it as a sign to begin.
Once Upon a Time, Ingrid begins, There was a little girl named Freedom.
“Wait!” Karma interrupts with the most volume she can muster which is little more than a whisper. “I thought you were telling the story about me.”
I’m telling the story – SHHHHHHHHH
There once was a little girl named Freedom who hated her name and her parents were very very rich but they were not very nice their daughter. One day Freedom decided that she was going to run away and make a life for herself without her parents. And she was successful even though she self-medicates. The end.
“What kind of story is that? I thought you were going to use it to give me some sort of Life Lesson as I lay here on the floor wanting to throw up and die.”
You already know that story. Ingrid says and smiles and walks away.